Head Down

Roger Fisher continues to cruise, and in the bottom of the fifth Bangor West puts what appear to be the final nails in York’s coffin. Mike Arnold leads off with a single. Joe Wilcox sacrifices pinch-ru

When Roger Fisher takes the mound to face York in the top of the sixth, he has thrown ninety-seven pitches, and he’s a tired boy. He shows it at once by walking pinch-hitter Tim Pollack on a full count. Dave and Neil have seen enough. Fisher goes to second base, and Mike Arnold, who has been warming up between i

Mike works the count to 1-1, and then throws a fastball right down the middle of the plate. In the Bangor West dugout, Dave Mansfield winces and raises one hand toward his forehead in a warding-off gesture even as Tarbox begins his swing. There is the hard sound of Tarbox accomplishing that most difficult of baseball feats: using the round bat to hit the round ball squarely on the button.

Ryan Larrobino takes off the instant Tarbox co

The ball clears the fence by twenty feet, bangs off a TV camera, and bounces back onto the field.

Ryan looks at it disconsolately as the York fans go mad, and the entire York team boils out of the dugout to greet Tarbox, who has hit a three-run homer and redeemed himself in spectacular fashion. He does not step on home plate but jumps on it. His face wears an expression of near-beatific satisfaction. He is mobbed by his ecstatic teammates; on his way back to the dugout, his feet are barely allowed to touch the ground.

The Bangor fans sit in silence, utterly stu

The next batter, Hutchins, hits an easy two-hopper to Matt Ki

During the game against Lewiston, the muddy weather eventually unraveled. Not today. As Bangor West takes the field in the top of the seventh, the skies grow steadily darker. It’s now approaching six o’clock, and even under these conditions the field should still be clear and fairly bright, but fog has begun to creep in. Watching a videotape of the game would make someone who wasn’t there believe something was wrong with the TV cameras; everything looks listless, dull, underexposed. Shirtsleeve fans in the center-field bleachers are becoming disembodied heads and hands; in the outfield, Trzaskos, Larrobino, and Arthur Dorr are discernible chiefly by their shirts.

Just before Mike throws the first pitch of the seventh, Neil elbows Dave and points out to right field. Dave immediately calls time and trots out to see what’s the matter with Arthur Dorr, who is standing bent over, with his head almost between his knees.

Arthur looks up at Dave with some surprise as he approaches. ‘I’m O.K.,’ he says in answer to the unspoken question.

‘Then what in hell are you doing?’ Dave asks.

‘Looking for four-leaf clovers,’ Arthur responds.

Dave is too flabbergasted, or too amused, to lecture the boy. He simply tells Arthur it might be more appropriate to look for them after the game is over.

Arthur glances around at the creeping fog before looking back at Dave. ‘I think by then it’s go

With Arthur set to rights, the game can continue, and Mike Arnold does a creditable job – possibly because he’s facing the substitute-riddled bottom of York’s order. York does not score, and Bangor comes up in the bottom of the seventh with another chance to win it. They come close to doing just that. With the bases loaded and two out, Roger Fisher hits one hard up the first-base line. Matt Hoyt is right there to pounce on it, however, and the teams change sides again.

Philbrick flies out to Nick Trzaskos to open the eighth, and then Phil Tarbox steps in. Tarbox is not finished working Bangor West over yet. He has regained his confidence; his face is utterly serene as he takes Mike’s first pitch for a called strike. He swings at the next one, a pretty decent changeup that bounces off Joe Wilcox’s shin guard. He steps out of the box, squats with the bat between his knees, and concentrates. This is a Zen technique the York coach has taught these boys – Francke has done it several times on the mound while in tight spots – and it works for Tarbox this time, along with a little help from Mike Arnold.

Arnold’s final pitch to Tarbox is a hanging curve up in the batter’s eyes, exactly where Dave and Neil hoped no pitch would be today, and Tarbox creams it. It goes deep to left center, high over the fence. There is no camera stanchion to stop this one; it ends up in the woods, and the York fans are on their feet again, chanting ‘Phil-Phil-Phil’ as Tarbox circles third, comes down the line, and jumps high in the air. He doesn’t just jump on home plate; he spikes it. Nor, it seems at first, will that be all. Hutchins bangs a single up the middle and gets second on an error. Estes follows this by hitting one to third, and Rochefort throws badly to second. Luckily, Roger Fisher is backed up by Arthur Dorr, saving a second run, but now York has guys at first and second with only one out.

Dave calls Owen King in to pitch, and Mike Arnold moves over to first. Following a wild pitch that moves the ru