DUD SERVES THEM UP
Between Dud and Starling Meyer existed an armed neutrality. They passed
with covert glances, avoided each other when possible and doubtless
caused some disappointment to a certain element in the school who had
been for several weeks eagerly expecting a fracas between the two. The
boxing lessons had been abandoned, since, as Jimmy pathetically pointed
out, there was no use getting ready for something that couldn’t happen.
The gloves were returned to their owners, and, robbed of self-defense
as a principal interest in life, Jimmy gave his attention to playing
baseball. It occurred to him at about this time that it wouldn’t look
well for Dud to make the first team, even as a substitute, and for
him to get chucked back to the second nine. So the Monday after the
Portsmouth Grammar School game Jimmy buckled down to make good. Right
field seemed the only position open to him, and even to earn that
he would have to beat out Harold Boynton, and Boynton, while not an
exceptional fielder, was a pretty fair hitter. Therefore it behooved
Jimmy to get busy and learn to “lam ’em out” a bit better. His first
step was to attempt to bribe Brunswick and Dud to pitch easy ones when
he was at the net. Failing at that, he sighed and set out to conquer
by labor. Jimmy always preferred to take short cuts. The longest way
around might suit some fellows, but he took it only as a last resort.
Having, however, made up his mind to the circuitous journey, Jimmy was
capable of settling down to the task and seeing it through.
On Wednesday the second team was again defeated, and on the following
Saturday Grafton High School, supported by a large and noisy mob of
pennant-flaunting boys and girls, engaged the attention of the first
team. The batting order that afternoon gave a line on what was likely
to be the final selections: Blake, ss; Murtha, 2b; Parker, cf; Winslow,
3b; Ayer, 1b; Ordway, lf; Boynton, rf; Gordon, c; Myatt or Leddy, p.
There might be, probably would be, changes later on in the arrangement
of the players for batting purposes, but it was generally conceded
that the team as made up that day was practically as it would be six
weeks later. It was likely that Ben Myatt would occasionally be played
in center field, for Ben, aside from being a remarkable pitcher, was
a steady outfielder and a good hitter. There were some critics who
sneered at Hugh Ordway’s presence on the nine, hinting at favoritism,
and it must be acknowledged that Hugh accomplished little that
afternoon to vindicate his selection for the middle-garden position.
Hugh had a bad day, missing one easy fly and failing to reach first
base once. His muff in the third inning let in two runs and made the
outcome doubtful until the sixth, when a single by Guy Murtha with one
down, a sacrifice by Parker, a screeching two-base hit by Bert Winslow
and an error by third-baseman landed two tallies for the home team.
The score stayed at five to five until the ninth, when the home team
started a rally. Bert Winslow, first man up, was passed. Neil Ayer
laid a bunt in front of the plate, sending Bert to second and going
out himself at first. Mr. Sargent sent Milford to bat in place of Hugh
and Milford came through with a clean single that landed him on first.
Bert, however, was out at the plate by inches only. With two gone, a
second pinch-hitter was sent to the rescue in the person of Gus Weston.
As a pinch-hitter Gus was ordinarily something of a joke, but on this
occasion he turned the laugh on High School’s pitcher, landing on the
first offering and sending it down the third-base line for a hit that
advanced Milford to second. Gordon followed with a pop-fly that should
have been an easy out, but which second baseman and shortstop managed
between them to let fall safe.
With bases full and Nate Leddy up――Myatt had gone through five innings
and been sent to the showers――Mr. Sargent took a chance and let Nate go
to bat. Evidently the latter was instructed to wait out the pitcher,
for he stood idly by while two strikes and two balls went across. Then
the coach called him back and Jimmy Logan was sent in to distinguish
himself. Anyone but Jimmy would have suffered from nerves, I fancy,
for it is something of an ordeal to step up to the plate with two out,
bases filled and the pitcher’s score two-and-two. But Jimmy approached
the task with beautiful assurance. Some said he even swaggered a
little. Perhaps he did, and perhaps that swagger was the undoing of the
opposing pitcher. At any rate, all Jimmy had to do was dodge two wild
deliveries and trot, smilingly, to first, while Milford ambled over the
plate with what proved eventually to be the winning run. Nick Blake
brought the inning to an end a moment later when he sent a long fly to
the outfield.
Grafton High School begrudged that victory and showed it, at the time
by the half-hearted way in which they cheered their successful rival,
and later by sending a challenge for another contest on High School
grounds. The challenge was accepted and a vacant date a week and a
half later was awarded her. Since faculty rules prohibited the team
from playing away from the school on Wednesdays during April and May, a
special dispensation was asked for and obtained, and the game came off
in due time and High School went down in decisive defeat, the score at
the end of the seven innings played being 9 to 2 in favor of Grafton.
Before that, however, Leeds High School had administered the first
beating to the Scarlet-and-Gray to the tune of 3 to 0. It was a good
game and Grafton showed up well in all departments except that of
hitting. Leeds’ pitcher was a hard proposition and only four scattered
hits were registered by Grafton. On the other hand, Leddy, who started
in the box for his team, was found for six hits in four innings, one
of them a three-bagger, and although Ben Myatt, who relieved him, held
the enemy well in hand, the mischief was already done. In the eighth
and ninth innings that day Mr. Sargent used every available player in
his determined effort to stem the tide of disaster, even Dud getting a
chance to show his batting prowess and rapping a liner straight into
the hands of shortstop as his contribution to the cause. Jimmy, called
into the fray in the eighth, managed to get hit with an in-shoot and
so, luckily, earned his base. It was Starling Meyer who came nearest to
accomplishing anything in the batting line, for Star, after watching
two good ones pass him, landed on what was palpably intended for a wide
one and managed to drop it behind first base some three inches inside
the foul line. Unfortunately there was no one on the bases to take
advantage of the miracle.
As a result of the Leeds game there followed, beginning on the next
Monday afternoon, a series of batting practices that for the rest of
the week, barring Wednesday and Saturday, left no time for line-ups.
There also followed a change in the batting order and a slight shakeup
of the team. Bert Winslow took Guy Murtha’s place as second batter,
Guy following him and Parker slipping into fourth position. Gordon and
Boynton also changed locations. Milford was tried out at first and for
the next three weeks he and Neil Ayer had a very lively struggle for
the first sack. Eventually Ayer came into his own again, although had
batting ability alone entered into it Milford would undoubtedly have
won the place. Jimmy got several opportunities to show what he could do
in right field and Starling Meyer received some recognition in center.
Southlake Academy was defeated on the nineteenth at Southlake, Gus
Weston pitching for once a remarkably steady game until he was taken
out in the seventh. By that time the contest was on ice and Coach
Sargent sent Brunswick in for a couple of innings of experience.
Experience came his way, too, to the tune of four hits for a total of
six bases, but luckily only one run resulted.
Track and field sports were by now engaging much of the school’s
interest. The team had held its handicap games the last of April, had
defeated St. James Academy the week before and was at present very
busily at work getting into condition to meet Mount Morris, Grafton’s
principal rival, on the twenty-sixth. Over on the big oval ribbon of
gray-blue cinders the twenty-odd youths who wore the scarlet-and-gray
stripe across their chests or who hoped to wear it after next Saturday,
sprinted and ran and hurdled, while about the jumping pits a dozen or
fifteen others strove mightily with shot and hammer and vaulting-pole
or worked zealously at the jumps. Nowadays the audience at the first
team diamond was smaller each afternoon, and one heard much learned
talk of dual records, and the names of Zanetti and Tray and Keyes and
Yetter and Musgrave and many others pursued one from breakfast to
bedtime. “Dinny” Crowley divided his time as best he could between
Track Team and second nine, while Davy Richards, at last really in his
element, loomed large in importance. Davy had a reputation as a trainer
of track and field talent to vindicate and Davy in the process of
vindicating was a fine imitation of a tyrant. Even Mr. Sargent forsook
baseball for a space each day and gave his attention to the weight men
and jumpers, for “Pete” in his day had held a college record for two
years with the hammer and had, as a side issue, leaped his twenty-two
feet-odd for the honor of the Blue. So for one week at least baseball
took a back seat at Grafton and the real heroes were the slim-waisted,
bare-legged chaps in fluttering white trunks.
The ball team met Middleboro High School on Wednesday afternoon and
had no trouble in winning a 14 to 3 contest that offered little in the
way of excitement or suspense to the listless spectators. It was an
intolerably hot day for May and audience and players alike drooped. For
Grafton, Nate Leddy started the twirling, but after his teammates had
scored eight runs on the opponents in five innings Nate ambled off and
Joe Kelly tried his hand. Joe was not a success, for the enemy took
most kindly to his slants, and after facing two innings of trouble Joe
likewise retired and Dud was given his first taste of hostile batsmen.
With the score 12 to 3, Dud was not expected to kill himself, and
Ed Brooks, who had taken Gordon’s place behind the plate with the
advent of Kelly on the mound, was all for an easy life. But Brooks was
reckoning without Dud’s ambition to win a place on the list of battery
candidates. Dud had warmed the bench and twirled his glove during so
many games that this opportunity presented itself to him as Heaven-sent
and he resolved to use all the skill he knew and all the control he
possessed. For a fortnight he had been experimenting with his curves
again and, at Ben Myatt’s suggestion, had even attempted a side-arm
delivery that looked promising. He had little fear of being punished
much, but he went to the mound and picked up the ball determined to
deny any sort of a hit to the opponents. That is why he shook his head
so frequently at his catcher, much to that gentleman’s surprise, and
why when Middleboro’s tail-enders faced him in that first of the eighth
he worked so carefully and cunningly that one after another the three
last batters on the list retired without even fouling-off a ball! The
Middleboro pitcher stood like a graven image while Dud shot two fast
ones over the outer corner of the rubber, wasted one for luck and then
ended the inning with a slow ball that floated as perfectly over the
center as though it had been rolled on wires! For the first time during
the game the somnolent spectators showed enthusiasm as Dud dropped the
ball and made for the bench. Brooks squeezed in beside him and thumped
him on the knee.
“Great work, Dud!” he said. “We made ’em look like pikers, didn’t we?”
“You!” laughed Parker, sitting next him. “What did you do, Eddie?
Baker scratched every signal you gave him!”
“Me?” asked Brooks sarcastically. “Oh, nothing! I just held him, that’s
all! You get up there and put your mitt against some of Dud’s fast ones
and see how simple it is! Say, Dud, it would be fine if we could send
them down in the next inning the same way, eh? Only thing is, that
fellow Dollard, who bats second, is a pretty good hitter. He’s made two
already out of three times up.”
“What’s the first fellow like?” asked Dud.
“Chapman? I guess that’s his name. Plays third. Oh, he’s not dangerous.
He wants his base. Sneak over the first one for a strike and then tease
him a couple of times with high ones. He’ll go after them every time.
But Dollard’s not so easy. He waits for the good ones.”
“Then we’ll have to see that he doesn’t get them,” replied Dud simply.
“Well, if you can keep on working the corners the way you did last
inning you’re all right. That ump has his eyesight with him. If he
didn’t you’d get the worst of it lots of times.”
Grafton tallied twice more in her half of the eighth and then Dud went
back to the mound and faced the small and stocky third-baseman. But he
wasn’t hard. Once Dud thought he had lost his wish, but the ball rolled
foul before it reached the third sack. After that there was no more
trouble. Chapman, if that was his name, bit at a high one and missed
it badly, let a ball go by and then again swung too late at a fast one
that crossed the plate and retired disgruntled to the bench.
But Dollard was more canny. Dollard had to have good ones. Dud tried
him on two that looked fair until they broke, but the batter treated
them with contempt. Then Dud tried him out with a slow one and caught
him napping. Dollard fouled the next one into the stand and the score
was two-and-two. Brooks signaled for a straight one, hoping to finish
him off, but Dud shook his head. Instead, he changed his position in
the box a mite, wrapped his fingers about the ball, wound up, stepped
forward and swung his arm wide at the height of his elbow. Brooks had
to jump for that ball, for it proved a cross-fire indeed, and there
was a perceptible moment of hesitation before the umpire reached his
verdict. But when he did he said “_You’re out!_” so decisively as to
make up for the hesitation. Dollard voiced objections all the way to
the bench and let it be known by the manner in which he slammed his bat
to earth that he was totally out of sympathy with that umpire! But the
crowd cheered the strike-out and jeered the victim and the next batsman
stepped to his place.
Then, for once, and for the first time since he had profited by Ben
Myatt’s advice, Dud went back to his hooks and that third batter swung
and dodged and swung again while Dud brought the game to an end with
exactly four deliveries!
Two days later there came the final cut in the first squad and six
disappointed candidates were turned over to the second team. One of the
six was a pitcher, but his name was not Baker. It was Kelly.