（外文电子版资料）George Alec Effinger - Naked to the Invisible Eye.pdfVIP

NAKED TO THE INVISIBLE EYE The one thing a dying institution does not need is an overly brilliant performer. There were less than a thousand spectators in the little ball park, their chatter nearly inaudible com-pared to the heartening roar of the major league crowds. The fans sat uneasily, as if they had wandered into the wake of a legendary hero. No longer was baseball the na-tional pastime. Even the big league teams, roving from franchise to franchise in search of yesterdays loyal bleacher fanatics, resorted to promotional gimmicks to stave off bankruptcy. Here, the Bears were in third place, with an unlikely shot at second. The Tigers had clinched the pennant early, now leading the second-place Kings by nine games and the Bears by an even more discouraging number. There was no real tension in this game—oh, with a bad slump the Bears might fall down among the cellar teams, but so what? For all intents and pur-poses, the season had ended a month ago. There was no tension, no pen-nant race any longer, just an inexpensive evening out for the South Carolina fans. The sweat on the batters hands was the fault of his own nervous reaction; the knots in his stomach were shared by no one. He went to the on-deck circle for the pine-tar rag while he waited for the new pitcher to toss his warm-ups. The Bear shortstop was batting eighth, reflecting his anemic .219 average. Like a great smoothed rock this fact sat in the torrent of his thinking, submerged at times but often breaking through the rac-ing surface. With his unsteady fielding it looked as if he would be out of a job the next spring. To the players and to the spectators the game was insignificant; to him it was the first of his last few chances. With two runs in already in the eighth, one out and a man on first, he went to the plate. He looked out towa