He had been a Master-At-Arms in the Navy. He always knew he wanted to do police work. There had been a murder committed on board a naval ship. He had handled it very well and got quite a bit of publicity. His work was so greatly appreciated by his superiors that they got him a job in the Pittsburgh Homicide Unit. So, when he was discharged in 1954, he became the youngest detective on the force. Resentment gave way to admiration from his colleagues, as his instincts became legendary throughout the force in a very short amount of time.
Howe ripped a single to center and Sanguillen came around to score. Grace was up and cheering, but the rest of Three Rivers was strangely calm except for a smattering of cheers. It was like they were all at the hospital waiting for the surgeon to come out and tell them the inevitable. A lot of people had transistor radios with them and the sound from those permeated the stadium.
Taveras stepped to the plate and ripped a single to left field and Cleon Jones let the ball bounce off his mitt and skitter away from him all the way to the wall. Robertson scored from second and Howe scored all the way from first. The Pirates tied the game. Grace was up, but Three Rivers might as well have been a graveyard. Taveras made it all the way to third base on the error with no outs. It looked like the boys were about to take the lead. The pitcher, Reuss, stepped to the plate and promptly struck out.
Up to the plate stepped Rennie Stennett, who ripped a shot to Harrelson at short. Taveras, for some reason, broke for home and was easily thrown out. Grace pouted, her face red with anger. For the first time since they sat down in their seats, she said something. At first Sam didn’t think she could possibly be talking to him. “Why would he do that?”
“Hmm?” Sam asked his youngest daughter.
“Why would he do that?” For an instant Sam flashed back to 1960 and the bloody laundry room and a sick feeling in his stomach rose into his throat.
“I have no idea,” Sam said. It was the same response he gave when Jack Ballant asked him back in 1960 about the dismembered girl that went with that bloody laundry room, “Why would he do that?” The girl had a name. Sam closed his eyes and tried to remember the picture they ran of that girl instead of the severed parts of her found in storm drains throughout the city. Little Madison Mason.
“That was bogus, you know.”
“Yeah, bogus.” Sam tried to smile, but the hole in the pit of his stomach dragged the edges of his mouth downward. Why was he thinking about Madison Mason? That had been fourteen years ago. The mind was a funny thing. The combination of thinking of Grace’s mother and Nixon had brought him back to 1960 as if it were yesterday. Nixon had been running for president then, just as he was about to announce his resignation.
Clines dribbled one back to the pitcher and that was the end of the inning. The inning started with despair down by three, turned to exhilaration when they tied the ballgame up and plummeted back down into despair after wasting a man on third with no outs.
Sam looked at Grace and tried to have a conversation. “Enjoying the game?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Just wondering. How are things going?”
“Fine, you know.”
“Are you going to need help moving into Pitt?”
“No, that’s okay. We have it covered.”
“That’s great,” Sam said trying to hide the hurt. A father is supposed to move their kids in to school. “Maybe I can take you to a football game when they start up.”
“That would be fab.”
“That Dorsett kid is really something.”
“Yeah, he is.” And that was the end of the conversation.
The game continued for the next couple of innings. At around nine o’clock, the transistor radio volumes got turned up and the president was talking. The top of the sixth was going on and the Mets played like they were totally disinterested. Everyone knew what was happening. No one was paying attention to the game on the field, not even the players. Everyone was listening intently to the speech.
“Good evening,” Nixon blared through a transistor radio two rows in front of them. “This is the thirty-seventh time,” and last Sam thought with some glee, “I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest. In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation.”
For some reason Sam found himself smiling. This wasn’t a laughing matter of course. The leader of the free world was about to dismiss himself from the job for the first time in history. When did he start taking such glee in the misfortune of others? Sam knew the answer but didn’t want to think about it. The thought of someone being as miserable as him just made him happy. “Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me.”
Matlack popped up to Howe. Two down.
“In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.”
The man was such an egomaniac. All about him and how he is being wronged. There was a lot of murmuring throughout the stadium.
“But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.”
Garrett flied out to Clines and that ended the top of the sixth.
“I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interest of the nation must always come before any personal considerations. From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders, I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the nation would require.”
The Mets were on the field warming up for the bottom of the sixth, but you could see them with an ear towards the crowd. The warmup pitches had a little less zing on them with a little more time in between. The first baseman tossed grounders around the infield slowly, holding the ball a little longer in his mitt before releasing it to the next infielder.
“I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time president and a full-time congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad. To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the president and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home. Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office”