Word: brayton
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...this sort of thing that bothers Brayton. One week at Winston-Salem he pitched five innings on a Tuesday. On Thursday the starting pitcher got sick and they pointed to Brayton. He walked in and pitched a shutout for 8 2/3 innings. Afterwards the coach walked up to him and said, "Brayton, you're my new spot starter." When Brayton got called up to Bristol soon after, he ever got another start. Or the way Briston manager Dick MacAuliffe likes to let a faltering starter finish a game when it's obvious he should be pulled, just to give...
This is not Brayton's style. He's more or less a wily pitcher--he tries to outsmart the batter, throw a wide variety of pitches rather than blaze it by him. Less a grunt thrower like Tom Seaver than, say, a Catfish Hunter. (Whom he admires: "He'll give you one pitch to hit and if you miss it, you're gone.") In the past year the style has worked well enough, even though he's at "the bottom of the totem pole" on the best pitching staff on the league. He led the team in ERA last year...
...Brayton won't mention names, and his bitterness never singles out one rival or one front office villain. Part of this is because he respects some of the pitchers he played with and lived with who are on the brink of the big time, like Don Aase and Rick Jones, who are both "outstanding" and deserving. He knows that players who got big stipends when they signed represent an "investment" and thus have a better chance. (Brayton himself was no bonus baby.) He might drop hints about Pete Broberg, the big Dartmouth pitcher who made the majors around the time...
...Everything was as usual. The other team took the infield and a big first baseman was out there throwing. Then a voice from a dugout called him in and he never came back out. They'd told him to pack his bags and get going. This could happen to Brayton at any moment: in early December, the player-to-be-named-later from the Ferguson Jenkins trade was still unnamed, and it was being conjectured that a minor league reliever would be going to Texas. "Hell, it might be me." Further, there is the winter draft to weather--a process...
...door opens and several people come into Barney's. The shadow of a tennis sweater looms behind Brayton. It turns out to be an old Harvard acquaintance, a member of the Porcellian Club, like Brayton's two old roommates. The conversation is a bit strained...