Ironweed by William Kennedy

Hi,

An quote from Ironweed by William Kennedy.

And Red Cooley, the shortstop who was (A) the pepper of Erancis’s ancient imagination, and who never stopped the chatter, who leaped at every ground ball as if it were the (B) brass ring to heaven, and who, with his short-fingered glove, wanted (C) for nothing to be judged the world’s greatest living ball player, if only it hadn’t been for the (D) homegrown deference that kept him a prisoner of Arbor Hill for the rest of his limited life.

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The underlined A, B, C, D is so not easy….

(A) “the pepper “ is listed in a dictionary as a baseball term: Baseball A warm-up exercise in which players standing a short distance from a batter field the ball and toss it to the batter, who hits each toss back to the fielders. Also called pepper game.

So, “the pepper” means some kind of “the player that used to play pepper game with Red Cooley”?

(B) “brass ring” means the usual ring worn on fingers? “brass ring to heaven” is much used expression?

(C) “for nothing” means “for free”, “without anything to justify”?

(D) Does this mean that he had some respecting attitude that had been cultivated at home, growing up?

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For reference, just in case necessary, below is what was right before the quote above..................

There was Andy Heffern, tall, thin, saturnine, the lunger who would die at Saranac, who could pitch but never run, and who played with a long-fingered glove that had no padding whatever in the pocket, only a wisp of leather that stood between the speed of the ball and Andy’s most durable palm. There was Windy Evans, who played outfield in his cap, spikes, and jock, and who caught the ball behind his back, long flies he would outrun by twenty minutes, and then plop would go that dilatory fly ball into the peach basket of his glove; and Windy would leap and beam and tell the world: There’s only a few of us left!