Satch & Me

Free Satch & Me by Dan Gutman

Book: Satch & Me by Dan Gutman Read Free Book Online
Authors: Dan Gutman
runners, and my motion was so good, the batter took a swing, and he struck out too!”
    â€œTriple play!” Flip said, collapsing with laughter. “Game over!”
    â€œIf you can’t strike ’em out, you gotta psych ’em out,” Satch said.
    It occurred to me that Satch didn’t care about TV or the technology we would have in the future. He cared about how history was going to remember him.
    Major league players got written up in the newspapers every day, even back in the 1940s. Their statistics and accomplishments were preserved for posterity. But Negro League players must have been ignored. Nobody knew what they did. No white people, anyway.
    Satch wanted to be remembered. That’s what he meant when he said the radar gun could take him to the future. If we returned to the twenty-first century and told everybody that he could throw a baseball faster than anyone, he would go down in history.
    â€œHow about pulling over and we’ll see how fast you throw?” Flip suggested again.
    â€œYeah,” Satch said, “soon’s I find the right spot.”
    We climbed up a short mountain road, and Satch didn’t seem to want to take his foot off the gas, even though the wheels were skidding around the hairpin turns. One slip and the car would go sliding off the side of the mountain.
    â€œHow did you get the name Satchel?” Flip asked, once the road finally leveled off.
    â€œI grew up in Mobile, Alabama,” he said, “with twelve brothers and sisters. My momma took in washing. We didn’t have no money. I used to go down to the train station and carry people’s satchels for ’em. Ten cents a satchel. That was good money back then. Anyways, I got me a bright idea. You always got to be thinking if you wanna make money. I got a pole and rope so I could sling three or four satchels together and carry ’em all at one time. Looked like a big old satchel tree. So folks started callin’ me Satchel.”
    I could tell that Flip was filing this stuff in his brain. He was having the time of his life. I was so glad I took him with me.
    â€œWe bumped into Josh Gibson and the Home-stead Grays before we met up with you,” Flip told Satch. The road was winding through woods now.
    â€œThat a fact?”
    â€œJosh said he’s gonna shut your big mouth in Pittsburgh,” I blurted out.
    â€œStosh!” said Flip.
    â€œThat what Josh said?” Satch threw back his headand let out a good laugh. “I’m the best pitcher in baseball, and Josh is the best hitter. When we played together on the Crawfords, me and Josh always said we’d like to face off in a big game one day with the bases loaded. That would be somethin’ to see.”
    â€œWhat do you think would happen?” Flip asked.
    â€œDon’t rightly know,” Satch said. “But I’ll tell you this. Josh can’t hit what Josh can’t see.”
    Suddenly, without any warning, Satch slammed on the brakes and the car screeched to a stop. I almost went flying into the front seat, and Flip nearly banged his head on the windshield.
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” Flip yelled. “Did you hit something?”
    â€œNot yet,” Satch said, pushing open the door. He ran out of the car and around the back to open the trunk.
    â€œWhat’s he doin’?” Flip asked.
    â€œBeats me.”
    The next thing we knew, Satch was running off into the woods, and he had a rifle in his hand! Flip and I jumped out of the car and followed him.
    â€œWhere’s he going?” I yelled to Flip.
    â€œMaybe he’s goin’ crazy,” Flip replied.
    We finally caught up with Satch, hiding behind a bush next to a bubbling stream. He was taking aim with the rifle.
    â€œWhat is it?” I asked.
    â€œDinner,” Satch whispered, not taking his eyes off his target.
    I looked off in the distance where he was pointing the gun, and I could see what

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