Imagine, please, a mild, damp afternoon, quite windless, with a pale
blue sky in which a half-hearted sun played hide-and-seek behind a
field of lazy, ragged clouds. There was a suggestion of rain in the
air, but the sun was shining genially enough when, at three o’clock,
Mr. Crane, attired in a faded blue sweater and a pair of disgracefully
worn gray flannel trousers, called “Play!”
House had won the toss and had taken the field. George Waters started
in the box for House and in that first inning only four Day batters
faced him. George had a drop that was a puzzler, a curve that kept even
the catcher guessing and a straight fast ball that was perhaps harder
to hit safely than either of his other offerings.
The small audience who watched the game from the settees along the
first base line clapped as the house players trotted to the bench.
Kid, squeezed tightly against Small, generously supplying unsolicited
assistance in scoring, cheered shrilly as Steve Lovell went to bat.
Steve allowed two of “Toots” Morgan’s wide ones to pass unchallenged
and then lighted on a good ball and drove it far into right field.
Briggs, a small, chunky day boy, did his level best to get under that
fly, but Briggs’ legs were never meant for sprinting and the ball
dented the soft turf while Steve, too excited to watch the progress of
events, slid into third base feet foremost amidst the amused applause
of his friends and the ironic jeers of his enemies. That hit appeared
to unnerve “Toots,” and Pierce, Holden and even Harold Cupples hit
safely through the infield. After that Crandall popped a foul to the
catcher, Gardner struck out miserably and Sam Perkins hit a hot one
square at first baseman. It looked very much as though the latter tried
his best to get out of the way. If he did he wasn’t successful, for
the ball struck him squarely on the chest, bowled him over and rolled
toward the bag. Morgan raced over, scooped it up and tagged the bag a
yard ahead of Perkins and the inning was over. But House had gathered
three runs and the world looked bright.
As may be supposed, there were lots of errors in that game, and a
good deal of what I might call, were I addicted to slang, “bone-head”
ball-playing. But you can’t expect Big League work from a lot of
youngsters playing their first game of the season. And, besides, the
misplays made for interest and excitement.
Gardner added his quota to the excitement when, in the third inning,
with two day boys on bases, he caught a fly and then allowed it to
trickle through his hands. This performance cast such a gloom over his
spirits that for an instant he merely stood and stared at the ball at
his feet and was only recalled to the duties of the occasion when the
rest of the team began to yell frantically to him “throw it home!” By
the time he had obeyed the runner on second had scored and the man on
first had gone to third.
But that lone tally was all that Day managed to secure for a while,
and, on the other hand, House, now that Morgan had settled down again,
could do no better. In the fourth she got men on all three bases with
only one out and then watched Waters and Grey perish before Morgan’s
fatal curves.
It had clouded up ominously by the time the fifth inning commenced
and the House supporters were anxious for their heroes to dispose of
the Day batters before they could add to their score. But that fifth
inning proved strange and wonderful. In the first place, just to start
the chapter of misfortunes, Waters struck the first man up on the arm,
and, after the injured member had been massaged by almost the entire
Day Team in turn, the batter took his base. Waters worked one strike
on the next batter and then threw him four balls. A moment later the
runners decided to pull off a double steal. Ben Holden pegged the ball
to Cupples, at third, but Cupples was apparently quite unprepared for
such an emergency and allowed the ball to whisk over his head into
left field. Gardner raced in for it, got it on the run and threw to
third just as the second runner rounded that bag. This time Cupples
caught the ball, but his heave to Ben was yards away from the plate
and Day had tied up the score. Then they began to find Waters and hits
sped hither and yon and the House outfield raced their legs off while
five more tallies came over! The damage seemed done then, and perhaps
it would have been as well to let Waters remain in the box and redeem
himself, but Ben thought otherwise, and Sam Perkins was hurried in from
right field to take his place.
Of course Sam had had no warming up and his pitching arm was stiff.
But in spite of that he managed to close that half of the inning with
only one more run coming across. The score now was nine to three and
every moment it threatened to rain and stop further proceedings. But
the clouds held up during the rest of the fifth, while House managed
to send another run across, and the sixth began with the head of Day’s
batting list coming up. With one out, two bases on balls and an error
by Crandall, at shortstop, filled the bags. Day howled and danced along
the base lines and did all it could to rattle Perkins. But the luck
changed a bit then. The next batter hit a slow roller toward third
and Cupples and Pierce worked the double. Encouraged by that, Perkins
struck out the next batter.
With Ben calling on Pierce to “hit it out, Stan!” the last of the
sixth began. Stanley obeyed instructions and lined a hot one just
over shortstop’s head and, by taking a chance, reached second on a
close decision. Ben laid down a bunt in front of the base and Morgan,
who fielded it, chose to throw it to third. Unfortunately, the third
baseman had been coaxed in by the bunt and was yards off his station
when the ball reached him. Pierce was safe and Small scored “fc”
after Ben’s name. Then Ben stole beautifully and House began to whoop
things up. But Harold Cupples could do no better than arch a fly to
shortstop and Stanley didn’t dare move from his base. Crandall waited
until Morgan had two strikes and two balls on him and then shot a hard
one between short and third. Pierce and Holden raced home and Crandall
reposed on first. Then the unexpected happened.
Gardner, who had been playing very ragged ball, was taken out and Bert
went in. Bert struck at the first delivery, caught it squarely on the
nose and sent it flying far out into deep right field. So astounded
was he that he had to be almost pushed from the batter’s box before
he would begin his trip to first. As a result, while Crandall came
all the way home from first base, beating the ball by yards, Bert got
only as far as second. Morgan went up in the air then and Sam Perkins,
Waters and even Lanny Grey made hits, Waters’s being a two-bagger that
scored Bert and Perkins. Then Lovell, amidst the howls of his eager
team-mates, strode to the plate looking fierce and heroic――and popped
a little foul into the catcher’s mitt! Pierce, up for the second time
in the inning, managed to send up a Texas Leaguer that might have been
caught and wasn’t, and Lanny, who could run like a rabbit, raced around
third and headed for home. The ball got there first, however, and
instead of scoring the tying run he made the third out.
But with the tallies nine to eight the game was still not won――if the
rain would hold off. House took the field determined to hold the enemy
at bay for its half of the seventh and then go in and at least even
things up. But with the very first ball pitched the drops began to
fall. Captain Turner jumped from the bench and demanded that the game
be called. Mr. Crane shook his head. The first batter went out, third
to first, and still the shower was not much more than a patter. Then
just as the next man had streaked a long hit over the tips of Perkins’s
glove the clouds opened up and the torrents descended. Such a scurrying
as there was on the part of the spectators! Doctor Merton――who had come
out only an inning before――seized Mrs. Merton by the hand and scampered
sans dignity for shelter. Nan, gayly encouraging them to renewed
efforts, sped ahead. In a jiffy the field was deserted and the first
game of the series had gone to the Day Team, the score 9–8.
The Day Team, unable to get home in such a downpour, flocked into the
hall, and for a half-hour the game proceeded verbally. House declared
warmly that if it hadn’t rained it would have “licked the stuffing” out
of Day. (I quote the language without approval.) Day retorted that it
had just begun to hit the ball when the elements had so unnecessarily
interfered. And so it went, with the biggest sort of a hubbub indoors
and a wild pelting of raindrops outside. And meanwhile Small, official
Scorer for the House Team, and “Goldie” Duffield, who held a like
position with the opposing team, were having it hot and heavy, their
score-books spread before them. Except that they had each reached the
same decision regarding the number of runs tallied, their records were
totally at variance. It was strange how many hits Small had credited to
the House and how few to its opponents, but not a whit stranger than
the fact that Duffield had reversed the proceeding. And as for errors!
Why, Small’s record credited Day with ten and House with six, while
Duffield’s book plainly proved that House had perpetrated eleven and
Day only eight! And the strangest thing of all was that each believed
himself ab-so-lute-ly right!
By half past five the rain had stopped and Day went off homewards with
a swagger, viewed gloomily from the porch by House.
But after the first disappointment House cheered up and looked on the
bright side of things. It really did believe that had the game run its
full nine innings it would have overhauled the enemy and defeated it.
And that was good grounds for believing that the next time would tell
a different story. On Monday practice began again and George Waters,
smarting under the slur cast upon his science by the Day Team, worked
like a Trojan. When George couldn’t be found in the house you had only
to walk around the corner to discover him “pitching ’em in” to anybody
he could persuade to don a catcher’s glove and stand up in front of
him. Day did a good deal of exulting that week and told how well the
Junior Four Trophy would look alongside the Hockey Cup. House let them
talk and bided their time.
But, all the same, Ben Holden realized that House had a good deal of a
task ahead of it. Day could afford to lose one of the remaining games,
but House had to win them both. He didn’t doubt but what George Waters
could be relied on to pitch the team to victory in one contest, but he
didn’t believe that George could do it twice or that Sam Perkins was
capable of presenting a very strong front to the enemy. But win the
next game they must! And that meant that George must go into the box.
With the series tied at one game each, there would be time enough to
bother about the third game. And so, for fear that George’s enthusiasm
would lead him to tire himself out in practice, Ben laid down the law
on Wednesday.
“After this, George, you practice fifty balls every afternoon, and
that’s all. First thing you know you’ll have a bad arm!”
Bert, who since his remarkable two-bagger that should have been a
three, had become a keen ball player, worked hard at the batting net.
Up until Thursday he was plainly discouraged, for, in spite of that
wonderful hit in the game, he couldn’t locate a ball to save his life.
But on Thursday the unexpected again happened. He landed on two of
Sam’s offerings and cracked them into the field. After that Bert was
encouraged and began to fancy himself a bit. Kid pestered Ben from
morning until night to be allowed to get into the next game and Ben
finally promised, to get rid of him, that if they got a safe lead Kid
might go into the outfield for a couple of innings. Whereupon Kid
moistened his glove in the inelegant but approved manner of all great
players and begged whoever was within hearing to “slam him one!”
Undeniably Mt. Pleasant Academy had become baseball mad.
And the Saturday came, and it rained all the morning until half-past
eleven. But at twelve the sun was out hot and at two Mr. Crane
telephoned to Captain Turner in the village that the grounds were dry
enough to play on. Warned by their previous experience, Mrs. Merton
and Nan came to the game with waterproofs. But, as it turned out, they
didn’t need them. The clouds floated off into the east and the weather
proceeded to give an excellent imitation of a mid-June day.
I shan’t burden you with a detailed description of that second game
because, since House won, a third contest was made necessary and you’ll
have to read about that. Waters pitched a fine game and Day made only
twelve hits off him in nine innings. On the other hand, Sibley, who
started in the points for the Day Team, was easy for the enemy and
lasted only three innings. Then “Toots” Morgan came in from left field
and took his place. But by that time House was leading six runs to
two, and during the rest of the performance she managed to hold Day
down to a total of five runs and at the same time amass a very tidy
little bunch of twelve for herself. In the sixth Perkins relieved
Waters on the mound. Kid played through two whole innings, had two
chances and accepted them both, went once to bat and was passed to
first and stole second by sheer cheek. That he was finally left on
third base was no fault of his.
Bert played four innings, had little to do in the field and secured a
scratch hit in the fifth inning, scoring Cupples from third. The errors
on each side were fewer to-day and both teams played a steadier game.
Flushed with victory, House went off the field cheering, while Nan,
having nothing else handy, waved her raincoat in ecstasy.
Day was disappointed. It had firmly expected to win the series in two
games. Now it must play a third and there was only Morgan to depend on,
for Sibley had proved himself a very simple conundrum for the enemy.
And Ben Holden and Waters and a half-dozen others, “doping it out” that
evening, found cause for encouragement.
“They’ll pitch Morgan again next Saturday,” said Ben. “If we can only
find him we can win, fellows. They won’t dare put in Sibley. He hasn’t
a thing.”
“The best that ‘Toots’ has is that slow ball of his,” observed Stanley
Pierce. “I get fooled on that every time. It looks so good until you
swing for it!”
“That’s so, it’s a puzzler and no mistake,” said Steve Lovell. “But we
may get onto it better the next time. The trouble is that even if you
do hit it it’s dollars to doughnuts you pop up an easy fly!”
“And you can’t bunt it no matter how hard you try,” said Waters. “I’d
have scored Sam this afternoon in the fourth if I could have laid down
a bunt along first base line.”
“Well, we’ll do ’em up brown the next time,” promised Pierce. “There’s
one thing about those fellows, and that is if we can once get them
started they’ll go up in the air like a kite.”
“So would we, maybe,” said Cupples.
“No use trusting to that sort of thing,” Ben observed. “Hit the ball.
That’s the way to win. Knock ‘Toots’ out of the box in the first inning
or so, the way we did Sibley, and we’ve got ’em nailed.”
“I don’t wish Morgan any harm,” sighed Sam Perkins, “but if he caught
the mumps or the measles or something between now and Saturday it would
be an awful help to us!”
“We might send him a bottle of microbes,” laughed Lovell. “Who’s going
to start the pitching for us, Ben?”
“I don’t know yet,” answered Ben Holden. “What do you think, George?”
“I’m ready, all right, but I think it would be just as well to give Sam
a chance if he feels fit when the time comes.”
“I’d rather you started it, George,” said Perkins. “Then if we get a
few runs to the good I’ll do my best to hold ’em. Still, I’m perfectly
willing to start it if you want me to.”
“There’s plenty of time to decide that,” said Ben. “For that matter,
I’m not afraid in either case. If we can hit Morgan we can win. And so
it’s up to us to get busy this week at the net and find our batting
eye. And we’re going to have some work on the bases, too, fellows.
We’ve been pretty punk on the bases so far.”
“Well, look at the coaching we get,” challenged Cupples. “I could have
scored twice from third this afternoon if Steve hadn’t held me there
each time!”
“You could not!” denied Lovell. “The first time you didn’t have a ghost
of a chance to get home. The ball was in second baseman’s hands before
you’d made the turn!”
“Indeed it wasn’t! Second didn’t get the ball until I’d rounded the bag
and you grabbed me!”
“I’ll leave it to anyone! You saw it, Ben. Wouldn’t he have been
out――――”
“I don’t know, Steve. Anyway, post-mortems aren’t any good. Besides,
there’s no use taking big chances on bases as long as you’re ahead and
the other team’s playing steady. Once they’re up in the air, why, then
I say steal ’em! The more you risk the more you bother ’em and the more
you gain. There’s a time for playing it safe and a time for running
wild. Now you fellows beat it; I’m going to bed.”
Kid, who had been a silent listener to the discussion, followed Stanley
Pierce across to their room very thoughtfully. Just before he crawled
into bed he asked:
“Say, Stanley, if they didn’t have Morgan to pitch for them next
Saturday we wouldn’t have any trouble winning, would we?”
“Of course not. We’d drive Sibley into the cellar in about two
innings!”
Later, when the light had been out a good five minutes, Kid piped up
again.
“Say, Stanley?”
“Go to sleep!”
“But――――”
“Well, what is it?”
“You can’t really get microbes in bottles, can you, like Steve said?”
Stanley pulled himself into a sitting posture in the dark and glared
sternly in the direction of his roommate.
“No, you can’t! And don’t you go and get any fool schemes in that silly
little head of yours, Kid. If I catch you up to any tricks――――”
“The idea!” murmured Kid. “Good night, Stanley.”