[legendsport]

June 24, 1940: Detroit, MI:

"Getting a little paunchy there, Rollie," a smirking Jack Barrell told his brother.

Rollie Barrell looked down at his midsection and frowned. It did bulge considerably more than it did when he was a younger man.

The brothers were standing in the owner's suite at Thompson Field. That the owner was no longer Big Eddie Thompson was obvious, even to Jack, who'd only been there a few times.

The new owner, Powell Thompson, the younger half-brother of Big Eddie, was an austere man and he took that austerity seriously. Where Eddie had hung valuable paintings on the wall, Powell had removed them. The only sign anything had ever hung on the walls were the slightly lighter shades of the paint in the squares that the paintings formerly covered.

Powell himself was absent. He didn't frequent the games, despite the Dynamos being in the thick of a pennant race with the Pittsburgh Miners and Philadelphia Keystones - the latter of which was the visiting team.

That the 'Stones were the visitors was the primary reason for both Rollie and Jack being at the game. Their brother Bobby was playing left field for Philly.

Rollie sighed and said, "You know, sometimes I'd trade my life for yours," he told his brother.

Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Really. Why exactly is that?"

"Well, you're a sports legend. I'm just a guy in a rumpled suit working in the background."

Jack chuckled and shook his head. "That's funny, brother," he said. Then he looked out at the field where Bobby was standing in left field. It was the bottom of the fourth and Philadelphia had already streaked out to a 5-2 lead.

"It's not as glamorous as you might think," Jack said with a slight frown. "For one thing, you're gone a lot. I miss a lot of time with my wife and daughters, and that's time you don't get back." He turned back to Rollie and continued, "Not to mention that my left knee aches, all the time. And finally," he smiled and patted Rollie on the shoulder, "You have a lot more money than I do. Trust me, you're better off."

Rollie shook his head and gave a small, rueful chuckle. "You know, I've never told anyone this before, but I've always been jealous of my brothers. You guys were all pro athletes. Me...," he trailed off. Jack knew he was thinking about Rollie's aborted golf career. Rollie had also been a fair basketball player. Until some Bigsby thugs had nearly beaten him to death.

Jack looked at him seriously for a second, then grinned and said, "Jealous, huh? Even of Tommy?"

Rollie was perplexed. "Tommy? Yes, him too," he said and then asked, "Why?"

Jack shrugged and said, "Well, you do know that Mom is on his back all the time about finding a wife. I wouldn't wish that on anybody."

Both brothers laughed. Jack said, "If Joe was here, he'd slap you in the head for being a fool."

Rollie nodded, knowing that was true. Jack told him, "Joe told me, right before he died, that he was jealous of you. I bet you never knew that."

"No," Rollie said.

"It's true. Joe could get a little melancholy sometimes," Jack said, then nodded at Rollie and added, "Like someone else we know. Anyway... he felt like he'd blown it with Edna, leaving his kids without their father. He and Dorothy had what Joe called a 'rocky' relationship and he worried about both his kid with Charlotte Cleaves and little Charlie. He told me that he wished he was more like you - rock solid, dependable and a really good father."

Rollie swiped at his eye, hoping Jack hadn't noticed the tear welling up there. "Wow," he said softly.

"Joe was a blockhead a lot of the time," Jack said, adding, "But he had his moments."

"That he did," Rollie replied.

The brothers settled in to watching the game. With Powell Thompson nowhere to be found it was safe for Rollie to root for the Keystones. Bobby doubled in the fifth and then in the sixth hit the 250th home run of his career.

Jack, smiling, told Rollie, "If you want to be jealous of someone, it should be Bobby."

Rollie nodded. It was true, Bobby was probably the best athlete in a family in which that was really saying something. He finally seemed to be putting the gunshot wound firmly in the past and having a terrific season. And his team was good - the Keystones had a pair of extremely talented youngsters bracketing Bobby in their lineup: Billy Woytek hitting third and Hank Koblenz fifth with Bobby in the cleanup spot.

"Have you seen his son?" Jack asked. Bobby and Annette had welcomed their first child, Ralph Robert Barrell on April 13th.

Rollie shook his head, "No. I haven't been to Bobby's since the wedding."

"The kid's big, looks like he's going to be a bruiser," Jack said with a grin. "Reminds me of Charlie... Joe's youngest," he added. Rollie hadn't seen Charlie Barrell in a while, and realized the kid must be about 10 years old now.

Rollie narrowed his eyes. "How is it that you keep up with our far-flung clan better than I do, Jack?" he asked.

"Well, I'm in my off-season now, so I have time to get to Philadelphia to see my youngest nephew," he said. Then he grew a bit solemn and added, "As for Charlie... with Joe being gone, I do my best to keep tabs on the kid. Don't want him to forget he's a Barrell. He is living out there in Hollywood with all those movie types, you know."

Rollie laughed - he knew Jack had a dim view of the people he called "Hollywood types."

"Don't laugh at me," Jack said. "I don't trust those people."

Rollie waved a hand at him. "Bah, they're just people like anyone else," he said dismissively.

Jack raised an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth quirked up. "Whatever you say Rollie..." he said.

After dinner the brothers grabbed Bobby and took him out to dinner with their families. Rollie finally got a look at a snapshot his nephew. He whistled and said, "Well, I think I'm looking at the #1 pick of the Detroit Maroons in the 1962 AFA draft!"

Bobby laughed and said, "Annette's got him pegged for track and field."

Jack scoffed at this. "Not a chance, that kid's got too much of Grampa Reid in him." He tapped his chin and added, "Could be a wrestler. Or maybe a boxer like Joe."

Bobby's eyes widened in mock terror. "No...." he moaned. Then he leaned forward and said with more than a touch of pride in his voice, "He'll be a ballplayer. Just like his old man."

Rollie's daughter Allie, a stern look on her ten-year-old face, said, "You can't look at a baby and know what he's going to be when he grows up!"

Bobby grinned and said, "That's right dear." He patted Allie on the hand. "After all, when you were a baby your father told me you'd grow up to be a know-it-all."

Jack busted out laughing while Rollie slapped Bobby on the shoulder and immediately told his daughter, "That's not true!"

Marty, Rollie's older daughter, was also laughing and said, "That would have been such an amazingly accurate prediction, Dad!"

.