There was Delaney's red-haired trio--Red Gilbat, left fielder; Reddy
Clammer, right fielder, and Reddie Ray, center fielder, composing the
most remarkable outfield ever developed in minor league baseball. It
was Delaney's pride, as it was also his trouble.
Red Gilbat was nutty--and his batting average was .371. Any student of
baseball could weigh these two facts against each other and understand
something of Delaney's trouble. It was not possible to camp on Red
Gilbat's trail. The man was a jack-o'-lantern, a will-o'-the-wisp, a
weird, long-legged, long-armed, red-haired illusive phantom. When the
gong rang at the ball grounds there were ten chances to one that Red
would not be present. He had been discovered with small boys peeping
through knotholes at the vacant left field he was supposed to inhabit
during play.
Of course what Red did off the ball grounds was not so important as
what he did on. And there was absolutely no telling what under the sun
he might do then except once out of every three times at bat he could
be counted on to knock the cover off the ball.
Reddy Clammer was a grand-stand player--the kind all managers
hated--and he was hitting .305. He made circus catches, circus stops,
circus throws, circus steals--but particularly circus catches. That is
to say, he made easy plays appear difficult. He was always strutting,
posing, talking, arguing, quarreling--when he was not engaged in making
a grand-stand play. Reddy Clammer used every possible incident and
artifice to bring himself into the limelight.
Reddie Ray had been the intercollegiate champion in the sprints and a
famous college ball player. After a few months of professional ball he
was hitting over .400 and leading the league both at bat and on the
bases. It was a beautiful and a thrilling sight to see him run. He
was so quick to start, so marvelously swift, so keen of judgment, that
neither Delaney nor any player could ever tell the hit that he was not
going to get. That was why Reddie Ray was a whole game in himself.
Delaney's Rochester Stars and the Providence Grays were tied for first
place. Of the present series each team had won a game. Rivalry had
always been keen, and as the teams were about to enter the long
homestretch for the pennant there was battle in the New England air.
The September day was perfect. The stands were half full and the
bleachers packed with a white-sleeved mass. And the field was
beautifully level and green. The Grays were practicing and the Stars
were on their bench.
"We're up against it," Delaney was saying. "This new umpire, Fuller,
hasn't got it in for us. Oh, no, not at all! Believe me, he's a
robber. But Scott is pitchin' well. Won his last three games. He'll
bother 'em. And the three Reds have broken loose. They're on the
rampage. They'll burn up this place today."
Somebody noted the absence of Gilbat.
Delaney gave a sudden start. "Why, Gil was here," he said slowly.
"Lord!--he's about due for a nutty stunt."
Whereupon Delaney sent boys and players scurrying about to find Gilbat,
and Delaney went himself to ask the Providence manager to hold back the
gong for a few minutes.
Presently somebody brought Delaney a telephone message that Red Gilbat
was playing ball with some boys in a lot four blocks down the street.
When at length a couple of players marched up to the bench with Red in
tow Delaney uttered an immense sigh of relief and then, after a close
scrutiny of Red's face, he whispered, "Lock the gates!"
Then the gong rang. The Grays trooped in. The Stars ran out, except
Gilbat, who ambled like a giraffe. The hum of conversation in the
grand stand quickened for a moment with the scraping of chairs, and
then grew quiet. The bleachers sent up the rollicking cry of
expectancy. The umpire threw out a white ball with his stentorian
"Play!" and Blake of the Grays strode to the plate.
Hitting safely, he started the game with a rush. With Dorr up, the Star
infield played for a bunt. Like clockwork Dorr dumped the first ball as
Blake got his flying start for second base. Morrissey tore in for the
ball, got it on the run and snapped it underhand to Healy, beating the
runner by an inch. The fast Blake, with a long slide, made third base.
The stands stamped. The bleachers howled. White, next man up, batted
a high fly to left field. This was a sun field and the hardest to play
in the league. Red Gilbat was the only man who ever played it well.
He judged the fly, waited under it, took a step hack, then forward, and
deliberately caught the ball in his gloved hand. A throw-in to catch
the runner scoring from third base would have been futile, but it was
not like Red Gilbat to fail to try. He tossed the ball to O'Brien.
And Blake scored amid applause.
"What do you know about that?" ejaculated Delaney, wiping his moist
face. "I never before saw our nutty Redhead pull off a play like that."
Some of the players yelled at Red, "This is a two-handed league, you
bat!"
The first five players on the list for the Grays were left-handed
batters, and against a right-handed pitcher whose most effective ball
for them was a high fast one over the outer corner they would naturally
hit toward left field. It was no surprise to see Hanley bat a
skyscraper out to left. Red had to run to get under it. He braced
himself rather unusually for a fielder. He tried to catch the ball in
his bare right hand and muffed it, Hanley got to second on the play
while the audience roared. When they got through there was some
roaring among the Rochester players. Scott and Captain Healy roared at
Red, and Red roared back at them.
"It's all off. Red never did that before," cried Delaney in despair.
"He's gone clean bughouse now."
Babcock was the next man up and he likewise hit to left. It was a low,
twisting ball--half fly, half liner--and a difficult one to field.
Gilbat ran with great bounds, and though he might have got two hands on
the ball he did not try, but this time caught it in his right, retiring
the side.
The Stars trotted in, Scott and Healy and Kane, all veterans, looking
like thunderclouds. Red ambled in the last and he seemed very
nonchalant.
"By Gosh, I'd 'a' ketched that one I muffed if I'd had time to change
hands," he said with a grin, and he exposed a handful of peanuts. He
had refused to drop the peanuts to make the catch with two hands. That
explained the mystery. It was funny, yet nobody laughed. There was
that run chalked up against the Stars, and this game had to be won.
"Red, I--I want to take the team home in the lead," said Delaney, and
it was plain that he suppressed strong feeling. "You didn't play the
game, you know."
Red appeared mightily ashamed.
"Del, I'll git that run back," he said.
Then he strode to the plate, swinging his wagon-tongue bat. For all
his awkward position in the box he looked what he was--a formidable
hitter. He seemed to tower over the pitcher--Red was six feet one--and
he scowled and shook his bat at Wehying and called, "Put one over--you
wienerwurst!" Wehying was anything but red-headed, and he wasted so
many balls on Red that it looked as if he might pass him. He would
have passed him, too, if Red had not stepped over on the fourth ball
and swung on it. White at second base leaped high for the stinging
hit, and failed to reach it. The ball struck and bounded for the
fence. When Babcock fielded it in, Red was standing on third base,
and the bleachers groaned.
Whereupon Chesty Reddy Clammer proceeded to draw attention to himself,
and incidentally delay the game, by assorting the bats as if the
audience and the game might gladly wait years to see him make a choice.
"Git in the game!" yelled Delaney.
"Aw, take my bat, Duke of the Abrubsky!" sarcastically said Dump Kane.
When the grouchy Kane offered to lend his bat matters were critical in
the Star camp.
Other retorts followed, which Reddy Clammer deigned not to notice. At
last he got a bat that suited him--and then, importantly, dramatically,
with his cap jauntily riding his red locks, he marched to the plate.
Some wag in the bleachers yelled into the silence, "Oh, Maggie, your
lover has come!"
Not improbably Clammer was thinking first of his presence before the
multitude, secondly of his batting average and thirdly of the run to be
scored. In this instance he waited and feinted at balls and fouled
strikes at length to work his base. When he got to first base suddenly
he bolted for second, and in the surprise of the unlooked-for play he
made it by a spread-eagle slide. It was a circus steal.
Delaney snorted. Then the look of profound disgust vanished in a flash
of light. His huge face beamed.
Reddie Ray was striding to the plate.
There was something about Reddie Ray that pleased all the senses. His
lithe form seemed instinct with life; any sudden movement was
suggestive of stored lightning. His position at the plate was on the
left side, and he stood perfectly motionless, with just a hint of tense
waiting alertness. Dorr, Blake and Babcock, the outfielders for the
Grays, trotted round to the right of their usual position. Delaney
smiled derisively, as if he knew how futile it was to tell what field
Reddie Ray might hit into. Wehying, the old fox, warily eyed the
youngster, and threw him a high curve, close in. It grazed Reddie's
shirt, but he never moved a hair. Then Wehying, after the manner of
many veteran pitchers when trying out a new and menacing batter, drove
a straight fast ball at Reddie's head. Reddie ducked, neither too slow
nor too quick, just right to show what an eye he had, how hard it was
to pitch to. The next was a strike. And on the next he appeared to
step and swing in one action. There was a ringing rap, and the ball
shot toward right, curving down, a vicious, headed hit. Mallory, at
first base, snatched at it and found only the air. Babcock had only
time to take a few sharp steps, and then he plunged down, blocked the
hit and fought the twisting ball. Reddie turned first base, flitted on
toward second, went headlong in the dust, and shot to the base before
White got the throw-in from Babcock. Then, as White wheeled and lined
the ball home to catch the scoring Clammer, Reddie Ray leaped up, got
his sprinter's start and, like a rocket, was off for third. This time
he dove behind the base, sliding in a half circle, and as Hanley caught
Strickland's perfect throw and whirled with the ball, Reddie's hand
slid to the bag.
Reddie got to his feet amid a rather breathless silence. Even the
coachers were quiet. There was a moment of relaxation, then Wehying
received the ball from Hanley and faced the batter.
This was Dump Kane. There was a sign of some kind, almost
imperceptible, between Kane and Reddie. As Wehying half turned in his
swing to pitch, Reddie Ray bounded homeward. It was not so much the
boldness of his action as the amazing swiftness of it that held the
audience spellbound. Like a thunderbolt Reddie came down the line,
almost beating Wehying's pitch to the plate. But Kane's bat
intercepted the ball, laying it down, and Reddie scored without
sliding. Dorr, by sharp work, just managed to throw Kane out.
Three runs so quick it was hard to tell how they had come. Not in the
major league could there have been faster work. And the ball had been
fielded perfectly and thrown perfectly.
"There you are," said Delaney, hoarsely. "Can you beat it? If you've
been wonderin' how the cripped Stars won so many games just put what
you've seen in your pipe and smoke it. Red Gilbat gets on--Reddy
Clammer gets on--and then Reddie Ray drives them home or chases them
home."
The game went on, and though it did not exactly drag it slowed down
considerably. Morrissey and Healy were retired on infield plays. And
the sides changed. For the Grays, O'Brien made a scratch hit, went to
second on Strickland's sacrifice, stole third and scored on Mallory's
infield out. Wehying missed three strikes. In the Stars' turn the
three end players on the batting list were easily disposed of. In the
third inning the clever Blake, aided by a base on balls and a hit
following, tied the score, and once more struck fire and brimstone from
the impatient bleachers. Providence was a town that had to have its
team win.
"Git at 'em, Reds!" said Delaney gruffly.
"Batter up!" called Umpire Fuller, sharply.
"Where's Red? Where's the bug? Where's the nut? Delaney, did you
lock the gates? Look under the bench!" These and other remarks, not
exactly elegant, attested to the mental processes of some of the Stars.
Red Gilbat did not appear to be forthcoming. There was an anxious
delay Capt. Healy searched for the missing player. Delaney did not say
any more.
Suddenly a door under the grand stand opened and Red Gilbat appeared.
He hurried for his bat and then up to the plate. And he never offered
to hit one of the balls Wehying shot over. When Fuller had called the
third strike Red hurried back to the door and disappeared.
"Somethin' doin'," whispered Delaney.
Lord Chesterfield Clammer paraded to the batter's box and, after
gradually surveying the field, as if picking out the exact place he
meant to drive the ball, he stepped to the plate. Then a roar from the
bleachers surprised him.
"Well, I'll be dog-goned!" exclaimed Delaney. "Red stole that sure as
shootin'."
Red Gilbat was pushing a brand-new baby carriage toward the batter's
box. There was a tittering in the grand stand; another roar from the
bleachers. Clammer's face turned as red as his hair. Gilbat shoved
the baby carriage upon the plate, spread wide his long arms, made a
short presentation speech and an elaborate bow, then backed away.
All eyes were centered on Clammer. If he had taken it right the
incident might have passed without undue hilarity. But Clammer became
absolutely wild with rage. It was well known that he was unmarried.
Equally well was it seen that Gilbat had executed one of his famous
tricks. Ball players were inclined to be dignified about the
presentation of gifts upon the field, and Clammer, the dude, the swell,
the lady's man, the favorite of the baseball gods--in his own
estimation--so far lost control of himself that he threw his bat at his
retreating tormentor. Red jumped high and the bat skipped along the
ground toward the bench. The players sidestepped and leaped and, of
course, the bat cracked one of Delaney's big shins. His eyes popped
with pain, but he could not stop laughing. One by one the players lay
down and rolled over and yelled. The superior Clammer was not
overliked by his co-players.
From the grand stand floated the laughter of ladies and gentlemen. And
from the bleachers--that throne of the biting, ironic, scornful
fans--pealed up a howl of delight. It lasted for a full minute. Then,
as quiet ensued, some boy blew a blast of one of those infernal little
instruments of pipe and rubber balloon, and over the field wailed out a
shrill, high-keyed cry, an excellent imitation of a baby. Whereupon
the whole audience roared, and in discomfiture Reddy Clammer went in
search of his bat.
To make his chagrin all the worse he ingloriously struck out. And then
he strode away under the lea of the grand-stand wall toward right field.
Reddie Ray went to bat and, with the infield playing deep and the
outfield swung still farther round to the right, he bunted a little
teasing ball down the third-base line. Like a flash of light he had
crossed first base before Hanley got his hands on the ball. Then Kane
hit into second base, forcing Reddie out.
Again the game assumed less spectacular and more ordinary play. Both
Scott and Wehying held the batters safely and allowed no runs. But in
the fifth inning, with the Stars at bat and two out, Red Gilbat again
electrified the field. He sprang up from somewhere and walked to the
plate, his long shape enfolded in a full-length linen duster. The
color and style of this garment might not have been especially
striking, but upon Red it had a weird and wonderful effect. Evidently
Red intended to bat while arrayed in his long coat, for he stepped into
the box and faced the pitcher. Capt. Healy yelled for him to take the
duster off. Likewise did the Grays yell.
The bleachers shrieked their disapproval. To say the least, Red
Gilbat's crazy assurance was dampening to the ardor of the most blindly
confident fans. At length Umpire Fuller waved his hand, enjoining
silence and calling time.
"Take it off or I'll fine you."
From his lofty height Gilbat gazed down upon the little umpire, and it
was plain what he thought.
"What do I care for money!" replied Red.
"That costs you twenty-five," said Fuller.
"Cigarette change!" yelled Red.
"Costs you fifty."
"Bah! Go to an eye doctor," roared Red.
"Seventy-five," added Fuller, imperturbably.
"Make it a hundred!"
"It's two hundred."
"ROB-B-BER!" bawled Red.
Fuller showed willingness to overlook Red's back talk as well as
costume, and he called, "Play!"
There was a mounting sensation of prophetic certainty. Old fox Wehying
appeared nervous. He wasted two balls on Red; then he put one over the
plate, and then he wasted another. Three balls and one strike! That
was a bad place for a pitcher, and with Red Gilbat up it was worse.
Wehying swung longer and harder to get all his left behind the throw
and let drive. Red lunged and cracked the ball. It went up and up and
kept going up and farther out, and as the murmuring audience was slowly
transfixed into late realization the ball soared to its height and
dropped beyond the left-field fence. A home run!
Red Gilbat gathered up the tails of his duster, after the manner of a
neat woman crossing a muddy street, and ambled down to first base and
on to second, making prodigious jumps upon the bags, and round third,
to come down the home-stretch wagging his red head. Then he stood on
the plate, and, as if to exact revenge from the audience for the fun
they made of him, he threw back his shoulders and bellowed: "HAW!
HAW! HAW!"
Not a handclap greeted him, but some mindless, exceedingly adventurous
fan yelled: "Redhead! Redhead! Redhead!"
That was the one thing calculated to rouse Red Gilbat. He seemed to
flare, to bristle, and he paced for the bleachers.
Delaney looked as if he might have a stroke. "Grab him! Soak him with
a bat! Somebody grab him!"
But none of the Stars was risking so much, and Gilbat, to the howling
derision of the gleeful fans, reached the bleachers. He stretched his
long arms up to the fence and prepared to vault over. "Where's the guy
who called me redhead?" he yelled.
That was heaping fuel on the fire. From all over the bleachers, from
everywhere, came the obnoxious word. Red heaved himself over the fence
and piled into the fans. Then followed the roar of many voices, the
tramping of many feet, the pressing forward of line after line of
shirt-sleeved men and boys. That bleacher stand suddenly assumed the
maelstrom appearance of a surging mob round an agitated center. In a
moment all the players rushed down the field, and confusion reigned.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" moaned Delaney.
However, the game had to go on. Delaney, no doubt, felt all was over.
Nevertheless there were games occasionally that seemed an unending
series of unprecedented events. This one had begun admirably to break
a record. And the Providence fans, like all other fans, had cultivated
an appetite as the game proceeded. They were wild to put the other
redheads out of the field or at least out for the inning, wild to tie
the score, wild to win and wilder than all for more excitement. Clammer
hit safely. But when Reddie Ray lined to the second baseman, Clammer,
having taken a lead, was doubled up in the play.
Of course, the sixth inning opened with the Stars playing only eight
men. There was another delay. Probably everybody except Delaney and
perhaps Healy had forgotten the Stars were short a man. Fuller called
time. The impatient bleachers barked for action.
Capt. White came over to Delaney and courteously offered to lend a
player for the remaining innings. Then a pompous individual came out
of the door leading from the press boxes--he was a director Delaney
disliked.
"Guess you'd better let Fuller call the game," he said brusquely.
"If you want to--as the score stands now in our favor," replied Delaney.
"Not on your life! It'll be ours or else we'll play it out and beat
you to death."
He departed in high dudgeon.
"Tell Reddie to swing over a little toward left," was Delaney's order
to Healy. Fire gleamed in the manager's eye.
Fuller called play then, with Reddy Clammer and Reddie Ray composing
the Star outfield. And the Grays evidently prepared to do great
execution through the wide lanes thus opened up. At that stage it
would not have been like matured ball players to try to crop hits down
into the infield.
White sent a long fly back of Clammer. Reddy had no time to loaf on
this hit. It was all he could do to reach it and he made a splendid
catch, for which the crowd roundly applauded him. That applause was
wine to Reddy Clammer. He began to prance on his toes and sing out to
Scott: "Make 'em hit to me, old man! Make 'em hit to me!" Whether
Scott desired that or not was scarcely possible to say; at any rate,
Hanley pounded a hit through the infield. And Clammer, prancing high
in the air like a check-reined horse, ran to intercept the ball. He
could have received it in his hands, but that would never have served
Reddy Clammer. He timed the hit to a nicety, went down with his old
grand-stand play and blocked the ball with his anatomy. Delaney swore.
And the bleachers, now warm toward the gallant outfielder, lustily
cheered him. Babcock hit down the right-field foul line, giving
Clammer a long run. Hanley was scoring and Babcock was sprinting for
third base when Reddy got the ball. He had a fine arm and he made a
hard and accurate throw, catching his man in a close play.
Perhaps even Delaney could not have found any fault with that play.
But the aftermath spoiled the thing. Clammer now rode the air; he
soared; he was in the clouds; it was his inning and he had utterly
forgotten his team mates, except inasmuch as they were performing mere
little automatic movements to direct the great machinery in his
direction for his sole achievement and glory.
There is fate in baseball as well as in other walks of life. O'Brien
was a strapping fellow and he lifted another ball into Clammer's wide
territory. The hit was of the high and far-away variety. Clammer
started to run with it, not like a grim outfielder, but like one
thinking of himself, his style, his opportunity, his inevitable
success. Certain it was that in thinking of himself the outfielder
forgot his surroundings. He ran across the foul line, head up, hair
flying, unheeding the warning cry from Healy. And, reaching up to make
his crowning circus play, he smashed face forward into the bleachers
fence. Then, limp as a rag, he dropped. The audience sent forth a
long groan of sympathy.
"That wasn't one of his stage falls," said Delaney. "I'll bet he's
dead.... Poor Reddy! And I want him to bust his face!"
Clammer was carried off the field into the dressing room and a
physician was summoned out of the audience.
"Cap., what'd it--do to him?" asked Delaney.
"Aw, spoiled his pretty mug, that's all," replied Healy, scornfully.
"Mebee he'll listen to me now."
Delaney's change was characteristic of the man. "Well, if it didn't
kill him I'm blamed glad he got it.... Cap, we can trim 'em yet.
Reddie Ray'll play the whole outfield. Give Reddie a chance to run!
Tell the boy to cut loose. And all of you git in the game. Win or
lose, I won't forget it. I've a hunch. Once in a while I can tell
what's comin' off. Some queer game this! And we're goin' to win.
Gilbat lost the game; Clammer throwed it away again, and now Reddie
Ray's due to win it.... I'm all in, but I wouldn't miss the finish
to save my life."
Delaney's deep presaging sense of baseball events was never put to a
greater test. And the seven Stars, with the score tied, exhibited the
temper and timber of a championship team in the last ditch. It was so
splendid that almost instantly it caught the antagonistic bleachers.
Wherever the tired Scott found renewed strength and speed was a
mystery. But he struck out the hard-hitting Providence catcher and
that made the third out. The Stars could not score in their half of
the inning. Likewise the seventh inning passed without a run for
either side; only the infield work of the Stars was something superb.
When the eighth inning ended, without a tally for either team, the
excitement grew tense. There was Reddy Ray playing outfield alone, and
the Grays with all their desperate endeavors had not lifted the ball
out of the infield.
But in the ninth, Blake, the first man up, lined low toward right
center. The hit was safe and looked good for three bases. No one
looking, however, had calculated on Reddie's Ray's fleetness. He
covered ground and dove for the bounding ball and knocked it down.
Blake did not get beyond first base. The crowd cheered the play
equally with the prospect of a run. Dorr bunted and beat the throw.
White hit one of the high fast balls Scott was serving and sent it
close to the left-field foul line. The running Reddie Ray made on that
play held White at second base. But two runs had scored with no one
out.
Hanley, the fourth left-handed hitter, came up and Scott pitched to him
as he had to the others--high fast balls over the inside corner of the
plate. Reddy Ray's position was some fifty yards behind deep short,
and a little toward center field. He stood sideways, facing two-thirds
of that vacant outfield. In spite of Scott's skill, Hanley swung the
ball far round into right field, but he hit it high, and almost before
he actually hit it the great sprinter was speeding across the green.
The suspense grew almost unbearable as the ball soared in its parabolic
flight and the red-haired runner streaked dark across the green. The
ball seemed never to be coming down. And when it began to descend and
reached a point perhaps fifty feet above the ground there appeared more
distance between where it would alight and where Reddie was than
anything human could cover. It dropped and dropped, and then dropped
into Reddie Ray's outstretched hands. He had made the catch look easy.
But the fact that White scored from second base on the play showed what
the catch really was.
There was no movement or restlessness of the audience such as usually
indicated the beginning of the exodus. Scott struck Babcock out. The
game still had fire. The Grays never let up a moment on their
coaching. And the hoarse voices of the Stars were grimmer than ever.
Reddie Ray was the only one of the seven who kept silent. And he
crouched like a tiger.
The teams changed sides with the Grays three runs in the lead.
Morrissey, for the Stars, opened with a clean drive to right. Then
Healy slashed a ground ball to Hanley and nearly knocked him down.
When old Burns, by a hard rap to short, advanced the runners a base and
made a desperate, though unsuccessful, effort to reach first the
Providence crowd awoke to a strange and inspiring appreciation. They
began that most rare feature in baseball audiences--a strong and
trenchant call for the visiting team to win.
The play had gone fast and furious. Wehying, sweaty and disheveled,
worked violently. All the Grays were on uneasy tiptoes. And the Stars
were seven Indians on the warpath. Halloran fouled down the
right-field line; then he fouled over the left-field fence. Wehying
tried to make him too anxious, but it was in vain. Halloran was
implacable. With two strikes and three balls he hit straight down to
white, and was out. The ball had been so sharp that neither runner on
base had a chance to advance.
Two men out, two on base, Stars wanting three runs to tie, Scott, a
weak batter, at the plate! The situation was disheartening. Yet there
sat Delaney, shot through and through with some vital compelling force.
He saw only victory. And when the very first ball pitched to Scott hit
him on the leg, giving him his base, Delaney got to his feet, unsteady
and hoarse.
Bases full, Reddie Ray up, three runs to tie!
Delaney looked at Reddie. And Reddie looked at Delaney. The manager's
face was pale, intent, with a little smile. The player had eyes of
fire, a lean, bulging jaw and the hands he reached for his bat clutched
like talons.
"Reddie, I knew it was waitin' for you," said Delaney, his voice
ringing. "Break up the game!"
After all this was only a baseball game, and perhaps from the fans'
viewpoint a poor game at that. But the moment when that lithe,
redhaired athlete toed the plate was a beautiful one. The long crash
from the bleachers, the steady cheer from the grand stand, proved that
it was not so much the game that mattered.
Wehying had shot his bolt; he was tired. Yet he made ready for a final
effort. It seemed that passing Reddie Ray on balls would have been a
wise play at that juncture. But no pitcher, probably, would have done
it with the bases crowded and chances, of course, against the batter.
Clean and swift, Reddie leaped at the first pitched ball. Ping! For a
second no one saw the hit. Then it gleamed, a terrific drive, low
along the ground, like a bounding bullet, straight at Babcock in right
field. It struck his hands and glanced viciously away to roll toward
the fence.
Thunder broke loose from the stands. Reddie Ray was turning first
base. Beyond first base he got into his wonderful stride. Some
runners run with a consistent speed, the best they can make for a given
distance. But this trained sprinter gathered speed as he ran. He was
no short-stepping runner. His strides were long. They gave an
impression of strength combined with fleetness. He had the speed of a
race horse, but the trimness, the raciness, the delicate legs were not
characteristic of him. Like the wind he turned second, so powerful
that his turn was short. All at once there came a difference in his
running. It was no longer beautiful. The grace was gone. It was now
fierce, violent. His momentum was running him off his legs. He
whirled around third base and came hurtling down the homestretch. His
face was convulsed, his eyes were wild. His arms and legs worked in a
marvelous muscular velocity. He seemed a demon--a flying streak. He
overtook and ran down the laboring Scott, who had almost reached the
plate.
The park seemed full of shrill, piercing strife. It swelled, reached a
highest pitch, sustained that for a long moment, and then declined.
"My Gawd!" exclaimed Delaney, as he fell back. "Wasn't that a finish?
Didn't I tell you to watch them redheads!"