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Herbie Satten is the main antagonist of the The Haunt of Fear story "Foul Play!".
Biography[]
Herbie Satten was a baseball player and star pitcher for the Central City baseball team. He was however greedy and selfish, only wanting to achieve fame and glory and willing to play dirty in order to get it.
During one season, his team had tied for first place with another baseball team from Bayville, and they faced off in a playoff at Bayville Ball Park to decide the winning team.
At the ninth inning of the game, Central City was in the lead of Bayville, although not far enough for a guaranteed victory. The final run would make this either team's game.
When Herbie was up to bat, he deliberately moved letting the pitched ball hit his elbow so he could walk to first base, which the umpire allowed, much to the protests of the opposing team. Suddenly, while the next pitch was being wound up, Herbie made a bizarre steal for the base, even though he wasn't built to be quick. He made a frantic slide towards the base which resulted in him being ruled out by the umpire, but not before piercing the leg of Bayville's star player, Jerry Deegan, with his spiked shoes.
In spite of a bleeding gash he got from the spikes, Jerry wasn't that badly wounded and after a quick patch-up from their coach Doc White, the game resumed with the sides now switched with Satten up to pitch, although that stunt he pulled brought him the ire of the Bayville team, thinking he spiked him on purpose.
However as the game reached it's end, Jerry started to feel ill and unfocused, causing growing concern from his team. When he came up to bat at the final, most pivotal moment of the game, he failed to hit the first and second pitches from Herbie, despite the sure-fire chances of a home run from the latter. He then unexpectedly collapsed as the third ball was pitched, striking out and making Central City the winners of the playoff. When Doc and his team went to check on him, they discovered that he had tragically died then and there.
After the game, when Jerry's team brought his dead body to their locker, his mournful team assumed he had suffered a heart attack. However, after a thorough examination, Doc White discovered that Jerry didn't die because of his heart, as in fact, Jerry Deegan was murdered by poisoning. Doc told the team that the type of poison used was fast acting and can kill within 15 minutes, the amount of time Jerry had after he got his wound during the first half of the ninth inning.
Upon hearing this, the team immediately guessed Herbie as the culprit, believing that the attempted base steal and "accidental" spiking of Jerry were all part of his murder plot. Wanting proof of his crime, they then went to the visiting team locker room as it was being cleared by the trainer. After secretly swiping Herbie's spiked shoes from his locker, Doc checked them and found traces of the poison still on the spikes, confirming their suspicions. However instead of reporting him to the police, Doc White and the team decided to take matters into their own hands.
As it turns out, Herbie had the poison on him at all-times, waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. When no one was looking, he coated his spiked shoes with a fast-acting poison and then set himself up for the perfect opportunity to spike Jerry's leg with the poisoned spikes. He believed that he was in the clear of any wrong-doing and proceeded to bask in the fame and glory he undeservingly received, anticipating his rise to becoming a sports legend and achieving fortune and acclaim.
Months later, Herbie received an invitation from a committee claiming to be honoring him with a plaque at the Central City Ball Park and that they wanted him to come and help with the preparations. Despite the late-night meeting time, Herbie's avarice got the better of him and he decided to go. Once he arrived at the Ball Park, he waited in the empty field for the committee to arrive. Instead of the committee, he's approached by the Bayville baseball team, who had faked the invitation to lure him out and make him pay for the murder of their star player, much to Herbie's confusion and horror.
The Bayville Baseball Team proceeded to kill Herbie Satten and, in a comedically dark fashion, dismembered his corpse and used his body parts to play their own morbid game of baseball. The next morning, the fans and substitute pitcher get the sickening surprise when the formers notice the blood-stained grass, and the latter notices the stone plaque which served as a gravestone on the pitcher's mound where the buried remains of Herbie Satten lie, with the words on the plaque reading "Herbie Satten. Pitcher. Murderer. R.I.P's."'