The Prospects

Al Duncan has been a pitching legend for twenty-five years in segregated baseball.

It’s 1946, World War II has ended and Jackie Robinson is about to cross the color line.

Al can finally prove he’s not just been the best Black pitcher but the best American pitcher of any color. But Al is past his prime and he doesn’t feel he has to prove anything to anyone.

Tom Anderson, a young white ballplayer, comes back from the battlefields of Germany and asks for Al’s help to make it to the majors.

The Prospects is a story about baseball, Al and Tom’s lives and loves, and a reluctant friendship in Jim Crow America.

＂The Prospects is a powerful story about the unlikely relationship of two men from opposite sides of the racial divide in post-World War II America. Jedding weaves a tapestry of emotional and historical richness that does not shy away from personal and social conflict.This story will touch you deeply and make you think.＂ Kelvin Chin, Marcus Aurelius Updated

Preface

The Prospects is a story about race and ＂Al Duncan＂ is the heart of the story. By the end of the war, Al has been a legendary Negro League pitcher for twenty-five years. But he has also known, for all of those years, that he was not only the best Black pitcher but the best American pitcher of any color. He was unable to prove it because of America’s innate racism. Now it’s 1946, the year of Jackie Robinson, and Al can finally try out for the majors and show everyone who he really is. But he’s past his prime and this throws him back on himself.

What do you do when the country you love has never consistently loved you back, or your people, and now it’s throwing you a crumb? That is Al Duncan’s challenge. In response, he reflects the best of America, even though America has not consistently demonstrated the same grace to him.

Al is no angel. He has what might be called a very difficult personality. But as The Prospects unfolds, one sees, simply put, that Al Duncan is the backbone of all that is potentially redemptive about America itself.

Prologue

July 1946

Al Duncan and Tom Anderson were hungry. They had been hitchhiking across Pennsylvania and stopped in Bethel Park. They came to a diner and sat down at the counter.

The waiter slowly approached them. ＂What will you have?＂

＂Pancakes and coffee,＂ Tom said.

＂The same,＂ Al said.

＂A stack!＂ the waiter yelled into the kitchen. He moved off and looked at them from a distance. Ten minutes later, he brought out a plate of pancakes and put them down in front of Tom.

Al looked at him. ＂And me?＂ he said.

＂We ran out of pancakes,＂ the waiter said.

＂Then how about some eggs?＂ Al said.

The waiter said, ＂No.＂

Al understood, got up and walked out of the diner. Tom watched him go and said to the waiter, ＂Do you know who he is? Do you have any idea who he is?＂ but the waiter just turned away. Tom got up and left.

Outside, Al gave Tom a knowing glance, nodded, and they continued down the street.

After a few minutes, Tom said, ＂Al?＂

＂Yes?＂

＂Do you ever feel like giving up?＂

＂What do you mean?＂ Al said.

＂A year ago, in Germany, sometimes the fighting was so intense that I thought I didn’t need to make it back. That’s what I mean,＂ Tom said. ＂I’m still hungry and part of me wouldn’t mind if that diner, and that waiter, were wiped off the face of the earth. So my question to

you is: Do you ever feel like giving up?＂

Al, a forty-three year old Black man in America, turned and said simply, in a matter of fact voice, ＂No, Tom. I don’t.＂