The Game That Time And Iowa Forgot

Day 11. The news from Chicago is that the Cubs have lost five games in a row and are fading toward the second division. There is a rumor that President Teddy Roosevelt has been asked to send troops to Big Inning to return the delinquent Cubs to Chicago.

Day 12. The rain continues. The ball diamond being on high ground is all that enables the game to carry on.

On nights when it clears off, the sky is a hard ocean blue, sequined by stars. But by dawn it is raining again, sometimes little more than mist, sometimes a drilling, jackhammer rain. The fans stay away. The Iowa River is rising daily. Its surface ripples with tides, currents, undertows, as its speed increases. There are reports of slight flooding on lowlands both north and south of Big Inning. The 12th day comes to an end in the 753rd inning.

"What is it like being in the Bigs?" I ask Tinker. We are walking in the twilight after the day's play, along the banks of the ever-rising river.

"For baseball players it's as close to heaven as any of us will get," he says. "It's not an easy life. Lots of people look down on us—we're suspect, like actors. Oh, the muckamucks make a fuss over us when we win, say how we bring so much glory to the great city of Chicago and all that hoopla. But try turning up at their house with plans to date their daughter, and see how far you get. Still, the Bigs are one of the only places where an uneducated farm boy can be a hero, win praise from tens of thousands of people.

"You have to want it bad," he goes on. "You've got to want to hear the fans roar like thunder, just for you. You've got to want it so bad you'll walk through walls—through walls, over mountains, over people. You set your eye on the top and never stop until you get there and never let them move you after you do."

"How many Confederacy players are good enough for the Bigs?" I ask.

"That's hard to say."

"Why? You've seen them for more than 750 innings. They've played you to a standoff."

"It all has to do with desire. With consistency. You have to be consistent in the Bigs. Guys who are heroes one day and bums the next don't last. There's a little bit of accountant or banker in a good baseball player. He's got to be able to do the same thing, and do it right, over and over, every day of his career."