[legendsport]

July 10, 1934: New York, NY:

"This was a fantastic idea, Claudia," Jack Barrell said.

Beside him, Claudia Slocum smiled and nodded. On Jack's other side, Marie nodded too and patted Jack's hand. "It certainly was," she said.

On Claudia's right sat her son, James and beside James sat Marie's daughter Agnes. Other Barrells filled the row on either side. In fact, row 3 of section 5 of Riverside Park was completely occupied by Barrells on hand for the second edition of the FABL All-Star Game.

The mid-season event had been held first at Chicago's Whitney Park the year before. It had been a runaway success and one of the last big decisions Robert Owings had made was declaring the All-Star Game should be an annual event.

The 1934 edition was special for several reasons. First, it was to be the final game at the Riverside Park, the home of the New York Stars for several decades, but now targeted for demolition to make way for the Harlem River Drive. The Stars' had a brand-new baseball palace ready for them further north called Dyckman Stadium and they would begin playing there immediately after the All-Star game.

The other big reason this event was special was that four of Rufus and Alice's sons were playing in the game. Bobby was there to represent the Philadelphia Keystones for the Federal Association team while Fred, Tom and Harry all were on hand to represent the Continental Association as members of the Brooklyn Kings. Claudia's husband, Powell Slocum, had been asked to be a coach for the Continental, who were being managed by the recently-fired former Chicago Cougars manager Dick Pozza.

But the game provided an easy excuse to get Agnes Barrell and James Slocum together and reveal to them that they were, in fact, half-siblings, sharing the late Jimmy Barrell as their father. This was not news to James - he had always known Jimmy was his father, though Jimmy himself had died before his birth. Agnes on the other hand had always believed that Jack was her father. The two did not resemble each other - James was a blond-haired boy whose coloring came from his German mother and whose features came from Jimmy. Agnes on the other hand, could never have been mistaken for anything but the brunette Marie Barrell's daughter.

Claudia had brought James to the hotel where Jack and Marie and their three daughters were staying in Manhattan. There, while Jack sat with his two biological daughters, Marie and Claudia had brought James and Agnes together and told them that they shared a father. Though Jack had been concerned, Agnes took this news with surprising equanimity. James was briefly stunned and then thrilled to find that he had a sibling.

Jack had been pleased that Agnes had given him a hug and called him Papa, just as she had always done, before they left the hotel.

Now, as they sat in the ballpark, they were essentially oblivious to what was taking place on the diamond, and had their heads together, talking. Agnes, who knew very little about Jimmy (a touchy subject to Marie for obvious reasons), was soaking in as much information as James could provide. James, for his part, was thrilled to share what he had learned of their father, which was as much as could pull out of his mother and uncles. Jimmy Barrell was James Slocum's favorite subject.

Claudia gave a cheerful wave to her husband. Powell had emerged from the dugout and was peering into the seats. The crowd was still filing in on a beautiful summer day in New York City. Claudia would always prefer football (or soocer as it was known in the U.S.) but she had put a lot of effort into learning the intricacies of baseball for her husband's sake.

At the end of the row, Dan Barrell sat with his wife Gladys, who was bouncing their infant son Michael on her knee and chatting with Fred's wife Tillie, who was similarly holding her son Freddie Jr (who was actually sleeping somehow). Suddenly she muttered to Gladys, "Excuse me a moment," put one hand over each of her son's ears and shouted, "Go get 'em, Fred Barrell!"

On the field, Fred had emerged from the home dugout and was stretching near the on-deck circle. When he heard his wife's familiar shout, he grinned. The player next to him, wearing a Montreal Saints uniform asked him something. Fred laughed and pointed at his wife. Dan leaned over and told Tillie, "That's Hank Barnett. For some reason he and Fred seem to have hit it off." She nodded; Fred had mentioned this to her.

"I don't really get it. Fred's a little too friendly with some of the opposition sometimes. Maybe it's a catcher thing," Dan said.

"Or maybe you're just a grumpy Gus," Gladys told her husband. He scowled at her and she laughed at him. "Lighten up, Danny," she said.

His brother Harry emerged a moment later and turned to look into the stands as Powell had done. He spotted Rufus and Alice sitting on the other end of the row and waved to them.

"That's Harry," Rollie Barrell said to Tom Bowens. Rollie was sitting between his wife and Tom, who had come down from his home in Massachusetts as Betsy's guest. She sat on the other side of him, with Joe's daughter Gloria on her right.

"Right... the shortstop," Tom said, glancing down at his scorecard. Rollie nodded.

"So, you're an end, I've heard," Rollie said non-chalantly.

"Yep. I really prefer offense to defense, but I hold my own on both sides," Tom said. Rollie saw his sister bend over and give him a frown.

"No football talk," she said.

"Why not?" Tom asked.

"This is a baseball game," she said.

"That makes no sense," Tom replied. Rollie nodded in bemused agreement.

"Yes, it does. Roland will have you talking football all game long. Let me save us all some time. Rollie wants to know if you'll play pro football so he can decide whether to draft you," Betsy said. Then she leaned forward and looked at Rollie. "Am I right?" she asked pointedly.

Rollie laughed and Francie leaned forward and said, "Of course you are."

Rollie and Tom looked at each other and laughed too. "Well, I do hope to play professionally. If someone will have me, that is," Tom said.

"From what I've heard from our scouting department, I don't think that'll be a problem," Rollie admitted. "Although," he continued, bending forward to look at his sister. "The AFA does not, as of now, have a college draft. So I would be trying to sign Tom, not drafting him."

Betsy waved a hand at her brother dismissively. "Well, no matter. We're here to watch our brothers play baseball. So no more football talk."

Rollie shook his head. "You really are just like Mom," he told her, receiving a withering look in return.

Rufus spotted Bobby long-tossing in the outfield, and he waved to them as he trotted in towards the Federal Association's dugout, directly across the diamond from them. Tom was warming up down the line and they didn't get to greet him until he walked in just before the game started. He was all-business and didn't even look into the dugout as he walked slowly in, talking with Fred who had been catching him.

The game was an interesting one, with the high point for Rufus coming in the very first half-inning when Tom was on the mound for his lone inning of work. With Bobby hitting third, Tom would be facing his brother for the first time ever. Tom was always intense when pitching, but he seemed to turn it up a notch for Bobby.

Rufus leaned forward, chin in hand, as he watched. Tom shook off Fred on the very first pitch. Rufus shook his head, "Tom's looking to throw the gas, I'd bet," he told Alice.

Sure enough, Tom fired a fastball that Bobby took for a strike. Rufus, thanks to the excellent view from his seat, could see the smirk on Bobby's face as he straightened up in the left-hand batter's box after his brother's first offering. He touched a finger to his cap and got back in his stance.

Tom rocked and fired. Another fastball. Ball one. Bobby tipped his head to the side and grinned at Tom who just glared back at him.

Behind the plate, Fred muttered, "Better be careful, Bob. I think he'd drill Mom if he thought she was trying to show him up."

Bobby scoffed. "This here's just an exhibition, Fred. I'm simply trying to lighten the mood."

"Nothing's just an exhibition to Tommy, little brother," Fred said as he flashed the sign to Tom.

Saul Gold, the umpire, shook his head. "You Barrells...." he muttered. Fred chuckled as Tom shook him off. He put down one finger. Stubborn fool, he thought.

Tom rocked and fired. This time Bobby was ready for it. Fred was impressed at the quality of his brother's swing, which he hadn't really seen up close in several years.

Luckily for Tom - or unluckily for Bobby - he got a bit under it and lifted a fly ball into right. Tom Taylor of the Cougars drifted back on the deep fly and caught it in a textbook two-handed grab for the final out of the inning.

Bobby, having rounded first gave Tom a wink and said, "I'll get you next time, Tommy boy," as he turned to head out to right field. Tom scowled at him and Bobby shouted over his shoulder, "Lighten up! This is supposed to be an exhibition, remember?" Tom shook his head and walked slowly towards the dugout.

Harry waited a moment, and slapped Bobby on the backside as he ran past. "You tell him, Bob!" he said with a laugh.

Sitting beside his twin sister, Rufus "Deuce" Barrell took note of how Tom handled himself. "He's all business out there, even in an exhibition," he mused to Gloria.

She snorted and replied, "He looks like a sourpuss. I thought baseball was supposed to be fun."

Deuce shook his head. "Oh, it's fun alright. But only when you're winning," he said. Gloria frowned at him.

The rest of the game proved to a good one, though not without controversy. The recently fired Dick Pozza, perhaps because he had no need to fear any repercussions from the Cougars' rivals in Brooklyn, rode the Kings best 'fireman' Del Lyons for three long innings. Lyons, not used to throwing that many pitches, ended up taking the loss as the Feds unloaded on him in the 10th inning and took the victory.

"Oof," Rufus said. "That's going to get under someone's skin."

"Why?" Alice asked. Rufus explained that it looked like Pozza had "burned" Lyons, though he added that since Pozza was no longer managing any FABL team, there wasn't anything the Kings could do in retaliation. That turned out to not be completely true as Pozza (who had already won three titles with three different teams) accepted the Montreal Saints managing job shortly after the All-Star game.

.