The Brooklyn Nine

Despite the corporal’s protestations, Louis plans to go back to the scene of the battle. He says that he must make sure Stuart is okay, but both he and the corporal know that Stuart is dead. When the corporal tells him that his father would rather he return without the ball than get killed trying to retrieve it, Louis goes back anyway. He has started to associate himself with the ball. 

Louis knows he could get killed or be captured and be put into one of the Southern prison camps, a fate he considers to be worse than death. Louis reaches the field and must step over dead bodies, both Confederate and Union. Stuart is dead, but Louis is able to retrieve his ball. A blind Confederate soldier on the ground grabs Louis’s leg, begging for help. Louis does not believe it would be right to either leave the man or kill him.

Louis decides to bring the man with him and turn him in as a prisoner. This could land him a promotion which would mean more pension money for his family. Louis tells the man that he will help him find his regiment, even though he plans to bring him back to the Yankees, and the man asks him to go get his baseball bat. The bat is so nice that Louis has only seen the best players use such equipment. The soldier explains that his dad is a carpenter, and he made the bat. He tells Louis that he is supposed to be sent home to Louisville the next day.

The soldier tells Louis that his name is Jeremiah Walker, and he does not believe Louis when Louis says that he saw a man named Candy Cummings pitch a baseball in a curve. They talk baseball, and Louis explains that there are only three teams in his hometown. They also discuss how many unhittable balls (three) are allowed where Louis is from. Jeremiah talks about bunting, but Louis has not heard the term. Louis starts to doubt whether he should turn Jeremiah in as a prisoner. 

Louis takes Jeremiah away from the Yankee camp. They come across a Southern man who asks what the countersign is, and Jeremiah says "blueberry pie" which lets the man know that they are Confederates. The man lets them through. Louis tells Jeremiah that he is a Yankee, but Jeremiah already knows this, based on certain facts that Louis let slip. He tells him that he went with him anyway because, as a blind person, he has few other options. Louis tells Jeremiah that he did not turn him in because they were both supposed to go home tomorrow, and he figured Jeremiah could not be all that bad if he liked baseball so much. Jeremiah tells Louis that he and his fellow Confederates were just watching the Yankees play baseball, but then someone got spooked and shot Stuart, setting off the battle. He wishes they could have settled things through a baseball game instead. Jeremiah insists that Louis take his baseball bat, and in return, Louis gives him his ball. He leads him close enough to Confederates for him to get to safety, and then he runs back to the Yankees to go home.

Arnold Schneider and other boys pick the players they want to be in the game of baseball they are about to start. Arnold picks King Kelly, and the other boys laugh and wonder if Kelly is even still a baseball player. The other boys will only let Arnold play if he brought the bat his father brought home with him from the war, but he did not bring it, so they play keep away from him instead. Arnold walks away and sees that Kelly is supposed to be performing at the Gayety Theater. He sneaks in and watches Kelly tell a story to the crowd about a time when he successfully faked catching a fly ball. He drinks beer while on stage and tells people that he eats strawberries and cream every day since getting a $10,000 transfer. He ends his performance by reciting “Casey At the Bat” but uses his name instead. Arnold leaves the theater and sees Kelly leaving with a man named Hiroshi, who owns a monkey. Kelly passes out from drunkenness before Arnold can get his autograph.

Arnold and Hiroshi carry Kelly to Kelly’s boarding house. Kelly regains consciousness when he nears his room and gives his jacket to a cold looking man in the hallway, and then passes out again. Hiroshi, Kelly’s valet, is rough with the man. Hiroshi calls for his monkey at the window and the monkey comes in. Hiroshi explains that Kelly has no money and keeps him as a valet to keep up appearances. Kelly wakes up, smashes Arnold’s hat as a joke and tries to climb out the three-story window. Arnold and Kelly talk about Kelly’s baseball successes and Kelly falls asleep during the discussion. Hiroshi leaves, saying that Kelly cannot afford to pay him anymore. Although the public does not know it yet, Kelly has been let go from the Giants. Arnold pours water on Kelly to wake him up and tells him that he will be his new valet. He uses his own money to get Kelly cleaned up, and he tells him that he has a game to go to against Pigtown.

All of the kids are excited that Arnold has brought Kelly to Pigtown field. Kelly teaches them about scientific baseball where players “play the percentages” and gives them some examples (90). Arnold lets him use his bat, and when Kelly wants to trade his mitt for Arnold’s bat, Arnold is sad to refuse. He cannot give away his dad’s bat, and Kelly says he can have his mitt regardless. Later, Kelly tells Arnold that he cannot keep up with baseball now that people pitch overhand. The boys accept Arnold, but he knows that soon they will forget about him. 

To stop a fall in his own esteem when Kelly stops playing, Albert gets Kelly an audition with the Bridegrooms. He sneaks into the theater again to tell Kelly, and Kelly agrees. He asks Arnold to promise him that he will never drink alcohol, and Arnold promises. Arnold loans Kelly his bat, and when he arrives at the field the next morning, Kelly is not there. He goes out looking for him and realizes that Kelly has left his room without paying and has not paid the tabs at many bars. He walks past a pawn shop and sees his father’s bat. The pawn broker is charging $50 for the bat Kelly has since signed. Arnold feels “like his heart had been ripped out of his chest” because he has lost his father’s bat and he says that “Mike Kelly is all washed up” (100).