Charlie Smith by Michael Ceraolo

Charlie Smith

It was a storybook beginning:

August 6, 1902 and my hometown Bronchos were short of pitchers

Someone pointed me out to Mr. Armour

as a local sandlotter who could pitch:

they brought me out of the stands to face Waddell and the Athletics

We won, with my pitching the whole game,

and I pitched a shutout  few days later

But this was reality, not a dime novel:

I went back to the minors for a few years,

then basically had an average career,

though I had a poor record pitching mostly for bad teams

The story's end was all too common:
I died relatively young from pneumonia

But what a beginning!