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I fought my way through the throng to the front row of questioners. "Back in July you alt went along with it," I reminded him. "The gates would increase and everyone would share in the wealth."
"Well. sure," he admitted. "We knew people would pay to see a centaur playing ball. What we didn't know was-"
"-that he'd be so good," I finished for him.
Through all of this, Roscoe Greene, the scout who'd first signed Mark with the Yankees, was riding high. I heard through the grapevine that he'd gotten a big raise, with a bonus promised if Mark Eques came through strong in the World Series. Greene and I had never really been friends, and I was surprised when he phoned me in Boston the day the Yankees clinched the pe
"Have you heard the news?" he asked without preamble.
"About what?"
"Mark Eques."
The panic in his voice was catching. "He's not hurt?"
"Worse than that."
"What-?"
"It just came over the radio. An expedition on that Greek island has discovered a female centaur!"
"Then he wasn't kidding me. He said there were females.
That's great news, Roscoe."
"It's terrible news."
"How come?"
"The expedition is financed by Lewis Enterprises, the video people. In case you didn't know, that's Lippy Lewis's brother.'' "My God!"
"I know Lippy's been trying to bribe Mark. Now he's got his weapon. Mark may not be tempted by regular women, but a female centaur is something else again!"
Well, this latest development really stirred up the press.
About the only thing they like better than a bribery scandal is a sex scandal. Although the whereabouts of the newly discovered female centaur was a carefully guarded secret, the papers were full of rumors of a secret tryst with Mark Eques. I phoned Professor Hagger nearly every day in late September, but he assured me there'd been no word from Lippy and no sign of a female centaur.
I spoke with Mark too, of course. The playoffs began in early October, and 1 covered all the games. The Yankees made short work of the Las Vegas Wheels, capturing four straight behind some good pitching and Mark's fleet-footed fielding. There was a general feeling that the only team to present a real challenge to the Yankees might be the St. Louis Cardinals, and when the Cards clinched the National League pe
I interviewed Mark Eques on the eve of the first game at St. Louis. "What about it. Mark?" I asked. "You seem a little bit troubled and off your feed. Has Lippy Lewis been after you again?"
"Yeah," the young centaur admitted. "He talked to me."
"About the newly discovered female?"
Mark nodded. "He showed me pictures."
"And asked you to throw the game?"
"Either mat or not play at all."
"You were tempted?"
"By the pictures? No."
"Why not?"
"She's my sister, Carza."
"Your-"
"I told you there were females down in the caves. Carza was never as shy as the rest. I should have known she'd be the one to come outside and get caught."
"If she's your sister, I'd think you'd be happy at the prospect of seeing her again. Why are you so glum?"
"I guess because I don't know what Lippy wili try next.
There's something about Carza they might discover-"
"What's that?"
Mark Eques hung his shoulders. "She's a better ball player than 1 am."
We learned the following day that Lewis and his people had indeed discovered it. Carza took the field wearing a Cardinals shirt and started warming up with the rest of the team.
She was a lovely young woman, frisky and smiling, and she captured the hearts of almost everyone at once. The Yankee owners were not quite so enchanted, and they could be seen huddling with the baseball commissioner in his box. Certainly no one could object to a centaur playing baseball, nor to a woman, since Iris Schultz had pitched a full season for the Dodgers. But this was a new player, joining the team just in time for the Series!
The game was delayed an hour while they argued the point, disrupting television schedules around the world, but the commissioner finally ruled that she could play. The teams took the field- It would be centaur against centaur.
For the first few i
As the ninth i
"How's it going, Lippy? I see you switched your allegiance from the Sox to the Cards."
"You gotta go with the smart money, Da
"The smart money used to say you should never bet against the Yankees."
"Yeah? Well, we got our own centaur now."
The tenth i
Mark hurried to her side as she was carried off the field.
"Marque," she murmured. "Take me home. I want to go home."
"Will they have to shoot her?" Lippy asked me.
"No. She's not a horse."
The Yankees won it, 1-0, and went on to win the Series, but that was the last game Mark Eques and his sister played.
Professor Hagger accompanied them back to the Greek island where he'd first found Mark. During their winter meeting the baseball managers voted to bar any players having more than two legs, whatever their species. The day of the centaur was over, as quickly as it had begun, It was sort of a sad ending to the story, and that was one reason I decided to fly over to Antikythira the following spring, to see how Mark and his sister were doing. I feared I'd have difficulty finding them, imagining that they'd retreated deep into their caves after their brush with fame, but 1 was wrong. Mark was ru
"She's too old for the game," Mark explained. "I remember her playing ball when I was only a child."
"Will you ever play again?" I asked.
"Not in America. I heard they'd ba
When I told Lippy Lewis about it, back in the States, he was interested. "Might be some betting action there," he decided, "once they get organized. But I'm sorry he didn't stay in this country and let me handle him."
"There are no more centaurs in baseball, Lippy," I reminded him.
"Who's talking baseball? I wanted to run him in the Kentucky Derby!"