C. S. Montanye

“ Grace’s pet ambition was to marry Rosie to some wealthy young man. Lots of people have peculiar ambitions.
Personally, I liked Rosie with all her faults. She called me Uncle Ed and had a habit of dropping in to see me at my sporting-goods store—whenever she needed money. She usually stopped in once a day. But as I say, I liked her.
And I felt sorry for her when the Trenton Tigers, Joe Bain’s hard-hitting, baseball nine, returned from their mid-August tour of the Jersey wilds and brought along Jerry Duke, alias the, “Million Dollar Money Hound.” ”

“ Bain snickered. “Jerry is a pitcher. He’s a discovery of mine. I picked him up,two weeks ago when we were in Sawtel. Out there they call him the Million Dollar Money Hound. He has an income of a thousand berries a week. Not so bad, eh?”
“Not at all. I suppose he blows the thousand on candy and cigars and so has to play ball for a living,” I remarked.
“Jerry Duke,” Bain said imperturbably, “plays ball to keep his mind occupied, and because he’s one of these baseball fiends who is unhappy unless he’s in action. He can’t bear idleness, money or no money. ”

“ You’ve always been crazy about entertaining people on hot summer nights. I’ll speak to Bain a little later. Perhaps the rest of the team would like to come, too.”
“Mr. Duke will be enough,” the wife answered frigidly.
After a while the game began. Harry Hurley, Trenton’s best catcher, handled Duke’s delivery. The Sawtel Dollar King was everything Bain had claimed he was with a little more added to it. The Ridgewood Raiders boasted an aggregation of the heaviest hitters in the league. And Duke was working with a strange team on a strange lot. ”

“ Duke remained as steady as the Rock of Gibraltar. In the seventh the Tigers staged a batting fest. The Trenton right fielder fouled out. The Trenton third baseman singled, but died stealing. Hurley rapped out a one-bagger, and while Duke was at bat the Newark pitcher caught the Tiger catcher off first. The White Sox baseman threw wild to second and Hurley reached the bag safely. ”

“ Grace queried in a limp voice.
Rosie looked back over her shoulder. “To use the telephone. I want to call up the Holly House and break an engagement I made with one of the members of the team. I’ll be back in a minute.” ”

“ For four straight innings he held the Raiders to a few stray hits and didn’t let a man get beyond first. He handed them an assortment of fast-breaking curves and some smoky, straight ones that had the Ridgewood crowd calling for the cops. ”