[legendsport]

A very interesting winter behind him, Rufus faced the 1891 season with a spring in his step and a song in his heart. He wouldn't turn 18 until June, but he felt as if he held the world in the palm of his hand. When he showed up at Sycamore Park in late March for a workout, Rufus was pleased to find Rollie Daniels sitting at the locker beside his own.

"Hoo, son, I tell you - it is go-oo-od to be back," he said as he slapped Rufus on the back. "I spent the winter on my Pappy's farm and we are so poor, I had to sell my hound dog and get a tumbleweed for a pet."

Rufus chuckled and replied, "It is truly great to see you Rollie."

Rollie leaned in and said in a stage whisper, "I hear you and Miss Peaches are courting now and I got to say, that just dills my pickle, son."

Rufus, confused and unsure if that was a good thing or bad, just bobbed his head and said, "Thanks."

The 1891 season got off to a rollicking start. The home opener at Sycamore Park was against the Greensboro club. Greensboro had a player-manager named Jim Cox. Cox had been a hotshot pitcher for Brooklyn before his greed drove him to barnstorming. Still just 28 years old, he now managed and pitched for Greensboro and he and Joe Reid had bumped against each other in the past and did not like each other. Rufus, playing right field after pitching the day before in Greenville, came to bat with a man on and two out in the first. Cox sneered at him and tried to slip a fastball past him. Rufus, expecting the pitch, turned on it and connected solidly. The ball, on a rising liner, cleared the fence in the left field corner. As he headed towards first, Rufus heard Rollie in the dugout, shouting, "That possum's on the stump!" And that had Rufus laughing as he rounded first - which was noted by Cox who thought Rufus was showing him up.

"You bushleague so-and-so!" Cox shouted. When Rufus failed to respond, or even take note, Cox expounded further, unleashing a stream of profanity that brought Joe Reid to the top of the dugout steps.

"Hey! There are ladies present!" Reid shouted as his daughter sat above the dugout with a smirk on her face. Reid's shout caused Cox to turn to him and spew a few more choice words, the gist being that Reid was a bushleaguer, running a bush ballclub and couldn't even teach his players to respect their opponents. By the time Rufus crossed the plate, Cox was on the baseline, and Reid out of the dugout and the two were five feet apart shouting at each other.

Rollie popped out of the dugout too, incensed at something Cox had said, and yelled, "Why, you egg-sucking dawg!" And then he jumped Cox.

An all-out brawl ensued. The pair of umpires, in trying to break it up, each got a black eye. Rufus received a fat lip, was knocked flat on his back, and then someone stomped on his throwing shoulder, which made him miss a week's worth of games. Rollie ended up with both a black eye and a missing tooth. Surprisingly, Joe looked none the worse for wear. He had given better than he'd gotten apparently. "You boys just don't know how to tussle properly," he noted wryly in the clubhouse after the game.

Also in the clubhouse after the game, Rollie said to Rufus, "That Cox is a Yankee loudmouth. And you know what they say about Yankees... they're like hemorrhoids. Pain in the butt when they come down and always a relief when they go back up."

As spring turned to summer, Rufus was hitting over .350 and pitching the best he ever had; taking Joe's advice to heart he had stopped trying to throw as hard as could - now he focused on putting the pitch wherever Rollie put his mitt. And it worked.

A suprise appearance by his parents and brother Robert at a game in July was a high point of the season for him. He introduced Alice to his family and she avoided calling anyone a rube (which had been Rufus' biggest fear). Even Joe was nice, going as far as showing 15-year-old Robert the proper way to bunt, though he added, "Your brother still can't do it correctly."

Scouts showed up too. Just after his 18th birthday, Rufus pitched a shutout while going 3-for-4 at the plate with a scout of the Peerless League's Buffalo club in attendance. Joe, acting like he wanted to douse any enthusiasm Rufus may have had, noted that, "Buffalo is by far the worst team in that league." Then he shrugged and finished, "Just saying."

Rufus began wondering if perhaps the Peerless League was his path to the big time. The Brooklyn Bigsbys sent a scout as well. His name was Bill Wells and he had played for the original Brooklyn club in the Century League. He spoke to Rufus after the game, telling him that he liked what he had seen and that he would give "a good report to Mr. Bigsby upon my return to Brooklyn." Rufus grinned; Joe frowned.

Rufus went to see Joe after Wells had left.

"What was wrong with what Mr. Wells said?" he asked as Joe worked a cigar around his mouth.

"Ah, the Bigsbys - I wouldn't want to work for them, that's all," he replied.

"Why not? I thought they hated William Whitney as much as you do?"

Joe sighed. "Just because two people dislike the same person doesn't mean they're going to be friends themselves, you know."

Rufus thought this over and asked, "So what's the story with the Bigsbys then?"

"To put it plainly - they're crooks," Joe explained and then went on to give some examples of the Bigsbys and their relationship with the shadier elements in New York. "They have dirty cops and dirty politicians on their payroll."

Rufus ruminated on that one a bit before replying, "OK, but that doesn't really impact their baseball clubs." The Bigsbys had founded the Peerless League and owned two of the eight-team circuit's clubs: New York and Brooklyn.

"True. But I'd rather not have my future son-in-law working for criminals, ok?"

Rufus was about to reply when what Joe had said sunk in. "What do you mean future son-in-law?" he asked softly.

Joe rolled his eyes. "Oh Rufus, I love you like a son, but you've got a thick head sometimes."

Rufus waited and then Joe continued, "Peaches has told me that you two will be married. And I've learned that what Peaches wants, she usually gets."

He stood up and took the cigar out of his mouth. He pointed it at Rufus and said, "So you probably should start thinking about getting a ring."