Will Fame And Love Return

Something Strange Has Been Going On

Sunday March 30, 2008

Ocala, Florida

After returning from a team trip, playing an exhibition in Orlando against the Cincinnati Knights, Rick Randolph was relaxing out on the apartment suite’s deck, watching the sunset on another day in Florida.

Rick had pulled out his laptop from the carrying case and opened it up.

Interested in a story that Bill Falstaf had been telling him, the one about the first baseball superstar, Jayson Gannon  and the rivalry between him and Henry Pennington.

Rick logged onto the official pro baseball records website, clicking on the career record of both Jayson Gannon and Henry Pennington and attempted to draw a comparison between the two players.

Rick observed from the statistics that Jayson Gannon always made an impact for whichever team that he was playing for, and he also made an impact for whichever team that he was a manager for.

Henry Pennington, appearing out of nowhere, in his first 5 seasons playing professional baseball, played one season each for Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Washington and Cleveland. He did not play many games nor was he very productive in those seasons.

Henry Pennington then disappeared for a year, no one seemed to know what happened to him or just he went, the in the middle of the following season he showed up in Boston and for the next 9 baseball seasons out dominated and out performed Jayson Gannon, being a thorn in his side, even though Jayson’s performance level did not decrease.

Just as Henry Pennington mysteriously appeared, then as mysteriously disappeared, then to once again appear out of nowhere, he, as dominating as he was just totally disappeared, forever, never to return, or even leaving a trace of where he went or could even be, leaving an astounding legacy in such a comparatively short time, unlike that of the lengthy baseball career of Jayson Gannon.

Rick was starting to get the message that Bill Falstaf had been trying to explain to him. Then Rick thought about the number of star players, spread out over the years who seemed to just disappeared to nowhere or seemed to contract a mysterious ailment that hindered or lose their athletic, and just as mysteriously those ailments seem to just disappear and they were able to resume as if nothing had ever happened.

Spending the evening checking out these facts and baseball players career statistics, Stuart Spencer, a teammate of Bill Falstaf came to Rick’s mind. As an outstanding star pitcher Stuart Spencer had several seasons where he could not pitch because he was unable to throw the baseball due to those ailments that hindered his playing abilities.

Being more and more intrigued by the stories, Rick decided to call Bill, to receive more enlightenment about the stories.

Answering the phone, Bill lust knew what Rick was calling about. Bill answered the phone and said, “Well, what did you find out."

“I see exactly what you were talking about," Replied Rick to Bill.

Then Rick added, “The more that I read, the more that I am intrigued by it all, especially the story of what Stuart Spencer experienced."

Bill laughed and said, “Heh heh, I used Staurt Spencer as an example, mainly because  I was a teammate of his and I knew what he had experienced, nothing was made made up about what happened during those several intermittent  seasons, nothing was made us, his statistics in those years point out exactly how something very odd or weird happened to him."

Rick then said, “I just wanted to call and let you know that I do get what you have been trying to tell me, I do get it."

“Great, you’re going to learn a lot more and then some." Bill said.

Then Bill said to Rick, “Just remember, this is just between us and no one else."

“OK, let’s get packed up and get on home and start the new baseball season," Bill said to Rick.

Rick replied wholeheartedly, “I am 100% with you on that."

(C)   2022