Chapter 5

MARTY’S pitching suffered further as he was knocked out early from his next two starts and on May 6th, he was sent to the minors. Doc saw this as an opportunity to finally pick Marty up and return to the future with him. However, what Marty did when he was under the influence of that elixer was about to hit home when they got back.

Friday, August 7, 1987
San Francisco, California
6:30 p.m.
Outside Candlestick Park

As far as Marty was concerned, it was two months and two weeks since he was away from his present time, but as for the love ones he left behind, only a few seconds had passed. But when the blue light dissappated the area around the ballpark was immensed in fog. “That’s odd.” said Doc, “When we left, there was no evidence of fog.” “Maby it came up fast.” said Marty. “Not this fast.” said Doc, “Odd. Very odd.” Marty noticed something else. He couldn’t see the stadium lights through the dense fog. “Doc.” he said, “If tonight’s game is a night game, why isn’t the stadium lights turned on?” “I don’t know.” said Doc, “Even with fog as dense as this, we should be seeing them shining brightly. Must be a power failure somewhere.” He turned on the radio. To his gratification, he got a news station. But there was not report of power failure. Doc was frustrated. “Marty.” he said reaching into his glove compartment, “I’m going in there to find out what’s happening here.” “Right now, Doc?” said Marty, “But it’s foggy.” “Don’t worry.” said Doc has he pulled out a pair of strange glasses and put them on, “I’m going to wear some infra-red goggles here.” “Far out.” said Marty. He guided the car into the fog and looked around. Marty studied the Doc for a few minutes. There was a growing concern written all over his face as if something was wrong. “Doc.” he said, “What is it?” “I don’t believe it.” said Doc. “Believe what?” asked Marty. “Marty.” said Doc, “There’s spare pair of goggles in the glove compartment. Put them on.” Marty did. What he saw was beyond belief. Candlestick Park was gone! In it’s place were abandoned buildings. “Doc!” exclaimed Marty, “The ballpark. Where the hell did it go?” “I don’t know Marty.” said Doc. “Maybe it’s the wrong year.” said Marty. Doc removed his goggles and studied the time circuits. “No.” he said, “It say August 7, 1987 6:35 p.m.” “Could there be something wrong with the time circuits?” asked Marty. “Possibly.” said Doc, “But first, we’re going into the city and locate today’s newspaper to find out what year we’re actually in.” He stirred the DeLorean out of the fog and hovered it into the city.

The rest of the city didn’t seem bad. The fog seemed mostly confined to Candlestick Point. But Downtown San Francisco was fogless. Doc landed the car in an alleyway and turned off the cloaking device which was on since arriving in this era. Leaving the alleyway, Doc and Marty drove up Valencia Street until they came across a newspaper stand on 15th street. Marty stayed behind as Doc got out of the car and put some coins in the slot of one of the newspapers. Removing a newspaper from a box Doc looked at it. His look was puzzling. He returned to the car as Marty asked “Doc, what is it?” “Marty.” said Doc showing him the newspaper, “The date. Look at it.” Marty did. What he saw shocked him.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1987

“1987?” exclaimed Marty, “It can’t be.” Then, he noticed Doc looking at something. Marty turned to look at what Doc was looking at. It was a minor league ballpark. “Doc.” he said, “What the hell is that?” “It’s a ballpark.” said Doc. “I know that, Doc.” said Marty, “But what’s it doing here? I don’t recall seeing a ballpark in this area while we were in 1966.” “Old Rec.” said Doc. “What?” asked Marty. “This is Old Rec Park.” said Doc, “I remember it. My dad used to take me to games here. But it was torn down in 1931 when the San Francisco Seals moved to Seals Stadium.” “Seals Stadium?” asked Marty, “San Francisco Seals?” “Before the Giants moved out here from New York, San Francisco had a minor league team called the San Francisco Seals.” explained Doc. “Emmett.” asked a voice from behind. Doc and Marty turned to see who it was. It was an old man. “Emmett.” he repeated, “How has it been with you lately? I haven’t seen you in years.” The man approached and shook Doc’s hand. “Doc.” asked Marty, “Do you know him?” Doc ignored Marty and seem to pretend to know the guy. “It must be some time.” he said. Then he turned to Marty and whispered “Of course not.” “Who’s your friend, Emmett.” asked the old man. “Oh him.” said Doc, “This is Marty McFly. He’s from Hill Valley.” “Lots of luck, kid.” said the old man, “The Seals are gonna beat your team tonight.” “My Team?” asked Marty. He got out of the DeLorean and looked at the stadium marquee. It read:

TONIGHT’S GAME
THE SEALS VS THE PINE TREES

“The Pine Trees?” exclaimed Marty, “It can’t be. How could there be a minor league team in a major league city?” “A major league team?” asked the old man, “What major league team.” “The Giants.” said Marty, “They’re a major league team.” “Never heard of ‘em.” said the old man, “Hey Emmett, that’s a nice car. It’s a DeLorean, isn’t it?” “Now wait a minute.” said Marty, “What do you mean you’d never heard of the Giants. You mean you’ve heard of Will Clark, Chili Davis, Matt Williams, Kevin Mitchell.” “No I haven’t.” said the old man. “What about Jim Davenport, Tito Fuentes, Jim Barr.” said Marty, “Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda, Gaylord Perry, Willie McCovey.” “Never heard of them.” said the old man. “Not even Willie Mays?” exclaimed Marty. “Nope.” said the old man, “I didn’t even knew major league baseball was still in existence. I thought both leagues went out of business a long time ago.” “What?” exclaimed Marty. Doc heard enough. “Sir.” said Doc, “Me and my friend have got to go now.” “Aren’t you gonna even attend tonight’s game?” asked the old man, “My treat.” “I’m taking a rain check on this one.” said Doc. At that, the two got back into the car.

Once inside, Marty asked Doc “Who the hell is that old man?” “I don’t know.” said Doc, “I never seen him before in my life.” “But he knows you, Doc.” said Marty. “Apparently he does.” said Doc. He looked down at the newspaper that he bought and extracted a section from it. It was the sports page. Doc studied it. Then, he said “Apparently in this reality I know him.” “This reality?” exclaimed Marty. “Yes.” said Doc, “Look at this.” He gave Marty the sports section. Marty looked at it. There were stories about football practices, basketball practices, minor leagues scores and standings. But no National or American Leagues. “There’s something wrong here, Doc.” said Marty. “There sure is, Marty.” said Doc, “And your pitching has something to do with this.” Marty sat back suddenly feeling blame for what he did. Turning to Doc, he said “What are we going to do?” “First of all,” said Doc, “we’ll have to go to the nearest library and see how all this connects to what you did in the past.” Doc pulled the car out and the two time travellers headed to the city library.

++++++

After researching the books on baseball and the newspapers the two came across a 1927 article. It was dated October 1, 1927. On the headline of the sport’s page read

BASEBALL GOES UNDER

The subtitle read “Never Recovered From Black Sox Scandal”. “Black Sox Scandal.” asked Marty. Doc did some more research. Then he picked up a book. “Here it is.” he said. Marty read it:

The Black Sox Scandal was one of the most darkest moments in baseball history.
Eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired to throw the 1919 World Series
after receiving payments from gamblers who were betting on the Cincinnati Reds.
One of the eight was “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.

Following the World Series of that year, an investigation ensued in Chicago and in
September of 1920, a grand jury indicted those eight players and although cleared
in 1921, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the first Commissioner of Baseball, banned
the players for life closing a dark chapter in baseball history.

Unfortunately, baseball never recovered from the scandal. The following year,
Attendance dropped drastically and continued to faulter year after year. Finally,
baseball collapsed as all sixteen teams played their last games on September 30,
1927 before small crowds resembling that of today’s recreational softball crowds.

Marty read enough. He looked at Doc who had an interesting look on his face. “Doc.” said Marty, “What is it?” “That date.” said Doc, “There’s something familiar about it.” “I don’t know, Doc.” said Marty turning back to the 1927 sports page, “There’s nothing here but baseball boxscores, low attendance figures and...” Marty stopped in mid-speach as he read a story about the New York Yankees playing their last game ever in the reality that they were in.

It read that they played their last game at the Polo Grounds.

“Doc.” said Marty, “Look at this.” He showed the Doc the article that caught his eyes. “Great Scott.” he said, “I thought Yankee Stadium was in existance by then.” “I thought so too.” said Marty, “Or that’s what I just heard. Doc, wasn’t that supposed to be called ‘The House That Ruth Built’?” “It is, Marty.” said Doc, “Before they got Babe Ruth, the Yankees were playing in the Polo Grounds, the home of the then New York Giants. Once the Yankees got Ruth from the Red Sox, fans started pouring into the ball park. By 1922, the Yankees got their own ballpark called Yankee Stadium. Hence, the title ‘The House That Ruth Built’.” Marty paused for a minute. “Babe Ruth?” he exclaimed. “Yes, Marty.” said Doc, “Why.” “Because I met him during my stay in 1917.” said Marty, “The last time I saw him there, he challenged me to throw some pitches...” “And you were under the influence of my potion at the time.” said Doc. “Yeah.” said Marty. “Marty, think.” said Doc, “Tell me exactly what happened.” Marty tried to recall what happend. Then, he said “I pitched my way into the starting rotation replacing Ruth. I told him that he would someday play the outfield that he would be a slugger. So, he challenged me. I tried to decline.” “And...?” said Doc. “He called me ‘chicken’.”said Marty, “So I pitched to him to prove I wasn’t.” “Marty.” said Doc. “I’m sorry, Doc.” said Marty, “I thought I was over that. But there are times that I just can’t help it.” “And so you pitched to him.” said Doc, “What happened?” “Ruth swung and missed at the pitches.” said Marty, “He got pissed off and charged after me. The next thing I knew, he was off the team.” “Off the team?” exclaimed Doc. He turned to rifle through some more books. This book had statistics in it. Doc thumbed through the pages. After a while, he came across a page and looked at it. “Marty.” he said, “Look at this.” Marty did. On this page were the statistics of Babe Ruth. It read:

George Herman “Babe” Ruth
Born: February 6, 1895 Died: ?

“Doc!” said Marty, “His batting averages. His home run totals. What happened to them? And why did his career stop at 1916?” “Because you disregarded my warning about interacting with other people in that era.” said Doc, “You outpitched him to the point where he was off the team and since his early career largely consists of pitching, these record books didn’t keep tabs on his hitting because such books don’t do that.” Marty began to realize the scope of what he did. “What are we going to do, Doc?” he asked. “We’re going to have to go back to 1917 and somehow convince the team to keep Ruth on.” said Doc. Marty though for a minute. Then, he recalled Ruth’s challenging him to pitch and said “I’m going to have to accept that challenge again.” “Accept it?” asked Doc, “How?” “Going back there and replace the me that’s there now-I mean-then.” Turning to Doc, he said “And this time, give up some home runs. That’ll convince them to keep him on.” Doc pulled out his sleep inducer and examined it saying “My sentements exactly. There’s only one thing, though.” “What’s that?” asked Marty. “I need the exact date that you faced Ruth.” Marty closed his eyes for a minute and tried to think. Then, he said “April 10, 1917.” “And the time?” asked Doc. Marty paused. Then, he said “Sometimes after 3:00 p.m.” “Close enough.” said Doc, “Marty help me take these books and that newspaper over to the copier machine. I want to make copies of these so we could bring them back in time with us so we could monitor the change in time when you take your earlier self’s place.” “Check, Doc.” said Marty. They gathered up what they needed and made copies. When they were finished, they returned the books and newspaper and left the library for the DeLorean.