# Speed Parker — Short Fiction character guide

> Speed Parker in Short Fiction by Ring Lardner.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Parker, Speed

**First appearance:** 0010-horseshoes

## Snapshot

The Giants' third baseman whose uncanny luck in the World's Series made him a hero — and left a rival outfielder nursing a grudge that needs telling.

## Who they are

Speed Parker is the toast of the New York team, celebrated in newspaper columns for nerve and brilliance during a seven-game World's Series, while Grimes, the Athletics' substitute outfielder, seethes over a lucky catch that stole his own glory. The tension is all Grimes's: he insists Parker's fame is pure fortune, not skill, and that his own game-winning homer was the real story nobody printed. Parker never appears in person — he lies in a hospital, face rearranged — and that absence is the point, letting Grimes's grievance build the story's engine.

## In the story

### [Horseshoes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_62_se/chapters/horseshoes)

The Giants' star third baseman, who is in the hospital. Grimes reveals that Parker is actually there because Grimes punched him, not because of nervous prostration.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_62_se/characters/speed_parker
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_62_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_62_se/characters