Continued From Marble Season 3 corrected
In punch ball Cedric always hit underhand, and never very hard, but he was a perfect place hitter. He’d bend at the waist to tie his shoes and study how they were playing him. If they were playing two infielders, he’d slap it just over their heads, if just one, he’d tap a slow roller to third. You never got him out. He ran too fast and the ball went too slowly.

I mentioned that I only saw him shoot marbles once and that it turned out badly. That was the day Barry Bogardus picked up a broken marble someone left lying on the street, went round the corner to West End and put it up against the curbstone.

“A hundred if you hit it!” he called out.

That got everyone’s attention. West End was twice the width of 88th so the true amount should have been forty if you hit it, not a hundred. Everyone ran to West End, including Cedric who even holding his bulging pocket, got there first, expression blank, mouth hanging open.

Just as I never saw another guy bend at the waist, legs straight and reach down to tie his shoes the way Cedric did, I never saw another guy shoot marbles his way either.

Most guys stood legs spread and rolled the marble thumb first. But when Cedric sat down to shoot across West End Avenue, he folded his legs beneath him like a mermaid’s tail, held the marble between his thumb and first finger and slid the side of his hand forward to release the marble. It didn’t go as fast but it was more precise and he corrected his aim after every roll.

To be continued

Herb L
herb@oldtimewriter.com

Reference ID: MN6816

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