Chapter 14
Odds on the outcome of the Pros-Dart game dropped to 6-5 take your pick-which meant the teams were rated even by the bookies at kickoff. Early in the week the Darts had been favored by three points. Friday a flood of Pros money wiped out the Dart three-point advantage. No one knew just why so much Pros money appeared. Aside from a nip in the air, it was almost California weather. Fans of the Darts had hoped for an off-track, rain, mud, snow or some combination of these three. It was a matter of record that California teams fared poorly under such conditions in the East and Midwest.
Jack Fisher munched on a hot dog and pondered the riddle of the odds again as he sat in the press box awaiting the start. He, too, believed the game should be rated dead-even, with perhaps an edge to the Pros because of the team's excellent condition and the tricky new offense Jess Henderson had devised, highlighted by the Kid Stew Play. But how would the gamblers know that? And if they did, would that alone cause the drop in points?
How would word get to the gamblers? Certainly they were more accurate and consistent than the football writers of the newspapers. So how did the oddsmakers get such devastatingly correct appraisals of games? Whatever their information, thought Jack, it certainly was thorough and realistic. Then he dismissed the subject as the excitement of the kickoff came near.
Both clubs had completed their primary drills and had retired to their respective dressing rooms underneath the cavernous stands. The place was packed, fans buzzing and churning in anticipation of a victory, most of them, of course, favoring the Darts, the game being played in Milwaukee. John Jackson sat next to Jack Fisher, smoking his pipe as usual, a smug, satisfied smile nesting about the corners of his lips, as he viewed the grey chalk-lined field.
"Funny thing about those odds dropping," remarked Jack as he got himself further settled in his press box seat.
Ron was shackled in the first quarter by the strategy of "Kid Stew" and could not move the ball or the Pros in the key game against the Darts. Ron's first quarter ended with the score Darts 3, Pros 0. Then at the start of the second period young Jim O'Flanagan raced onto the field to replace Ron in the rotation system of quarterbacks.
"Jim O'Flanagan's quarter," enthused Jackson, slipping his pipe from between his teeth and pointing at the brilliant rookie quarterback who was racing to the Pros huddle. "Now, we'll move," he added confidently.
"They're about to spring the trap," Jack noted silently. He almost hoped Jim's pass to Pete on the deep sidelines pattern would flop. It didn't.
Jim's first call was the "Kid Stew." It worked with incredible precision. Pete broke toward the middle, it was in the usual short slant angle. Then he cut at a sharp angle toward the sidelines. He left the Dart left corner man, who was caught flat-footed, charging in to back up on the usual short pattern Pete had run so often in the first quarter. When Pete crossed the Dart thirty yard line he glanced back over his shoulder. There was Jim's "Kid Stew" pass arching beautifully downfield on schedule. Pete gathered it in around the twenty-five yard line and scampered the remaining distance unchallenged-as easy a six points as the Pros ever collected.
The fans were shocked into silence. The Dart players turned and watched, frustrated, helpless. The Darts had worked hard for their yardage and all they could show for it was three points. With a flick of the wrist the Pros now scooted ahead easily, daintily. The Darts trailed and they were not a good come-from-behind team. They did not score easily. Another quick Pros touchdown might well quench all hopes, forcing the Darts into a desperation style offense for which they were not equipped.
Meanwhile, the pernicious effects of "Kid Stew" continued to unnerve the Darts. They fumbled the subsequent kickoff and burly lineman Bronc Lipski, who had languished in the coach's disaffection the past several days following Hank's discovery of the little redhead in his Chicago room, recovered for the Pros. Lipski bounded up from beneath the pile with the ball and a huge grin on his face. Maybe now Hank would forget and forgive.
With the ball on the Dart eighteen, the Pros closed in for another quick kill. As in ordinary life, there comes a time in football when in the tide of common events, taken at its crest, leads to victory; complete, final and absolute.
Jim O'Flanagan again struck quickly with another of Jess's top priority offensive plays, a short pass, this time to the opposite end, Sid Hamner, who crossed over into this unfamiliar pattern for the first time in any Pros game.
Pete had meanwhile sprinted straight down the sidelines in the end zone, drawing several burned Dart defenders with him, and leaving the short middle area wide open. Jess had foreseen this development and had the call ready for the right moment.
Ron returned to the game after this touchdown and kicked the extra point, making it the Pros fourteen, Darts three, and the second quarter was only minutes old. But the game itself was decided. Panic seized Milwaukee-nothing went right from that point, and the entire club contributed to a fumbling, ill-coordinated, frantic effort throughout the remainder of the half, and all during the final two quarters. The final score showed Los Angeles twenty-eight, Milwaukee three.