FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP.
"I'll venture to say that Mr. Montgomery Jadell will never forget his
last day at Lakeport school," said Joe, to his brother, after the
excitement had died down and Ebenezer Boles had sent the pupils home.
"He is mad clean through," returned Harry. "Perhaps we haven't heard
the last of this. It was pretty rough horse-play."
"Oh, I don't think he will dare to say much. He knows that he is not
liked. The committee are glad to get rid of him."
Joe was right in his surmise. Montgomery Jadell fussed and fumed a
little when calling on Ebenezer Boles for the final instalment of
his salary and the committeeman told the ex-principal just what he
thought of him. The two parted with some hot words; and two days later
Montgomery Jadell left Lakeport never to return.
The affair at school would have received more attention had it not been
for the baseball match so close at hand. All of the boys of the town,
and a good many men, too, were talking about it, and even some of the
girls were interested. Laura made herself a neat three-cornered flag
of blue, with the name Lakeport sewed on it in white, and some others
followed her example. Hearing of this, the Excelsiors chose yellow for
their color, and had some flags made with the name put on in black.
"If only it doesn't rain," said Fred, and got up at five o'clock on
Saturday morning to take a look at the sky. It was somewhat cloudy and
he heaved a mountainous sigh. But by nine o'clock the clouds rolled
away and the sun came out brightly for the rest of the day.
Joe had called the club together for practice at ten o'clock and quite
a few were present to watch the boys on the ball field.
"They do first rate," said one who was watching. "But I don't know as
they are doing any better than Voup's crowd."
"I don't think they do as well," answered somebody else.
These remarks reached Link's ears and troubled him not a little. As
soon as the practice was over he told some of his chums of them.
"You mustn't pay attention to all you hear, Link," said Fred. "Why,
folks say all sorts of things when there are rivals in the field. Just
look at it when we have a Presidential election. Some men will say
all sorts of bad things about one candidate and others say bad things
about the other candidate. After the election the defeated candidate is
considered a pretty good fellow anyway."
It is more than likely that some of the members of the club ate but
little dinner on that all-important Saturday. By two o'clock all were
at the clubroom, getting into their uniforms and listening to Joe's
final words of advice.
"Above all things, don't get rattled," Joe was saying. "If you allow
yourselves to get rattled you'll surely go to pieces and lose. Try to
keep cool no matter what happens. And if you see me getting rattled
don't hesitate to tell me so. If any two of you want another pitcher or
catcher, I'll make the change."
At last they were ready to leave the clubroom and marched off by twos,
with Teddy Dugan carrying the bats and a colored youth named Sam Snuff
the other paraphernalia and a pail for drinking water.
"Dis am de time dat dis club wipes up de floah wid dem Excelsiors,"
said Sam Snuff. "Da won't be enuf left ob dem to hab a funeral wid."
When the boys arrived at the ball field of their rivals they found a
large crowd collected. The grand stand was comfortably filled, and in
a prominent place they saw Mr. Corsen and a number of other friends.
Laura was also there, with eight other girls, all with their flags of
blue. Opposite were some girls with their flags of yellow. Some boys
had horns and others had rattles, and a mighty noise went up as the
Lakeports appeared. Then another roar followed for the Excelsiors.
"I guess everybody in Lakeport is here," said Frank, looking around.
"Who ever saw such a crowd before?"
"That shows what folks think of baseball," answered Walter. "It's the
great national game, no doubt of that."
A man named Hayward had already been chosen to act as umpire. He was an
old ballplayer, having played on the Eastern League for six years. He
knew some of the boys fairly well, but said he was going to "play no
favorites."
"What you get you've got to earn," he said, and with this Joe said he
would be perfectly satisfied. Si Voup had wanted a particular friend of
his to be umpire, but this the Lakeports would not allow.
"All of you fellows will get a square deal, don't you worry," said one
man in the crowd. "If you don't, we'll mob the umpire."
By a toss-up it was decided that the Lakeports should go to the bat
first. Each side was allowed fifteen minutes for practice. Both clubs
did their best and various were the comments made.
"Pretty well matched," said one gentleman to Mr. Corsen. "What do you
think?"
"I think the team work of the Lakeports is a little the better of the
two," was the reply.
"And I was thinking just the opposite."
Just then an easy fly was knocked to Paul Shale, but for some unknown
reason he missed it. A groan went up.
"Take that wooden man out of centerfield!"
Missing the fly made Paul wake up and he made a resolve that he would
miss no flies when the game began.
At last the time for practice came to an end and the umpire sent the
Excelsiors into the field.
"Batter up!" he called out, and Walter Bannister, who was looked upon
as the heaviest hitter on the Lakeports, came to the plate. As he took
his position his friends gave him a warm welcome.
"Make it a homer, Walter!"
"Sock it for keeps, old man!"
"Play!" called out the umpire.
Si Voup was the pitcher for his club, and it may be added here that he
could really handle the ball with considerable skill. Eyeing the home
plate for an instant, he let drive with all of his speed.
"Ball one!" called out the umpire. "Too high."
"Make him give you what you want, Walter!" cried a friend.
Again the ball was delivered and around came Walter's bat to meet it.
"Strike one!"
"That's the way to do it, Si! Strike him out!" cried a friend of the
Excelsiors' pitcher.
Once more the ball was delivered. It was just right for Walter and he
gave it a rap that sent it high up over the pitcher's head. But the
Excelsior's second baseman was on the alert and caught the ball as it
came down close to him.
"The first victim!" shouted a boy. "That's the way to do it! Treat the
others the same way!"
"Don't crow so early in the game," answered a Lakeport sympathizer, in
disgust.
Bart was the second player to the bat. He had a strike and two balls
called on him and then sent a short liner to third. It was quickly
gobbled up and sent to first while he was still ten feet from the bag.
"Victim number two!" called out somebody. "What did I tell you?"
Bart was followed by Fred who, after knocking two fouls, managed to get
to first on a fumble by the second baseman. But before Fred could get
to second the next man at the bat, Matt Roscoe, went out on a short hit
direct into the pitcher's hands.
A mighty cheer went up for the Excelsiors. The first half of the
initial inning was over and they had not allowed their opponents to
score.
"It's a walkover," said Sidney Yates to Si Voup, when they walked over
to the players' bench. "We've got them beat sure."
"Sure we have," said Voup, in his bragging way. "The championship is
ours."
"Joe, we must do as well as they did," said Fred, as he buckled on his
chest protector and adjusted his mask.
"We'll do what we can," answered Joe.
It must be confessed that he was just a bit nervous as he walked down
to the pitcher's box. He knew that the eyes of all assembled were upon
him.
The first batter up for the Excelsiors was a fellow named Harrison, who
had the reputation of being a strong hitter. He was in addition a good
deal of a bully and he glared ominously at Joe as he took his position
beside the home plate.
The glance from Harrison put Joe on his mettle and looking around
first to see that all of his players were in position, he sent in his
swiftest ball.
"Strike one!" called out the umpire, although Harrison had not
attempted to use his bat.
"It was too high!" growled the batter.
"No, it wasn't!" answered the umpire. "Shut up!"
Again the ball came in and Harrison struck at it and missed it. It was
pretty high, but Fred managed to grab and hold it.
"Strike two!"
"Strike him out, Joe!" called a boy in the crowd.
"Keep cool, Harrison!" came from Voup.
Once more the ball was delivered and this time the first batter for the
Excelsiors managed to connect with it and drive it down to rightfield.
"Hurrah!" came in a wild yell. "Good for Harrison! Make it a
two-bagger, old man!"
It was certainly a base hit and Harrison got to first base with ease.
Then he tried to steal to second. But the ball came in with a rush and
he was put out several feet from the base, while trying to get back to
first.
"Never mind, he hit it all right enough," said Yates.
"Why didn't you stay at first?" growled Voup, when Harrison came in and
sank on the bench in disgust.
"Oh, I thought I had time. Besides, my foot slipped," was the surly
answer.
The second batter had a strike called on him and then managed to get to
first on a short hit to left field. The batter to follow went out on
a foul tip which Fred captured in a style that earned him quite some
applause.
Joe was watching the runner on first, but despite his best efforts to
catch him the runner managed to get down to second and then up to third.
"Play the runner!" he said to those covering the infield. Then he
delivered one of his swiftest balls. But by good luck the batter sent
it down to left of center and managed to get to first. In the meantime
the runner at third slid in to the home plate.
The Excelsiors had scored the first run.