Harder than the rock that supports thy stand is the will and determination of the living man. And with every pounding painful step upon the stony ground comes defiance of the burdens placed upon our backs emitting unto the silence of the grind, abreast the wings of large powerful groans of anguish, comes a chorus; the scars of drive go away over night while the pain of quit will haunt you for as long as you exist.
The Titan Baseball Brothership felt the trail beneath their feet grow increasingly steeper with every new step. The heavy weight from the loss of their brother and the consternation game that is the Trail of 16 Wars was multiplying upon their backs to the point of anguish and angst. Some collapsed momentarily, to their knees under the stress from the load they were now suddenly carrying. Others banded together to aid brothers that seemed unable to make another step. What was this mighty weight they suddenly were hauling that caused excruciating pain and had them questioning every step? Not a one of them could see to answer because the darkness enshrouded them like being buried alive. From the darkness, could be heard the sound of women and children crying and the trail of sharp rocks and smoldering shale turned to damp pavement below them.
Suddenly the air around them was illuminated from shafts of light streaming through massive stained glass windows in the ceiling of the sky that depicted The Stations of the Cross. Clashes of confusion and cognizance short circuited the minds of the Titan Baseball club and shock waves escaped their agape mouths and wide open eyes. In the light, they could now see the dampness of the Ulster Providence streets was from the blood of the innocent and it doth flow. The burden that each man bore upon his back was now visible not to himself but to the eyes of his brothers. The heavy load they saw humbling men was the Crucifix the other had to bear and empathy tamed the mind and fired the soul. An image of a large Thurible expelling fragrant incense smoke appeared above their heads as a single unifying thought of recognition brought the Titan Baseball Brothership together under the collective belief that if this is church, then it must be Sunday….
His knees, with nothing but the material of his trousers separating them from the hard wood floors of the church, had long grown numb to the pain of countless hours every morning of his life spent praying the rosary. Contemplating heavily upon the 5 Glorious Mysteries, Sunday January 30th,1972 would be the day Kyle Murray took his commitment to the next level.
He had made a name for himself in the Valley of Crescenta of County Derry as a top-notch arm posting a sub 2 ERA in his Junior and senior years for an activist group known as The Baseball Falcons. Amidst escalating unrest throughout Northern Ireland in response to the introduction of ‘internment without trial’, Kyle Murray fueled by the fire of anger, demanding the truth and releasing vapors of hope from his nostrils took to the mound in protest of unionist tyranny. In the eleventh year of the millennium, amid his eleventh year of schooling the kid who never left home without his crucifix baffled authorities striking out 73 for the 11 catholic civilians killed in Belfast by the British 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment in the Ballymurphy Massacre August ’71.
The Crucifix was a product of The Troubles born and raised in the belly of the Londonderry Bogside, the epicenter of a conflict over five centuries old. He cut his teeth throwing rocks at the Royal Ulster Constabulary developing a fastball he honed up against an old garage door. Kyle’s heart and inspiration was derived from stories passed down from generation to generation from the old men who drank Tullamore Dew and spoke with tongue afire of the Plantation of Ulster. As the four seamers began to locate with the rage of English settlers colonizing native Irish land from under them he brought another pitch into his Arsenal, The Change, for it was time for reckoning and change where he lived and this Change was a blockade.
People in his parts do not draw opinions from outside influences nor are they silenced by decrees sent down from a regime they do not recognize as their own and most certainly they do not choose sides based upon fear from the ramifications of martial law. The side they choose, the side Kyle had running through his Gaelic blood was chosen for them by ma and da through the blood of their ancestors spilt mercilessly, their religion, their church and the priest that served them communion but foremost by those that decided to take their land, their culture, their God from underneath them.
Trying to open closed doors, The Crucifix slipped a power finger behind a drive seam and turned the knob. Suddenly, his four-seam back spin was a spiral with down and away slide like a nail bomb and another pitch is added to his Arsenal. Taking that stuff into demonstration after demonstration his senior year, Murray amassed a stellar ERA of 1.83 with 70 K’s garnering him Pacific League Co-Player of the Year. Then things begun to escalate.
Grievances of the long-standing nature rubbed raw the scars some centuries old to ring in the year of 1969. Tensions fueled by the attack of activists on the March to Derry, were ignited by the battle of the Bogside as rioting spread throughout Northern Ireland. The antagonistic Apprentice Boy’s parade that celebrated Protestant victory in the Siege of Derry 1689, had a route that took the Ulster Loyalist alongside the walls of Derry with violent ramifications that summer. The louder a voice grew with civil rights reforms and anti-sectarianism the more the clashes became divided along the lines of religion and defined by violence. A Free Derry was established and barricades marked its perimeter that later became ‘no-go area’s’ to even the British troops. This triggered munition enforced curfews and gun battles in the streets between the army, The Royal Ulster Constabulary and the likes of groups such as the Ulster Volunteer Force pitted against The Provisional and Official branches of the IRA. August, 1971 ‘Internment without trial’ was imposed bringing to light the dark mindset of the ‘5 Techniques’ of torture inflicted upon Irish Catholic Nationals and in the days following the introduction of this decree 21 people died in three days of rioting. Kyle Murray found himself in a Sinn Fein state of mind, drawing in a deep breath from the climate of protest he exhaled a deep solidarity for those he stood arm and arm with in the struggle for a sovereign Ireland then he pledged commitment to Taoiseach Vanderhook and the Titan Street Mob.
As he finished off the final beads of the days Rosary and the subsequent tasks each demanded, an incomparable feeling of freedom washed over his mind and flooded his body below. A feeling of freedom so intense it felt like flight without the fear of height. Today would be a day for the reckoning of grievances in peaceful protest, side by side with his brothers, they would march as one Civil Rights Association. The Crucifix genuflected in front of the alter of St. Eugene’s Cathedral and turned down the aisle feeling proud that as a team, The Titan Street Mob would defend a Free Derry and their lineage as a premier baseball club. Dipping his throwing hand into the Holy Water Font at the entrance to the church he made the sign of the cross and looked back into the massive structure that is St. Eugene’s Cathedral and for a moment he thought he could hear his ancestors crying.
Internment without Trial was an affront to civil rights and the people of the Bogside had assembled in peaceful demonstration to demand an end to its use. The Titan Street Mob meet with all the other protestors, in Bishops Field, where the march would begin. It appeared, to Kyle, that all of Derry had showed up to march and he slipped his lucky wrist band on his left wrist, the time was 2:45pm.
He was there to do whatever the Titan Chieftains asked of him, always putting team first. The March began under a dark cloud of tension because of a recent ban on such protest and for the excessive violence used by the 1st Parachute Squadron a week before in a similar anti internment rally. Most inappropriate for a planned peaceful march, especially given the circumstances of the week prior, the 1st Parachute Battalion are called in once again; Kyle is roughed up in his debut going 0.1 innings 3 Hit 2 Run 1K ending up with an ERA that would later be his number. Like a true Irishman, a good fight is all he wants so he put his chin up and soldiered on.
There must have been 10,000 to 15,000 people carrying signs and singing songs in unison as The Crucifix fell into a groove pitching shutout ball for 2.1 Innings over his next two appearances. More and more people joined the march as they made their way towards Guildhall in city centre and the Titan Street Mob marched out front. Nearing city centre the crowd came upon a British Army barricade blocking off William Street and access to Guildhall. This was intended to restrict the march to the catholic areas of Derry only. Quickly a decision was made and rally organizers detoured the march towards Free Derry Corner for the site of the rally.
Not all the marchers continued down Rossville Street, The Titan Mob and some other youths stuck around to hurl rocks and obscenities at the soldiers on duty at the barricades. The soldiers responded quick with tear gas and rubber bullets hitting some of the Titan pitching staff. Kyle with only thought for his brothers, tore a piece of shirt off and using it as a mask went in to the fracas to relieve his brothers. In the top of the 6th he came sprinting in for Birosak who was hit pretty good and unable to see for all the blood and tear gas in his eyes. Kyle took the stone from his coach and defended the stance of his brother until their wounded were off the street and the Titans could amass an offensive. The Crucifix went 2 scoreless frames and was hit twice, once by a rubber bullet another by a baton strike, neither slowing his cause. He picked up the W that day but was separated for the time from his Titan Street brothers and forced over towards the Riverside of Derry by advancing armored vehicles.
On Williams Street, sits an old dilapidated building that overlooked the route of the civil rights marchers, most of whom were still dressed in their Sunday, go-to-church-in bests. Nested atop the lofty perch were paratroopers in full sniper mode. Tensions mounting amongst some of the local street mobs and would be rioters because of the aggressive presence of the military, the blood of civilian Irish still wet on their weaponry from Magilligan. Rioters noticed and began throwing stones at the building, breaking windows and causing a commotion in response to the incendiary act. The Titan Street Mob felt a bonding obligation to stand with the rioters against this act of ascendant aggression and took up stones for the cause. A symphony of smash was conducted and from the carparks below a battery of bats and stones hurled in an opus of civil disobedience. The troopers responded, this time with live rounds wounding two Titans, both unarmed. The time was now 3:55pm.
Kyle fighting to get back to his brothers went 21 Innings with 11 Strikeouts on the Riverside. He rendezvoused with them as they all rejoined the march moving down Rossville and a new fire burned within him for the those of his order shot down unarmed. At 4:07pm any hope that the rally would end without disorder evaporated in a furry of chaotic proportions.
The 1st Parachute Squadron stormed the Bogside barriers both on foot and in armored vehicles, cutting through the crowd, hitting civilians and causing a frantic stampede of peaceful marchers and rioters together. The soldiers disembarked their vehicles not as an ancillary presence sent in to support arrests of active rioters but as a commando operation aiming to start taking folks down. With precision aim the first unarmed protestor was killed from a shot in the back as he attempted to run away from the area.
The Titan Street Mob was being pinned down in the car park of the Rossville Flats by a barrage of gun fire so the Titan Chieftains turned to Kyle Murray the Crucifix to step up for his brothers. The Crucifix took to some high ground for his start and was relentlessly rigid for 4 and 2/3’s his longest D-1 outing. As the soldiers moved in on the barricade Kyle gave his brothers their best chance to win scattering 5 hits and not allowing a run before a rain of erratic gunfire caused them to evacuate the shelter of the rubble barricade. The paratroopers had stopped taking aim and were now firing from the hip at those frantically trying to flee the massacre they were now becoming victim to. Two of the Titan Street mob were killed at the barricade one has he fled.
All around them was ultra-violence, groups of soldiers were beating people with rifle butts, firing rubber bullets at dangerously close range and toppling groups with water cannons. Manically, some were laughing and overly indulgent in their threats of violent death and racial insults. The Titan Street Mob began to separate in order to assist the wounded and helpless civilians mounting throughout the Bogside.
Kyle stayed behind at the Rossville barricade after witnessing a young, unarmed 19-year-old member of the Titan Street Mob shot in the chest. Running to the aide of the young man lying dead on the ground he watched in horror as one after another that came to the aide of the brutally shot young man were they themselves shot down in cold blood trying assist their fellow man. This did not slow the gate of The Crucifix in his attempt to aid the now 3 dead men and as he knelt at their sides, a bullet struck him in the shoulder. Unflinchingly in the 5th he picked the kid up off the ground and carried him for cover suffering just the one hit, surrendered the walk but kept the frame scoreless for his first win of the season. Never the less he was wounded, some of his brother murdered in the streets and all this was happening within a blink of an eye. The Crucifix made his way out of the Rossville courtyard where fleeing marchers were herded into and now were being plucked like fish in a barrel.
A swarm of marchers were attempting escape through Glenfada Flats while wounded were being hauled to safety in to local houses and priests attempted to save those that had been shot. From out of the chaos and gunfire came a group of civil rights marchers holding a wounded young boy led by Father Edward Daly waving a blood soaked white handkerchief. Kyle stood motionless in awe of the scene being played out in front of him. The men that had been carrying the wounded young marcher stopped and announced to the priest that they could wait no longer and laid him down in the middle of the street. With all solemn reverence in sacred contrast to the violence around the father began administering Last Rites for the boy they all said was posing no threat. Coming up on Glenfada Square Kyle could see it was another trap with the carpark being surrounded by three buildings and blood thirsty soldiers barring the exits. Knowing his brother Titans would need help he raced around to a back alley on the south-east corner.
Cutting through Abbey Park he came across a fellow brother of the Titan Street Mob cornered, holding his hands up and shouting “don’t shoot, don’t shoot” and they shot him. There was a young first year Titan pitcher standing directly behind him and the bullet traveled through the first man and into the second, mortally wounding the big youngster and leaving him helplessly pinned down by army gun fire. The Crucifix and another man attempted to help the wounded man into a nearby house. The people inside the house opened the door in the 6th and with one out Kyle entered with the man in critical condition. Bullets were still flying as Kyle took his lucky wrist band off and gave it to the young man lying in fear on the dining room table of the good Samaritans. When he did he was hit by army gun fire 3 times for 2 runs before he could escape the house and thus draw fire away from the home that gave shelter to the hunted.
Kyle Murray now badly wounded twice limped with tenacity, for even if it killed him he would die making a stand with his Titan Street brothers. Approaching Glenfada Flats he saw one his brothers attempting to crawl to safety when a soldier emerged from the alley and shot the man in the back. Kyle Murray took cover as they opened fire upon him and other unarmed civil rights marchers scrambling for safety and for the moment, he contemplated his next move carefully.
It is amazing how a life can come to this in the matter of minutes and now his next decision may be his last. He touched his crucifix as he said the Lord’s Prayer and prayed he would be able to reach his Titan brother lying in the street amidst angry sectarian gunfire gone berserk. Getting to him was all that mattered because he feared from all he had been witnessing that he too would be shot for what he was about to attempt. He made his start stepping out onto the clay waving a white cloth to signal his intent. He walked to start but then stumbled on a passed ball but picked himself up determined to aide his fallen brother. Rebounding to his feet he retired the next batter and he was getting close to the motionless body of his fallen comrade when he was hit. Sweat mingled with the blood from the bullet that grazed his neck and burned the tips of his nerves till he convulsed with the pain. His walk now at third with a runner on first he got another out and stood tall upon the slab of pavement seeing his goal within reach. A bullet from a sniper perched atop the flats hit his arm and his walk was now a run. A last-ditch dive brought him to the side of his fallen brother and he realized the man to whom he shared the bond of brotherhood and baseball love was now deceased. A home run blast left the barrel of paratrooper’s rifle.
The bullet hit The Crucifix square in the head killing him instantly. His last breath spent on a prayer, praying for the soul of his lost brother and thus completing his frame. 26 unarmed civil rights protestors and civilians were shot by the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment between the time of the first shots fired at 3:55pm and when the first ambulance arrived at 4:28pm. 13 people died on that day and another died months later from wounds he suffered on Bloody Sunday. More than 100 rounds were fired by soldiers and countless people suffered beatings and tear gas related injuries.
Later inquiries found the use of the regiment of soldiers as deplorable and the tactics of the 1st Parachute Squadron as unnecessary and unjust. To humanity the criminal acts committed were atrocities on all levels and helped increase recruitment and public empathy for the IRA cause. No evidence was ever recovered as to the roll of the Titan Street Mob or if they ever existed. They live on only in lore spoken in Gaelic tongue amongst the survivors of The Bogside Massacre.
The Titan Baseball Brothership awoke with the smell of Irish whiskey on their breath on the all too familiar landscape of the Trail of 16 Wars, they were one more brother shy and this they knew. Kyle Murray will not be back in a Titan uniform next season but the men of the Titan Baseball Brothership feel pride in their hearts for the fight displayed in the Crucifix and will use that pride to forge forward on the Trail determined to make it back from their tumble from the face of the earth and into the depths of hell in time for the 2017 NCAA D-1 Baseball season.