Word: bristols
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...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 him a complete game. Brayton can understand letting someone finish off a shutout, but sitting...
...Elmira, six are left. Four of his roommates have been cut. When it happens, the sword of justice is swift. "The guy who gets it is always the last to know--I play with guys I know are never going to make it." Same thing with trades. Once Bristol was playing the Milwaukee Double A club. 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...
That's part of why Brayton is a baseball player. Why isn't he out making money? (At Bristol he is paid $900 per month, the month he works--he has driven a taxi in the off-season; now he works for his father.) "This is the only thing I ever really worked hard at, the only thing I always knew wasn't going to be given to me because I went to such-and-such a school. If I make it, I'll make it on my own--if anything, my background will count against...
...People say it's just a job, but I don't believe it. The money's no good, so if they don't like it, why aren't they out doing something else? Take me--I'm the lowest-paid guy in Bristol, and I know I could get more, but I'm too stupid even to ask for a raise. They mail you their offer, and even though most of the guys hold out for a while, I always send mine back right away. You don't want to hold on to it too long, because...
...Them" again. The most rebellious thing Brayton ever did was to hint at threatening to quit when he was on Winston-Salem. Soon afterwards he was called up to Bristol. But always the paranoid, he worries that "They" only wanted to appease...