Overweight and out of shape, he enters the Pittsburgh Pirates training camp and suits up. Facing a pitching machine, he writes, "I take a practice swing. It's as if I dropped my pants in an old burlesque house--screams of laughter, hoots, catcalls." In the field, "my body already hurts so much I do not even care. I embrace my wounds. I am St. Sebastian." He also answers to another name. A boy holds out an autograph book and later shows his grandfather the fat player's signature. The old man examines it knowledgeably: "Sure, I know him. He used to catch for...
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