"He Swung and He Missed." Nelson Algren.

One-minute review: Boxing story in the language of the ring. Rocco was a man who could take defeat, all kinds of defeat, and still remain standing. He is paid to throw a fight, but he decides not to throw the fight, although he did not know that his wife had bet all that he had been paid to throw it on his assurance to her that he would win. Ironic that he lost anyway. He lost because he banked everything on one punch and he missed.

Quote: “ ‘You told me you’d win,’ the girl told him. ‘I got eight to one and put the whole damn bank roll on you. I wanted to surprise you, ‘n now we ain’t got a cryin’ dime.”

75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World’s Literature. Ed. Roger B. Goodman. New York: Bantam Books. 1961.