Tishomingo County line, where the Chickasaws came from originally.
Some never went to Oklahoma and're still around here. See, but Indians don't have nothing to do with the hotel. I think the owners just like the name.'
He watched Vernice thinking about it sipping her toddy, then begin to nod. 'You're gonna tell this hotshot from Atlantic City you're a Chickasaw Indian - '
'I am, honey, part. I've told you that.'
'And you expect having a few drops of Indian blood'll get you a job - I mean, a position?'
'I find out this fella has run a sports book, loves the game of baseball and has a head fulla stats. What I'm saying, I expect he could also know me. '
'You're kidding,' Vernice said, 'aren't you?'
Being hurtful now as well as ignorant. It gave Charlie that urge to bear down and he said off the top of his head, 'I'll bet you anything you want I get the job. How much?'
Vernice smiled, but it was like she felt sorry for him. She said, 'Charlie, you ever get hired as a celebrity host I'll lose twenty pounds and go to work as a keno runner.'
Sitting there like a strawberry sundae in her La-Z-Boy, knees apart - the woman's know-it-all tone of voice moved his irritation up a couple of notches and he said, 'I was you, honey, I'd make it forty pounds.'
She was having fun now and ignored the remark. 'You're gonna tell this man you're a full-blooded Chickasaw.'
'And played ball.'
'Gonna paint your face and put on a war bonnet?'
'No,' Charlie said, 'I'm gonna tell this fella runs the place I'm a direct descendant of the man they named it for, Tishomingo himself.'
Vernice said, 'And you know what he'll say?'
He said, 'Well, Chief, if I thought it mattered, can you prove it?'
This was in front of the Tishomingo Hotel & Casino as Billy Darwin came out of his Jaguar in leisure attire and Charlie introduced himself.
'During my playing days,'' Charlie said, 'the Tishomingo Times in Oklahoma'd run stories about me and mention my lineage. I never left Tishomingo County till I was signed by the Baltimore organization.'
'You played ball, uh?'
'Eighteen years. I phoned for an appointment, your girl put me down for two P.M. So while I been waiting an hour and a half,' Charlie said, trying not to sound too irritated, 'I been studying your tepee' - the three stories of concrete coming to a point above the entrance - 'trying to think if Chickasaws ever lived in tepees, with or without all different-colored neon running up it, and it come to me that we never did.'
Billy Darwin said, 'That's what you want to see me about?'
'I thought I'd mention it. No, I'm here seeking employment as a celebrity host.'
'As a relative of Tishomingo or a former ballplayer?'
'I can handle either, talk the talk.'
When Billy Darwin shrugged and walked away, going into the hotel, Charlie was right behind him, passing through a room the size of a ballpark where they were laying carpet. On the escalator going up to the mezzanine Charlie said to the back of the man's silky sportshirt, 'I was with five majorleague organizations and pitched in a World Series.'
Billy Darwin tossed his Robert Redford hair and looked over his shoulder as he reached the mezzanine.
'What year?'
'Eighty-four.'
'Tigers over the Padres in five,' Darwin said.
He kept walking and Charlie followed him through a reception area walled with murals, Plains Indians and buffalo, where some guys in suits were waiting, looking up to be noticed as Darwin went past, now into an office where a goodlooking dark-haired woman sat behind a desk. Darwin stopped to ask her, 'Carla, who was my two o'clock?'
She looked down at her pad and said, 'Mr. Charlie Hoke. He wanted me to note, 'Former big leaguer.''
Darwin turned enough to look at Charlie. 'How do you spell your name?'
Charlie told him.
Darwin said, 'You sure it's not H-o-a-x?'
Charlie said, 'Billy' - hanging on to his irritation -
'while you were playing stickball in the alley I was with the Orioles, the Texas Rangers, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Detroit Tigers, Baltimore again, got traded back to De-troit in '83 and finished my eighteen years of organized ball with the Tigers in the '84 World Series. I went in what became the final game in the fifth and struck out the side. I got Brown and Salazar on called third strikes. I hit Wiggins by mistake, put him on, and I got the mighty Tony Gwynn to go down swinging at sixty-mile-an-hour knucklers. I went two and a third innings, threw twenty-six pitches and only five of 'em were balls. I hit Wiggins on a nothin'-and-two count, my only mistake, went to shave him with a fastball and come a little too close. I've struck out Al Oliver, Gorman Thomas and Jim Rice. Also Darrel Evans, Mike Schmidt, Bill Madlock, Willie McGee, Don Mattingly, and I fanned Wade Boggs twice in the same game - if those names mean anything to you.'
Billy Darwin said, 'Come on in,' and led Charlie into an office big enough to hold a dance in and not even remove the desk, which by itself was a size. Darwin took his place behind it and began fooling with his computer, working the mouse, the PC and a phone the only things on the desk. Charlie got tired of standing and took one of the ranch-house leather chairs without being asked. Looking at Darwin close he saw the man was about forty, had that young-looking hair and appeared to be in shape. Charlie heard the computer making different noises like static on a radio, then was quiet and pretty soon Darwin went to work on the keyboard, typing and looking at the screen, which Charlie couldn't see.
He finally asked Darwin what he was doing and was told, 'Looking you up on CNNSI dot com.'
'I'm in there?'
'It says you're six-five and weigh two-twenty.'
'I've shrunk,' Charlie said. 'I'm only six-four now.'
'But you've put on some weight.'
'Couple pounds.'
Darwin was looking at the screen again. 'The year you were with Detroit . . .' He stopped. 'You only pitched those two and a third innings, allowed one hit, struck out five and walked two.' The man sounding surprised as he read it off the screen.
'I only walked one. I told you I hit Wiggins? Come inside on him too close. See, I was never afraid to throw inside.
You'd see these batters sticking their butts out ready to bail.'
'But the only time you went up to the majors,' Darwin said, 'was in '84.'
'I was up with other clubs but never used.'
'And the only game you pitched in,' Darwin said, 'was in the World Series,' the man still sounding surprised. 'When did you strike out Mattingly, Madlock, all those guys you mentioned, Gorman Thomas?'
'You want,' Charlie said, 'I can go down the list. I got Mattingly when I was with Toledo in Triple-A and Don was with Columbus then. I recall I was playing A ball with Tulsa, a game against Shreveport I got Darrel Evans swinging. Madlock, let's see, I was with Oneonta, that's also A ball, and I believe he was with Pittsfield. I know Mike Schmidt was with Reading when I fanned him and I was playing Double-A with Altoona, back then throwing ninety-nine-mile-an-hour fastballs. I also held the record in the Eastern League for hitting the most batters.'
Billy Darwin didn't look surprised anymore, sitting there deadpan, like he was looking at all these baseball facts sliding around in his head.
'Eighty-one I was back with De-troit, sent down to the Mud Hens and struck out Willie McGee. As I recall he was with the Louisville Riverbats. Who else you want to know?
Oh, and I was in that longest game ever played that went thirty-two innings. You ever hear of it?'
'Pawtucket and Rochester,' Darwin said, 'yeah, '81.'
'You know your baseball. Baltimore was giving me another shot, this time with Rochester, Triple-A, and I
