HAL AND CROSSLEY
There were quite a number of disappointed candidates the day the
Varsity list was posted. The disappointment was felt most by the boys
who had an idea that they were the real thing as pitchers. A pitcher
can rarely do anything but pitch, and a large percentage of boys who
think they have the pitching ability do not make good when put to the
real test. And so when they picked out the candidates for the Varsity
that year, a great number of fellows who had high hopes missed even the
second squad and finally landed on the freshman team.
Among the fellows who had hopes of making the team was Edward Crossley.
He had reported as a pitcher and had been given a good many try-outs
in the batting practice, and at first Hughie was attracted by his work
and had one or two talks with him about his experience. Hughie’s first
impression was that Crossley could be developed into a substitute or
extra pitcher as he was strong and could throw a swift ball. He also
seemed to be able to serve up curves fairly well. But Hughie had to
change his mind about Crossley. He was too erratic.
The trouble with Crossley was that he was a spoiled son of a very rich
man. He had the most luxurious rooms of any of the fellows at Lowell.
He had a servant and an automobile. He had lots of money to spend and
he didn’t hesitate to “blow it” as the boys say. He was a good fellow
with the boys whom he chose to make his friends and he liked and was
liked by those with whom he came in contact as long as no one tried to
do things different from the way he wanted them done.
Crossley had been brought up to think that every thing he wanted he
could have. The fault was largely with his parents. They gave him
everything he asked for and denied him nothing. Once in a while his
parents would try to curb his desire for one thing or another, and then
Crossley would pout and his parents gave in.
This gave Crossley a very wrong idea of the world in general. But he
was to find that there were other people in the world besides himself
and that they had ideas of their own and that many of them were just as
selfish in their ideas as he was. When he met this kind of a fellow he
got furiously angry.
When he came to Lowell he naturally thought that the son of so wealthy
a man as his father would receive special attention by the college
people and students. When he found out that merit alone counted in
Lowell affairs, he was furious. When he saw some fellow who could do
some one thing better than he could and who, therefore, received the
attention which his accomplishment warranted, he became very jealous.
When he wanted anything that came to him as a desire, he would stop at
nothing in his efforts to get it, by hook or crook.
The result of it all was that after he had been at college for a few
months he had not done anything worth while for himself, and outside of
a small number of fellows who were brought up like himself he had not
made many friends who would do him any good.
One of the things he asked his father for in the early spring was a new
automobile. His father would just as soon have sent it as not, but he
had been reading something about other boys doing wonderful things in
football at college, and he was disappointed that his son wasn’t in it.
So he had what to him was a brilliant idea, and he wrote his son that
he would present him with a new $15,000 imported car the day he was
named for the Varsity. This looked easy to Crossley.
At home, Crossley, the rich man’s son, had bought the suits for the
High School nine. His father had fixed up a fine ball park for the boys
to play in and he had done all this because his son had asked him to
and because he had insisted upon it.
Of course, Crossley had a right, under the circumstances, to say which
position on the team he would play, and he had promptly selected
the job as pitcher. At first he was no good at all, but he hired a
professional player to teach him and at the end of the year he had
developed into a pretty good pitcher. In fact, he might easily have
become a first-class flinger if his habits had been steady. Crossley
had come to Lowell from White College, a little school in the West,
and he had been the pitcher for the team there.
When Hughie first began to take notice of Crossley he couldn’t
understand how a fellow could do so well one day and so poorly another.
It puzzled him a good deal. He finally wrote to a friend who was
coach at White College and from him he found out what the trouble
was. Crossley had been a good pitcher for White. As good as they ever
had, but he would not observe the training rules and he would smoke
cigarettes and take an occasional drink. This made him erratic and
unreliable at times.
Furthermore, he had a terribly jealous disposition and bad temper and
couldn’t stand it to have anybody but himself praised when he was
around. Hughie’s friend doubted very much if Crossley would be of any
real service at Lowell, especially if he continued his habits there as
at White.
Hughie read this with a good deal of interest but Crossley had shown
up pretty well in practice and Jenkins was inclined to think that the
boy might have gotten over his childishness since, being at Lowell. So
Hughie decided to reserve his judgment.
When the first Varsity list was made up a few days later, Hughie and
the coaches had finally to decide between Crossley and Hal as left-hand
pitchers. They both showed up about the same in the box and the
decision was finally made in Hal’s favor. So his name went on the list
and Crossley was sent to the second squad.
Now Crossley had wanted this automobile very much and he was
disappointed. He felt that Case had beat him out of the position. He
became furiously jealous and made a resolution that he would “get” Hal
in one way or another. What the way was he himself did not know, but he
had a cunning mind and he decided to lay some deep plans to undermine
Hal, and then he would get the job and the auto.
A day or two after the Colfax game, the two squads were lined up for
general practice. The practice was principally devoted to batting and
base running. One squad would take the field lined up in the regular
positions, and the other at bat. Each batter remained at the plate
until he got a hit. Then he ran to first of course. From there he was
expected to steal his way round the bases.
Of course it is hard to steal a base when the other side knows what
you are going to do, but stealing bases is a very important part of
the game. Everson was on the lines helping Hughie instructing on base
stealing. And squad No. 2 was at bat. Hal had been asked to see what he
could do at the second bag. A few minutes afterward Crossley came up
for his turn at bat, and made a hit and went to first. Then Hughie, who
was on the coaching line back of first, told him to steal on the next
ball pitched. Crossley was a good runner and Hal was not used to the
position. He had stuck to the bag the way first basemen do, to receive
the throw from the catcher. The catcher threw quickly to Hal who had
the ball in his hand waiting for Crossley when the latter was still
fifteen feet from the base. The natural thing for Crossley to have done
was to slide. Instead he came the rest of the way standing up, and when
he was five feet from the bag he gave a jump for the bag, and landed
with both feet, spikes and all, on Hal’s right foot, cutting him badly,
and knocking him down. They both rolled over in the dirt, and Hal had
to be picked up and carried from the field.
Hughie and Everson had hold of Crossley and were calling him various
kinds of names for such bone-headed conduct--for once in their lives
both of these boys had been fooled--they thought what they had seen was
Crossley’s idea of stealing a base and were wondering where he got such
an idea.
Hal himself as he was carried from the field by Hans, thought it was
his own fault standing on second base as he did with the ball in his
hands, instead of running up the line out of the path of the runner and
touching him out before he got to the bag.
Hal blamed no one but himself, but Hans, while he said nothing, had
seen the look in Crossley’s eye as he started for second, and had
watched him all the way. He had noted particularly the viciousness
of Crossley’s jump and the care with which he brought his feet down
on the right spot and while he knew of no reason why Crossley should
have it in for Hal, he knew there was something back of it. Hal’s foot
was pretty badly cut, but the doctor fixed him up, sent him home in a
carriage and told him he’d better not put his uniform on for three or
four days.
He was out next day with a cane, and his foot did not hurt him
particularly. He went to the ball grounds and watched the boys practice
and he got to thinking that he hadn’t counted on being injured. He had
been spiked before, however, and he felt that with proper care he would
be back in the game again soon, and not knowing that he had an enemy,
he had no reason for not feeling good.
[Illustration: “He was out next day with a cane.”]