THE FINAL BATTLE
The game was to be played on the Polo Grounds, and excitement was at
fever heat. It seemed as though the whole male population of Greater
New York had determined to see that game. Men waited in line all night,
and from early morning the surface cars and elevated trains were packed
with people going to the grounds.
The weather was fair, and the lovers of the game had a day that was all
that could be desired. The turf had been rolled and groomed till it
looked like green velvet.
The odds were in the Giants’ favor, because they were the stronger
team and because they were playing on their own grounds. Still, they
had been whipped by the same team before on the same grounds, and they
might be again. And the nervous tension they were under because of the
importance of the game made them the more liable to break at critical
points in the contest. The Brooklyns, on the other hand, had nothing
to lose, and for that very reason might be the cooler-headed.
McRae had picked Joe as his pitching “ace” for this deciding contest.
Grimm had been selected as the boxman for the delegation from across
the bridge. At the moment, he was going better than any other of the
Dodgers’ staff, and any team that whipped him would know at least that
it had been in a fight.
But on that day Joe feared no pitcher in the League. He was in
magnificent shape in mind and body. In the preliminary practice with
Mylert he made the latter wince, as the balls came over smoking hot.
“Save that stuff for the Brooklyns, Joe,” Mylert protested, “or you’ll
have me a cripple before the bell rings.”
Not only Joe’s arm but his heart felt good that day. Mabel was sitting
in a box, watching him proudly, and he felt that he simply couldn’t
lose. She was his mascot, and he carried near his heart the little
glove that had rested there when he won the championship of the world.
Beside her sat Clara, flushed and happy and as sweet as a rose. She had
come on from Riverside, bringing the glad news that Mrs. Matson was
making astonishing progress and had now almost entirely regained her
health.
So it was with a mind at peace and spirits high that Joe faced the
doughty sluggers of the team from across the big bridge.
From the very start, it was apparent that he had “everything.” Never
had he been in finer form. Brain and muscle worked in perfect unison.
Every ball he pitched had a reason behind it. He knew the weaknesses of
every batter, and played upon them. The man who was death on low balls
got a high one, and _vice versa_. His speed, his change of pace, his
curve, his fadeaway, his hop, his control--all of these obeyed him as
though under the spell of a magician. If ever a man made a ball “talk,”
Joe did that day.
Again and again the Brooklyns switched their tactics. Sometimes they
lashed out at the first ball pitched. Again they tried to wait him out.
These failing, they resorted to bunting. Nothing was of any avail. They
were simply up against unhittable pitching.
Inning after inning went by without a score. In the fourth, Naylor made
a scratch, and in the seventh, Leete hit the ball for a clean single.
But on these occasions, Joe tightened up, and no man got as far as
second, despite the desperate efforts of their comrades to advance the
runner.
Grimm, too, was pitching fine ball, but not by any means airtight. The
Giants had gotten to him for six hits, but, with one exception, no two
had been allowed in the same inning, and the Giants were as scoreless
as their opponents.
Grimm had thought discretion the better part of valor when Joe had
faced him, and had twice passed him deliberately to first. The boos
of the spectators failed to disturb Grimm’s equanimity. His motto was
“safety first.” On a third occasion, his cunning miscarried, and Joe,
walking into the ball in desperation, had clouted it for a two baser.
But as two were out at the time and the next man fanned, he was left
holding second.
In the ninth, Joe put on extra steam and fanned three men in a row,
amid the cheers of the Giant rooters.
Then the Giants came in for their last half. Grimm made Burkett hit
a grounder to first that was an easy out. Larry sent a Texas leaguer
behind second that was gathered in by the guardian of that bag. Then
Joe came to the bat.
Grimm still had no mind to give him a hit, and the first two balls were
wide of the plate. He tried to put the third in the same place, but his
control faltered and the ball came within Joe’s reach.
There was a mighty crash, and the ball started on a line between right
and center. At the crack of the bat, Joe was off like a frightened
jackrabbit. He rounded first and started for second.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the right- and centerfielders
running for the ball, which had struck the ground and was rolling
toward the wall. He knew that it would rebound, and that one of the
fielders would “play the angle,” and thus get it the sooner.
The people in the stands had risen now, and were shouting like madmen.
He caught just one glimpse of Mabel, standing in her box with her hands
pressed on her heart.
He made second and kept on for third. On and on he went, as though on
wings. His heart beat like a trip hammer. His lungs seemed as though
they would burst. The wind whistled in his ears. He had never run like
that in his life.
He rounded third and made for home. The ball was coming, as he knew
from the shouts of the spectators and the warning yells of his
comrades. Down that white stretch he tore. He saw the catcher set
himself for the coming ball, knew from his eyes that the ball was near.
With one mighty leap, he threw himself to the ground in a marvelous
hook slide that swung his body out of the catcher’s reach and yet
just permitted his outstretched fingers to touch the plate before the
catcher put the ball on him.
“Safe!” cried the umpire. The game was won, the pennant cinched, and
the Giants once more were the champions of the National League.
What Mabel thought of Joe she told him privately. What McRae and
Robbie and his teammates thought of him they told him publicly. What
the newspapers thought of him they told the world. As pitcher, as
batter, and as captain, Baseball Joe was proclaimed the king of them
all.
And what Mr. and Mrs. Matson, the former happy because of the success
of his invention, the latter because of her restoration to health,
thought of their famous son they told to him a few weeks later at a
wedding ceremony in the Riverside home, when Clara placed her hand in
Jim’s and made him the happiest of men.
THE END
THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES
By LESTER CHADWICK
_12mo. Illustrated. Price 50 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents
additional._
[Illustration]
1. BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS
_or The Rivals of Riverside_
2. BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE
_or Pitching for the Blue Banner_
3. BASEBALL JOE AT YALE
_or Pitching for the College Championship_
4. BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE
_or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher_
5. BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE
_or A Young Pitcher’s Hardest Struggles_
6. BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS
_or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis_
7. BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES
_or Pitching for the Championship_
8. BASEBALL JOE AROUND THE WORLD
_or Pitching on a Grand Tour_
9. BASEBALL JOE: HOME RUN KING
_or The Greatest Pitcher and Batter on Record_
10. BASEBALL JOE SAVING THE LEAGUE
_or Breaking Up a Great Conspiracy_
11. BASEBALL JOE CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM
_or Bitter Struggles on the Diamond_
12. BASEBALL JOE CHAMPION OF THE LEAGUE
_or The Record that was Worth While_
13. BASEBALL JOE CLUB OWNER
_or Putting the Home Town on the Map_
14. BASEBALL JOE PITCHING WIZARD
_or Triumphs Off and On the Diamond_
_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York
CHAMPION SPORTS STORIES
By NOEL SAINSBURY, JR.
[Illustration]
_Every boy enjoys sport stories. Here we present three crackerjack
stories of baseball, football, and basketball, written in the
vernacular of the boy of today, full of action, suspense and thrills,
in language every boy will understand, and which we know will be
enthusiastically endorsed by all boys._
_Large 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in color. Price 50 cents per
volume._
_Postage 10 cents additional._
1. CRACKER STANTON
_Or The Making of a Batsman_
Ralph Stanton, big, rawboned and serious, is a product of the
backwoods and a crack rifle shot. Quick thinking and pluck bring him a
scholarship to Clarkville School where he is branded “grind” and “dub”
by classmates. How his batting brings them first place in the League
and how he secures his appointment to West Point make CRACKER STANTON
an up-to-the-minute baseball story no lover of the game will want to
put down until the last word is read.
2. GRIDIRON GRIT
_Or The Making of a Fullback_
A corking story of football packed full of exciting action and good,
clean competitive rivalry. Shorty Fiske is six-foot-four and the
product of too much money and indulgence at home. How Clarkville School
and football develop Shorty’s real character and how he eventually
stars on the gridiron brings this thrilling tale of school life and
football to a grandstand finish.
3. THE FIGHTING FIVE
_Or the Kidnapping of Clarkville’s Basketball Team_
Clarkville School’s basketball team is kidnapped during the game for
the State Scholastic Championship. The team’s subsequent adventures
under the leadership of Captain Charlie Minor as he brings them
back to the State College Gymnasium where the two last quarters of
the Championship game are played next evening, climaxes twenty-four
pulsating hours of adventure and basketball in the FIGHTING FIVE....
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York
MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE BOOKS FOR BOYS
_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Colored jackets._
_Price 50 cents per volume._
_Postage 10 cents additional._
[Illustration]
=SOUTH FROM HUDSON BAY=, by E. C. BRILL
A thrilling tale of the coming of settlers from France and Switzerland
to the wilderness of the Prairie country of the Red River district, and
the adventures of three boys who find themselves entangled in the fate
of the little colony.
=THE SECRET CACHE=, by E. C. BRILL
The father of two boys, a fur hunter, has been seriously injured by an
Indian. Before he dies he succeeds in telling the younger son about
a secret cache of valuable furs. The directions are incomplete but
the boys start off to find the Cache, and with the help of men from a
nearby settlement capture the Indian and bring him to justice.
=THE ISLAND OF YELLOW SANDS=, by E. C. BRILL
An exciting story of Adventure in Colonial Days in the primitive
country around Lake Superior, when the forest and waters were the
hunting ground of Indians, hunters and trappers.
=LOST CITY OF THE AZTECS=, by J. A. LATH
Four chums find a secret code stuck inside the binding of an old book
written many years ago by a famous geologist. The boys finally solve
the code and learn of the existence of the remnant of a civilized Aztec
tribe inside an extinct crater in the southern part of Arizona. How
they find these Aztecs, and their many stirring adventures makes a
story of tremendous present-day scientific interest that every boy will
enjoy.
These books may be purchased wherever books are sold
_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York
THE BOMBA BOOKS
By ROY ROCKWOOD
_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With Colored jacket._
_Price 50 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents additional._
[Illustration]
_Bomba lived far back in the jungles of the Amazon with a half-demented
naturalist who told the lad nothing of his past. The jungle boy was a
lover of birds, and hunted animals with a bow and arrow and his trusty
machete. He had only a primitive education, and his daring adventures
will be followed with breathless interest by thousands._
1. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY
2. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AT THE MOVING MOUNTAIN
3. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AT THE GIANT CATARACT
4. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY ON JAGUAR ISLAND
5. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY IN THE ABANDONED CITY
6. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY ON TERROR TRAIL
7. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY IN THE SWAMP OF DEATH
8. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AMONG THE SLAVES
9. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY ON THE UNDERGROUND RIVER
10. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AND THE LOST EXPLORERS
11. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY IN A STRANGE LAND
12. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AMONG THE PYGMIES
13. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AND THE CANNIBALS
14. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AND THE PAINTED HUNTERS
15. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AND THE RIVER DEMONS
16. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AND THE HOSTILE CHIEFTAIN
These books may be purchased wherever books are sold
_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York
Transcriber’s Notes:
--Copyright notice provided as in the original printed text--this
e-text is public domain in the country of publication.
--Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_); text in
bold by “equal” signs (=bold=).
--Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
--Archaic and variable spelling is preserved.
--Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
--The author’s em-dash style have been retained.
--Inconsistencies in formatting and punctuation of individual
advertisements have been retained.