"Asimov, Isaac - Mythical BeastiesUC - MWoF#6" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

Mark was about to enter Columbia University, having passed
the traditional college entrance examinations. He was even
entitled to special consideration by the university, since the
government had ruled that Mark was a handicapped human
being and not any sort of monster.

Mark found college to be difficult, and by me end of his first
year it appeared he was ready to drop out. That was when
Roscoe Greene, a scout for the New York Yankees baseball
team, contacted Mark, and when I had my first meeting with
the boy centaur.

I was a sportswriter on a Boston paper at the time, and I
became interested in Mark when he attempted to run in the
Boston marathon, They couldn't officially bar him from it,
but they did me next best thing. They set up a special
category for centaurs. Since he was the only known centaur
on earth, he had no one to compete against but himself. There
was no point in running at all, and on Patriots' Day he didn't
even bother to appear.

But baseball was a different story.

Mark Eques had been ruled a handicapped person, and
under federal regulations in those early years of the 22nd
century, handicapped persons were allowed to play profes-
sional sports, so long as their handicap did not prevent them
from performing their duties. I had to hand it to Roscoe
Greene for coming up with that one.

An old girl friend in the Yankee front office tipped me off
to what was happening, and I drove all night to reach the
Dutchess County farm where Mark was living with Professor
Hagger after completing his first year at Columbia. It was
horse country, with the roads bordered on either side by neat
white fences that extended back over the rolling hills as far as
the eye could see.

As I pulled into the Hagger farm shortly after nine in the
morning I saw that Roscoe Greene had arrived first. He stood
at the fence speaking with Mark Eques. When he saw me he
cursed, not too softly. "What in hell are you doing here,
Danny? Go back to Boston where you belong!"

CENTAUR FIELDER FOR THE YANKEES 5

"Hello, Roscoe. Glad to see you too. Is it true the Yankees
are about to sign Mark here to a position in center field?' *

Mark Eques, his hairy chest bare to the morning sun,