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13 More Tales of Goose and Tut Like "Revelation" and the start of Tale ofTwo Cities, Reece "Goose" Tatum was a tangle of contradictions. Most say he played basketball best, some baseball. All say he was funny. He was mean. He was master of comedic timing. He often lacked the rhythm of ordinary human kindness. He was considerate. He was selfish. He was a loner. Kids loved him and flocked around him. He was violent and unpredictable. Fans loved him. Most players stayed clear of him. He was one man Dad didn't always like, but Dad loved him. He was everyman. He was a prima donna. He was an El Dorado, Arkansas, country kid suddenly world famous and taken to be cosmopolitan . "Maybe the only time you saw the real Goose was if you visited the family farm;' Jim Colzie observed. "Nothing to be famous about there. He was just Goose:' Goose's comedy could be majestic. According to Jim Cohen, going one better than a home run Goose once hit in Louisville, Goose came to bat left-handed with bases loaded against the Chicago American Giants in Comiskey Park before a huge crowd. Chicago changed pitchers to a lefty. A switch-hitter, Goose walked around the plate, called time, knelt and prayed, hands folded, wagging his head skyward like the abbot at a monastery for demented monks, as Tut had taught him. He arose, shook his head yes and, right-handed, drove the first pitch into the upper deck for a grand slammer. Acting exhausted as he jogged the basepaths, he sat and rested on each base wiping his brow, as the crowd roared louder, and as he came home and the crowd thundered, he circled the plate with quick mincing steps as he leaned over it, at last tapping it for the run. Goose Tatum was the consensus best fielding first baseman of the 1940s. Buck O'Neil of the Monarchs and Buck Leonard of the Grays could hit better , but Goose could hold his own at the plate with most, and in the field, as Sherwood Brewer said, "You could throw too high for Goose if you tried, MORE TALES OF GOOSE AND TUT 131 but never too low. Nothing low got by him. And with that eight-foot wingspan and 6'3" height, it had to be awfully high to get over the top." John "Buck" O'Neil, as Monarchs first baseman and manager, played against Goose for more than a decade. "Goose played basketball fall and winters:' Buck said. "Had he gone to Latin America and played baseball year around like Buck Leonard and me, he'd have been good as anybody. As it was, he had as good a glove as any first baseman ever played the game." Tatum's prowess was reported as follows in local coverage of a 1947 game in Tulsa, Oklahoma: Could Jesse Owens run? Could Bill Robinson tap dance? Could George Washington Carver do things with peanuts? History already has chronicled these great Negroes as tops in their respective fields-and the 2,500 fans who saw Reece (Goose) Tatum performing at first base last night at Texas League Park as the Kansas City Monarchs defeated the Indianapolis Clowns, 5 to 3-will help the historians label this long, lanky Negro as nothing short of miraculous. The six-foot, four-inch clown prince of Negro baseball did everything last night but make the ball talk. He made incredible stops with beautiful ease and grace, he juggled the ball until it appeared he had it on a string-and then in the eighth inning came up with a play that looked like something Orson Welles might have dreamed up. It was his last defensive gesture since the Monarchs did not have to bat in the ninth. Two were down, and Earl Taborn hit into the hole at shortstop. Newt Allen cut loose with a high throw that sent Tatum at least two feet into the air-but the lanky Negro speared the throw, and tagged Taborn in midair as the runner raced into the bag. And Tatum tagged him good, sprawling Taborn head over heels into right field. While Tatum kept the crowd in an uproar with his glovework at first, Henry Thompson, sensational 20-year old Monarch shortstop, and Lefty LeMarque, the Monarchs pitcher, turned in sparkling performances that would fit well into major league play. Thompson, a war veteran, hailed as another Jackie Robinson, ham- [3.140...

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