[legendsport]

June 19, 1918 - Egypt, GA:

"Pop, maybe I should do that," Joe Barrell told his father.

Rufus, his face red and sweat coating his forehead, had his left thumb in his mouth and couldn't respond.

Danny was laughing and telling Fred, "Pop just hit his thumb with the hammer... again!"

With a nice, much-needed two-week scheduled break from his duties at OSA headquarters in Washington, Rufus had come home determined to finish building a proper baseball diamond for his boys. With Danny approaching his 13th birthday (and Fred's 12th right behind it), and all of his younger boys mad about the sport, the field behind the barn, located next to Rollie's driving range, was in definite need of improvement.

Unfortunately for Rufus, carpentry was not one of his strong suits. Joe had come out to the farm from Atlanta while Edna and the kids were visiting with her parents. His son had decided not to go back into boxing after all. "I didn't want to be fighting for a living, and fighting at home too," he told his mother, who had been on Edna's side. Rufus, as was his wont, had remained outwardly neutral though Joe suspected he too didn't want him fighting.

"Hey big mouth, why don't you and your comedy partner go get us all some lemonade," Joe told Dan. Dan started to say something, but stopped when he saw Joe clench his fist.

"I saw that," Rufus told his oldest son when Dan & Fred had run off to the house.

"Aww, I wouldn't have slugged him... he's just a kid, after all," Joe said and slapped his dad on the shoulder. "But you've gone and put a serious whupping on that thumb."

Rufus shrugged and said, "Yeah, my brother Bob was the handyman in the family. I would say I'm all thumbs, but I might end up one short if I keep this up."

Joe didn't often hear his father speak about his late brother. Joe himself barely remembered his uncle, or his grandparents for that matter. The deadly fire that had wiped out Rufus' family and uprooted their lives in Brooklyn seemed so long ago.

"You don't talk about your family much," Joe said quietly.

Rufus frowned and said, "Well, I don't like to think about it, but it's hard not to sometimes... being here and all. I know my Mom would be so proud of all you boys and Dad, well... he and Jimmy would have been thick as thieves. They're so alike it breaks my heart sometimes."

Joe patted his father on the back and pointed to the hammer. "Ready to give me a shot at this?"

Rufus said sure, and then laughed when Joe asked, "Just what is this supposed to be anyway?"

"A backstop."

"Oh, ok." Joe squinted and continued,"That's the thing behind the catcher, right?"

Rufus shook his head in mock disappointment. "Are you sure you're my son?"


A week later the new field was done and Joe and Rollie had even banged together a couple of rows of bleachers for "the fans" which presumably would mostly consist of Rufus, Alice and maybe Betsy. Within three days the boys were having daily ballgames with other kids from the area. Alice came out to the field and told Rufus, "You know, I think the only thing we'll be growing on this farm are baseball players."

Rufus grinned and said, "Nothing wrong with that!"

One quickly apparent side-effect of the ballfield was that the Barrell boys began to make new friends. Fred had found a kindred soul in a boy from nearby Shawnee named Ernie Foreman. That Ernie was a pitcher cemented the friendship; while Tom was all too happy to pitch, he was younger and Ernie "could burn it in there" as he told Tom one evening (resulting in Tom running off, lip quivering, to Danny's amusement).

"Well, he does," Fred explained to his mother when she sat him down to talk about it.

"I know that, but you have to keep in mind that Tommy has feelings too," Alice explained.

Tom soon "retaliated in kind" by finding a buddy of his own in Gordie Horton - who was, of course, a catcher. Fred was mildly annoyed by this at first but soon shrugged it off.

Danny, who'd play anywhere, anytime and at any position, found all this highly amusing. But then again, he was at an age where he found pretty much everything highly amusing.