An Innocent Abroad On The Baseball Diamonds

He did not turn around this time.

"What do you expect?" Spahn said, jokingly. "They advertised I was going to pitch." I laughed sycophantically.

"See that curve?" he asked.

"No," I said.

I had been adjusting the shutter speed of my camera. But he misunderstood.

"What do you mean, 'No'?" Spahn asked me.

The initial flush of hero worship was wearing off. "I honestly didn't see it curve," I said.

"Then watch this," he said. And he made a short little gesture with his wrist in the direction of the warmup catcher so the kid would know a curve was coming. "Hook!" he shouted. And he reared back and threw.

"Hell," Spahn said. "I'm having trouble turning my damn hip over."

"You're doing something different," I said, not having any idea what he was talking about.