Part 1

This starts off as a baseball story, but I guarantee there will be some non-powered heroic action, too. I'll keep the baseball stuff as short as possible. But it's Lily's story, and she won't let me bypass the baseball entirely!

Background...

The time: Summer of 1943 (surprise!) in the Earth-2 Universe. The world is at war, Allies vs. Axis. People at home in the US are trying to live their lives as normally as possible, dealing with rationing of many things, including sugar and gasoline, as well as travel restrictions, and the constant possibility of the deaths of friends and loved ones on one of the many battlefields of the war.

The owner of the Chicago Cubs, Phillip Wrigley, was worried that major league baseball would have to shut down because so many players were enlisting or being drafted. So he set up a professional baseball league for women, the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. 1943 was the first season of play for the AAGPBL, and Lily DeLuna was one of the players in that first year. Besides baseball, she had some other excitement during that first season as well...

In May 1943 Lily graduated from Redcliff High School. Redcliff, Ohio (East northeast of Cleveland, on the shore of Lake Erie, where Ashtabula is in our universe). She immediately landed a job such as most kids can only dream of when they are growing up: Left fielder for the South Bend Blue Sox in the brand new All American Girls Professional Baseball League. At 17 she wasn't the youngest player in the league. Her teammate, shortstop Dottie Schroeder, was only 15 at the time. Despite their youth, Lily and Dottie were two of the best players in the AAGPBL, and they became good friends. Many of the women in the league, including Lily, played under assumed names to protect their families from the publicity associated with women being professional athletes. Lily called herself 'Thadea (Tedi) Villas'. Ted Williams was her role model, and she chose the name to be similar to his.

Lily really enjoyed the first half of the season, and she had made many new friends. And a significant enemy, as well...

Take me out of the ball game...

Early in the season, the Blue Sox were playing the Kenosha Comets in Kenosha. The starting pitcher for the Comets, Freeda Hammond, was the largest woman Lily had ever seen, and much of her bulk was muscle. She was already famous throughout the league for trying to intimidation her opponents. She had hit so many people already that she had already been tossed from two games. This lead to a league review of her conduct, and the league had warned her that if she was ejected again, she would be thrown out of the league and blacklisted for life in every baseball and softball association that was affiliated with the AAGPBL.

Dottie was wearing a knee brace, and Hammond managed to hit her in the knee, knocking her out of the game. The umpire should have thrown her out of the game then, but he was reluctant to be the one who got her blacklisted for life, Instead, he gave both teams a warning. Lily was extremely upset when Hammond remained in the game. She, along with everyone else in the park, knew that Hammond had hit her friend deliberately, trying to do further damage to her existing injury. Lily wasn't normally the type to take revenge or deliberately goad someone, but Dottie was her best friend.

The next time Lily batted, she made a point of asking the umpire to point out the inner line of the batter's box. She then leaned out over the plate so that Hammond could hardly throw strikes without hitting her. She clearly was willing to be hit by Hammond's hardest pitch in order to get her thrown out. Hammond walked her on 4 pitches. Lily stole second, then stole third, and went home on a wild pitch.

The home crowd booed Hammond for allowing the go-ahead run, and she was clearly struggling to contain her temper. Somehow, she did, and she was able to harness the anger, adding a little zip to her fastball. Neither team scored again and they went to the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Sox ahead 1 to 0.

The Comets loaded the bases with no outs, and Hammond came to the plate. If she could get a hit, the Comets would almost certainly win. The Sox had to take some risks. They brought the outfield in to play shallow, hoping to hold the Comets to one run if Hammond hit a single. Lily, in particular, came way in, until she was almost playing infield. Then she yelled at Hammond "Hey, battleaxe! I don't think you can hit the ball out of the infield! Nyah nyah!" She danced around, making sure Hammond knew how close she was playing, and trying to distract her. She was counting on Hammond's losing control due to her anger. This kind of taunting was out of character for Lily, but she was young, and still very angry about her friend.

All Hammond had to do was hit the ball over Lily's head, but she was determined to hit a home run. She would show that young punk, she would show everyone! The first pitch looked hittable, so she lunged at it, and hit it! But she didn't hit it well, and instead of a home run, she hit an extremely high popup to left field. Lily's gamble had paid off. Even though the ball was hit over her head, it was high enough that she had plenty of time to run under it. And it wasn't hit far enough to drive the runner home from 3rd base. The Comets' third base coach wasn't willing to test Lily's arm. She lead the league in outfield assists. It would only be one out; the Comets would have two more chances. So he held all the runners at their bases.

Hammond was disgusted; she threw her bat and headed back to the dugout, even before Lily caught the ball. It was a routine putout, and virtually everyone in the park figured that the play was over.

However, Lily had something else in mind! At the last second, she pulled her glove away, letting the ball fall instead of catching it. She caught the ball on the bounce and fired to home! The runner on third hardly had a chance to leave the bag before she was called out. The catcher than threw the ball to second, forcing the runner who had been on first base. The Sox completed the improbably triple play when the second baseman threw to first, forcing out Hammond who was already half-way to the dugout. Game over, Sox win!

The crowd exploded in a roar of boos and hisses. Hammond's teammates couldn't believe her stupidity, and they started yelling at her! Her manager exploded out of the dugout, getting in her face and screaming at her. She was larger than him, and she flattened him with a single punch! She picked up a bat and headed for Lily in the outfield. She might never play ball again, but she was going to get her revenge! When a couple of her teammates tried to stop her, she struck them with the bat, breaking the arm of one of them! Everyone got out of her way after that. But Lily didn't run; she didn't even look worried. This enraged Hammond even more!

What Lilly was doing was preparing to defend herself. She was reciting a calming mantra, concentrating on her body, and focusing her energy on the upcoming confrontation. She had practiced against opponents with blades, sticks, chains, throwing stars, and just about every hand-held striking weapon used in the martial arts, but she had never faced an opponent armed with a baseball bat! And she had never before faced an opponent who really wanted to hurt her. She experienced a fear she had never felt before, and she hoped the adrenaline reaction to that fear would help her fight just a little bit better than ever before.

Lily watched Hammond closely, and was able to anticipate the first swing of the bat. Hammond swung it like an axe, straight over her head, and Lily moved aside. The bat hit the ground hard and left a small crater - but it would have killed Lily if it had hit. Hammond pulled it back and swung again, this time just as if she were hitting a baseball. Lily moved slightly backwards, just enough to avoid the swing. Hammond had control of the bat this time, and immediately swung it back the other way, trying to catch Lily by surprise. Lily wasn't impressed - Hammond was strong, but her reactions were slow. Lily's mom, who was twice Hammond's age, was much faster, and Lily had become adept at avoiding her mom's attacks in training. She could avoid these blows all day, but her mom had warned her repeatedly never to be overconfident. She might slip on the grass and be unable to move in time, or somebody else may get too close and get hurt. So she determined to end this fight quickly.

Lily started circling Hammond and Hammond was forced to turn to keep Lily in her sight. She took another swing at Lily, in the direction they were both turning, and the added momentum of her turn made her a little slower to recover than the last time. Lily stepped towards her, inside the radius of Hammond's swing. Hammond thought Lily had made a mistake, and continued to swing all the way around, trying to catch Lily on the second pass. She did succeed in surprising Lily - she had been expecting another backhand swipe. But it didn't matter, she had ample time to react. She concentrated, willing her arms to become unbending bars of iron, convincing herself that she was the immovable object, and that Hammond's bat was a supremely resistable force. When Hammond did swing the bat at her, she saw it almost like it was in slow motion. She caught the head of the bat with her left hand and the handle, just above