[legendsport]

Paris, France: July 11, 1924:

Alice Barrell rolled her eyes. "You'd better not be late!" she warned her husband.

He grinned widely and replied, "No worries, dear, we'll be back in plenty of time."

Behind Rufus, her four youngest sons could barely contain themselves. Her frown loosened a bit, but nevertheless she further chided Rufus by saying, "And stay away from the Australians! They're a bad influence... 'no worries' indeed!"

Reminded that he (and Possum) had enjoyed perhaps one too many drinks the night before with several coaches from the Australian swimming team (swimming was to be contested the following week), Rufus reddened a bit and nodded at his wife. Behind him, Harry said, "Those Aussies sure know how to have fun, huh, Pop?"

Rufus replied, "Harry, you're not helping."

The reason Rufus and his sons were so excited was that the 1924 Olympics were to feature an exhibition of baseball. It was to be only four innings - an American team versus the host nation of France. Rufus found the location - the Stade Pershing - to be appropriate. When Bobby and Harry had learned of this, they had gotten Tommy and Freddy on board immediately and the quartet took it upon themselves to figure out if they could see both the baseball game and the first half of the decathlon. Rufus believed they could, and though skeptical, Alice had agreed.

Possum had enjoyed himself even more than Rufus had the night before - and he would not be joining them.

"Don't be late!" she barked again as the quintet hurried out of the hotel room.

"Those Frenchies have no chance, Pop!" Fred told his father in the taxi. Rufus shushed his son, the driver spoke enough English to understand that and he wasn't looking to offend the man.

When they arrived at the Stade Pershing, Harry's first comment was, "Where are all the fans?" to which Tommy retorted, "This is France, they don't know much about baseball here. That's why the game is so early in the morning - and why the team is here to show them what they're missing."

Harry nodded but it was apparent in his expression that he couldn't fathom anyone not knowing about - or enjoying - baseball.

Rufus shepherded the boys into the stadium, found them excellent seats behind the makeshift backstop and turned his attention to the field where the players were warming up.

Bobby elbowed Harry and whispered, "Look, Pop's already turned into a bird dog."

Rufus, without turning his eyes from the field, replied, "I heard that."

"So who's on the team, Pop?" Freddy asked.

Rufus peered around, mumbled let's see and then began naming the players. The boys were impressed that their father knew so many - these were amateurs - collegians, mostly, who weren't yet professionals (they were still playing back home, after all), but Rufus seemed to know most of them.

"The catcher is Frank Haab. He's from Wisconsin State. Probably a second rounder..." he pointed to the tall, thick young man whose oversized mitt gave him away as he tossed with a shorter player. "The fella he's tossing with is Jim Renfroe. Now he's one of the top prospects... an outfielder... probably go high in the first round. Likely the best player on the team."

He paused and looked around, "Well... I didn't know he'd be here..." he noted quietly. Harry, impatient, asked, "Who?"

Rufus pointed and said, "Don Ward."

"Who's Don Ward, Pop?" Bobby asked.

Rufus smiled and said, "Oh... sorry, was just thinking. Ward's a shortstop - one of the best in the college ranks. Another high pick, for sure."

Harry visibly perked up upon hearing this. "A shortstop... and a good one? I'll keep my eye on him!"

Rufus nodded at his son. "Yes, he's a good one to watch. A very good fielder, and he can hit too."

He pointed out some others, none of which his sons had ever heard: Dick Horner (1B), Neal Mesker (3B), Whitey Robinson (2B), Les Woodward (RF), and Al Brewer (CF) ("He's a sophomore, most of these other guys are upperclassmen," Rufus said).

Then he pointed to the pitcher. "And speaking of underclassmen... that's Jim Morales, he just finished his freshman season for Brunswick."

Tommy leaned forward. "Looks like he throws hard," he pointed out. Rufus nodded. "Yes, and that's somewhat rare for a left-hander. One of the interesting things about Morales is that he was born in Cuba."

The game started shortly thereafter - and as expected, the Americans had little trouble with the French team. Rufus noted that the French had an American coach, Ray Harvey. "He coaches St. Blane," Rufus reported. The American coach was the highly respected Frank Christian, brother of the man who had coached Rollie and Joe at Nobel Jones, John Christian. Renfroe homered, Morales struck out a slew of opposing hitters and the U.S. team won easily 5-0 in the four inning showcase. The handful of French fans on hand seemed... disinterested.

Rufus frowned and said, "I don't know that the locals really understood all this."

Then he looked at his watch. "We need to find a taxi and get back, if we're going to make it to the decathlon."

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They made it. Barely.

Alice and the rest of the family were already in their seats at the Olympic Stadium when Rufus and the boys showed up. Even Possum was there, bleary-eyed and miserable-looking, but there nonetheless.

"You cut it close," Alice told her husband. He nodded sheepishly.

"Our boys look good?" Possum asked. Harry plopped down next to him and enthusiastically replied, "They sure did! 5-0 in four innings!" Possum cringed a bit at the relatively high volume of Harry's voice, but smiled at the kid's enthusiasm and nodded, saying, "Good, good."

The decathlon began shortly thereafter.

The first event was the 100 meters. There were 36 athletes competing, representing a total of 22 countries. The U.S. had four representatives. Danny ran in the third heat and posted a time of 11.6 seconds. That placed him in a 12-way tie for 8th place (there had been a six-way tie for 2nd). Bill O'Neill - a fellow American - had won with a time of 11.2.

"Not too bad," Rufus said. Danny was fast but all these guys were world-class, so to even be in the top half was, Rufus felt, a real achievement.

The long jump was the second of the day's five events. O'Neill went before Danny and he posted a very strong 6.92 as his best jump. An Estonian posted the best mark, an impressive 6.96 meters.

"That's really far," Betsy noted. Harry snorted and said, "That's why the call it the long jump!"

When Danny went, the best he could muster was a 5.94 meters - which ended up being good for 31st.

"Oof," Jack said. Joe shook his head. "I think his leg's bothering him. It looked like there was a slight hitch in his step."

Rufus raised an eyebrow. Joe saw this and smiled, saying, "Hey, Pop, you're not the only one who can observe things, you know."

Still, Danny did better than one of his three team mates (Bob Jackson) who faulted on both jumps and posted no mark. In doing so, he dropped out of the competition and was the first to do so.

The shot put was the third event. Though this was an event that Danny himself did not consider to be one of his best, he ended up posting a very strong 11.01 meters.

"That thing looks like a cannonball," Bobby said. Tommy nodded and added, "Yeah, it does. I bet it's heavy. That was a really good throw by Dan."

And it turned out that it was a good throw - Danny ended up placing 12th. After three events, his points total was 1922.3, good for 19th place. The other two Americans, O'Neill and Ed Paulson, held the top two spots.

"He's got some catching up to do if he wants a medal," Alice said sadly.

"A lot of events still to go, Mom," Rollie said, adding, "Even if he doesn't earn a medal, the fact that he even made it here is quite an accomplishment."

Rufus agreed. "True - and he can always come back in '28 when he's likely to be even better."

"Unless he starts a pro career in football," Joe pointed out. Jack nodded his agreement, but said, "True, but if I were him, I'd want another shot at this."

Seeing his mother's face, he hastened to add, "Assuming he doesn't medal here, of course."

"Well played," Rollie whispered to his brother. Beside Jack, Marie shouted encouragement at Danny in French. This drew strange looks from some of the French fans in attendance (the host country's lone decathlete was two spots ahead of Danny after three events).

The fourth event was the high jump. Alice clapped her hands. "Finally, an event in which Danny excels!" she said.

But, it turned out that Joe's observation might have been true after all. Danny turned in a rather disappointing 21st place with a 1.60 jump on his first attempt, failing the 1.70 that would have placed him in the top 10. Again, O'Neill took top marks with a 1.97 meter jump. "That O'Neill is something else," Joe said, not bothering to hide the admiration in his voice, despite a glare from his mother. "Hey, it's true," he said with a shrug.

The relatively poor result in Danny's best event dropped him to 23rd overall.

"I don't think he's going to get a medal," Bobby pointed out.

The fifth and final event of the day was the 400 meters. Rollie noticed that Danny was rubbing his left thigh. "Looks like you're right Joe, that leg is bothering him," he said, pointing.

"Well, let's hope he can muddle through," Rufus said, squeezing his wife's hand.

Danny did muddle through. He managed a 12th-place tie with a time of 54 seconds flat. "Seems like he can run - it's the jumping that's bothering him," Joe noted. Rollie and Jack both nodded in agreement.

Rufus watched the man at the scoreboard as he updated the standings. Danny did move up the list - a bit - and ended the first day of competition in 20th place. Rufus didn't say so, but he thought there was little chance his son would take home a medal.

"I hope he doesn't get too down on himself," he told his wife.

Tomorrow would tell. There was still the hurdles, discus, javelin, pole vault and 1500 meters to be contested.

Down on the field, Danny was gathering his things when one of the other competitors walked over to him. "Barrell, right?" the man said by way of greeting. His English was good, but Danny couldn't quite place the accent. The man had a towel over his shoulder and this hid the national mark on his shirt.

Danny nodded, a quizzical look on his face, and said, "Yes." Then he asked, "I'm sorry... do we know each other?"

A sheepish grin appeared on the man's face, and he replied, "No, but we have a mutual acquaintance."

Danny still had a confused look on his face. The man noted this and laughed, then said, "Emily. She's my cousin."

"Oh..." Danny said and then smiled. "You're not British, though..." he noted.

The man pulled the towel off. "No, I am not," he said with a grin. "Sid McAllister," he stuck out his right hand to shake. "I'm competing for South Africa. My mother and Emily's are sisters."

Danny nodded, as he shook hands.

"Say.... any chance you'd be willing to take a photograph? Emily asked me if you would," Sid said.

Danny shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?"

As they were taking the picture, he wondered why Emily would want a picture of him with her cousin. After the picture was taken he shook his head and thought about how little he seemed to understand girls.
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Photo of Dan Barell (left) and Sid McAllister at the '24 Olympics