ALL KINDS OF NERVOUSNESS AT EBBETS FIELD

May 1, 1924

I slept real late on Rachel's couch before she got me up with egg and onion smells. She looked a little less cute in the morning but I guess most people do. The Phillies game at Ebbets started at 1 o'clock, and she asked if it was okay if her friend Margie Ginsberg came too. I said fine because here I was staying on a couch for free and eating her food. If I needed to sit with two crazy Robins fans for two hours, at least one of them would be Rachel.

Except I didn't think Margie would be so annoying. She was all skinny and talked forever and had this laugh that sounded like a rooster being pulled through a meat grinder, but I guess her dad was some big merchant in Brooklyn so she had great tickets for us right behind the home dugout. I have to say that Rachel and her did look pretty nice today, dolled up like they were going to a tea party afterwards. (That's Margie in the photograph with the bigger hat and mouth.) Rachel was wearing some kind of perfume or skin cream that smelled like roses, which mixed kind of strangely with the cigar and sausage smells around us.

Just my Phillies luck, Dazzy Vance was pitching again. Jimmy Ring was going for us, and he still hadn't won a game, so I didn't expect much out of this one. We loaded the bases in the 2nd with two walks and a Johnny Mitchell error, but Dazzy beared down and whiffed Ford and Ring to get out of it, Margie braying in my ear. Ring gave up a double to Brown in the 2nd and one to Taylor in the 4th, but escaped both times. In the 5th, Harper and Holke got singles and an error from Johnson loaded the bases with two out. I really wanted to stand and root like I would with Benny, but here I was trying to be a nice guest and it was driving me nuts. Butch Henline was up, and Rachel and Margie were yelling for another Dazzy whiff. The count was 3-and-2 and the next pitch was an inch outside for a run-scoring walk! Margie actually cursed and threatened to whack the umpire, and a security man was called over by some of the men around us to give her a talking-to. I guess it was hard enough for ladies to go to games, and when they did they were expected to act like them.

All was forgotten in the 6th, though, because with one out, Zack Wheat came to the plate. He was readying himself in the on-deck spot right in front of me when Andy High was up, grinding his hands into his brown bat. He was definitely Rachel's favorite player. She said he was 35 years old, from Missouri, and had been on the Brooklyn team for 15 years now. She sent him a love letter once but he never wrote back. Margie said she sent him nine. Anyway, Zack got up there, Ring threw, and he gave the ball a vicious swipe, knocking it high and over the right field fence in seconds. The entire crowd jumped up, even me, and I swear I never even saw Cy Williams hit one that hard. The game was tied, and my lady friends were bubbling over.

Then I started getting nervous. The Phillies kept getting little hits off Vance and I began to worry what might happen if they won. Would Rachel hate me and want me to leave town? Would Margie never stop talking and give me deadly brain sickness? Thankfully it was the Phillies they were up against, and sure enough, Ring gave singles to Neis and High to begin the bottom of the 8th. Wheat flied deep to right but it was caught this time, and after Fournier walked, Huck Betts was called in. He got Brown on a force-play at home, but then Mitchell took four straight balls and the Robins were ahead for good. Vance put the Phils to bed 1-2-3 in the 9th, and that was that. Rachel and Margie both gave me hugs for being such a good sport, which of course was the best part of the game for me other than watching Wheat's homer.

Margie went home after and I had supper with Rachel at a place near hers that made delicious chicken soups. She invited me to stay on her couch again, which was a good thing, and then asked if I wanted to come to her family's house the next night for a Sabbath dinner. I looked at her all weird and asked "Are you a witch?" and she laughed, said that's what Jewish people called Friday night dinner. Can you believe that? All this time I thought she was Italian. I said I'd never been friends with anyone Jewish and she said she could tell, and it was a good time to start. She gave me her cute little smile and I wanted to kiss her right there in the restaurant but whoa, I thought: That's how Benny got kicked out of town.

What do you think, reader-people? Should I try kissing her this weekend or not? Leave a comment under the door tonight if you have an opinion about this, even if it's from Anonymous. Good night!

PHL 000 010 000 - 1 7 0
BRK 000 001 01x - 2 8 2

Other National League games today:

at BRAVES 5-8-0, GIANTS 3-8-3
No wonder Rachel was in such a good mood! The McGraw men go back to their stinky play up in Boston, keeping a 1-0 lead until the Braves get two in the 7th and three more in the 8th on a lot of suspect defense. Boston has been as surprisingly good as the Giants have been terrible.

CARDINALS 10-17-1, at PIRATES 4-11-2
Good news for all in the National League, as Sherdel gives up two triples, three doubles and a homer by Carey and still wins easy because the Cards go batty-whacky agains tKremer, Stone and Pfeffer. Believe it or else, Hornsby gets NONE of the 17 hits.

REDS 5-11-0, at CUBS 1-5-2
Cincy has now won four out of five from the poor Cubs. Carl Mays gets hurt after just three innings but Jakie May and Pedro Dibut take over without a sweat. How about this close race we're having now?

NATIONAL LEAGUE through Thursday, May 1
Pittsburgh Pirates	10	6	.625	—
Cincinnati Reds	9	7	.563	1
Brooklyn Robins	9	7	.563	1
Boston Braves	8	8	.500	2
St. Louis Cardinals	8	9	.471	2.5
Philadelphia Phillies	7	9	.438	3
New York Giants	7	9	.438	3
Chicago Cubs	6	11	.353	4.5