Lester Chadwick

“ Joe was the next at bat, and the air became a medley of sounds as he took up his position at the plate.
“Win your own game, Joe!”
“Knock the cover off the ball!”
“Give it a ride!”
“Show them where you live!”
Rance looked Joe over with exceeding care. At that juncture he would rather have had any other man in the league facing him.
“Sizing me up, Dizzy?” asked Baseball Joe, with a grin. “Don’t you know it’s impolite to stare at a man that way? It makes me feel as though I were a suspicious character.” ”

“ To-morrow morning the sporting page of every newspaper in the country will have a big story of how Baseball Joe, the idol of the fans, the mainstay of the Giants, the most famous pitcher the game ever knew, climbed the stairs of a burning house and brought an old woman on his shoulder through the flames. Swell chance you’ll have to keep it from Mabel! And, after all, why should you want to? She’ll be worried of course, but she’ll be as proud as Punch. Though, heaven knows, she doesn’t need to be any prouder of you than she is. ”

“ No one has ever escaped it if he has remained any length of time in the game. But it had happened so seldom to Joe that it came upon him this time with crushing force.
The crowd, too, seemed stunned. It was almost unbelievable. Baseball Joe, the king of pitchers, the idol of the fans, the hero so recently of that wonderful no-hit game about which people were still talking—Baseball Joe batted out of the box!
But there was the fact that the Bostons were hitting him almost at will, that they had scored four runs in that inning with only one man out. ”

“ Of late they had been clawing their way through the other teams in their section and they were full of pep and ginger as they opened in New York.
An immense crowd that filled every seat in the grandstand and bleachers was on hand to witness the first combat. The traditional rivalry between the two cities that had existed since the days of “Pop” Anson and Frank Chance could always be depended on to furnish contests that would be for blood from the first stroke of the gong.
Evans, the Chicago manager, himself a famous veteran of the game, strolled up to McRae and shook hands. ”

“ I’ll never be satisfied as long as I am in the game. If I strike out eight men, I’ll be sore because I didn’t make it ten. If I make a base hit, I’ll kick myself because it wasn’t a double, a three-bagger, or a homer.”
“That’s the way I like to hear a man talk,” came in a hearty voice from behind him, and Joe turned to see McRae, the veteran manager of the Giants, who had led his men to more championships than any other in either league. ”

“ As for McRae and Robbie, their relief and delight were beyond words.
“Wrigglin’ snakes!” ejaculated Robbie. “Such pitching! Such batting! Joe, old boy, I thought I was going to die of heart failure!”
“You won the game almost alone, Joe,” declared McRae as he wrung his hand. “I never saw anything like it. They’ll be barring you from the league if you pitch many games like that. They’ll figure that no other team has a chance.”
Elwood himself, although a hard loser, was a good sport, and came over to extend his congratulations.
“I’m as sore as a boil at losing the game, Matson,” he said. ”

“ That Jim was right was demonstrated as the game progressed. Never did Joe justify more fully his great reputation. He had his opponents swinging like a gate. In vain did they resort to bunting, to kicking at the umpire’s decisions, to trying to get hit by the ball. They were one of the heaviest hitting teams in the league, but in that game Joe made them look like bushers.
Inning after inning went by while the spectators watched breathlessly. Man after man of the Pirates went up to the bat, only to be turned back by Joe’s wizardry of arm and brain. ”

“ No team in the league could have beaten you to-day.”
Jim Barclay was in the seventh heaven of delight. For weeks past his heart had been as heavy as lead at Joe’s unexplainable slump. Now it was as light as thistledown.
“You were the old master for fair to-day, Joe,” he said exultingly, as after the game he and his chum made their way to their hotel. “They couldn’t touch you, couldn’t come within a mile of you. And how you whaled the ball!”
“Well,” laughed Joe, “as Reggie said, one swallow doesn’t make a drink, but I hope that this is a good omen for the rest of the trip. ”

“ You just saw them speak to this man. But any fan at a ball game may speak to another. No, the only chance you have is to get this scientific bug and trust that he’ll peach on them.”
They were sorely disappointed, but they recognized the truth of what O’Brien said. They had not a scintilla of legal evidence as yet, and a premature accusation would simply put Harrish and Tompkinson on their guard. They must wait.
But despite their chagrin, the hearts of Joe and Jim were simply singing at their discovery of the morning. No more mystery! No more apprehension! No more sleepless nights! ”

“ The faces of McRae and Robbie were a study as Joe unfolded the rascally scheme. Incredulity, conviction, and rage beyond expression succeeded each other in turn.
“The scoundrels! The skunks! The thieves!” gasped Robbie, his face apoplectic.
McRae leaped for the telephone.
“This you, O’Brien?” he said when he had secured the extension he wanted. “Listen, Tom. Come up here to the Polo Grounds on the jump. Bring a good man with you. Yes, one will be enough. We’ll give you any further help you want. ”

“ Everywhere was light, color, eagerness and hilarity. The crowd was out for a good time and had no doubt about getting it.
In the Giants’ clubhouse there was an air of confidence and elation as the men changed into their uniforms. They had come back from the South in the pink of condition and full of pep and ginger.
When they were ready to go out on the field Baseball Joe gathered his men together for a little talk.
“Now, boys,” the young captain said as the players clustered about him, “we’re out for another championship.” ”

“ Joe asked of Miles as he faced him.
“Try to straighten out this one,” challenged Miles, as he put over a fast incurve between knee and waist.
Joe caught it full and square and the ball sailed out between right and center. The fielders took one look at it and threw up their hands. It soared into the center field bleachers, where one of the fans pocketed it as a souvenir of one of the longest and cleanest home run clouts ever made on Forbes Field. ”

“ Joe said to Jim, who was standing out of range of the window, rubbing his arm. “Though of course,” he added, “I have no doubt as to who they are.”
“Harrish and Tompkinson of course,” remarked Jim. “They’re the subtle scoundrels who’ve engineered this thing. The old man is simply their tool. And now they’re congratulating him on the way he’s done his work. They can already hear the rustling of that two hundred thousand dollars they’re going to win.” ”

“ For that matter, almost all the teams have a chance. I don’t remember a season when [65] there have been so many dark horses that may at any time show up in front.”
“So much the better,” observed Jim. “It’s a good thing for the game. As long as every team has a chance the games are fought for blood and the boys are on their toes all the time. If there’s anything I hate, it’s a baseball procession with one or two up in front and the others straggling far behind.”
“I can scarcely wait for the bell to ring,” said Joe. “I never felt so eager for the fight in my life. ”

“ It seemed a sure hit, as it was well over the shortstop’s head. But Trench made a stupendous leap and collared the ball with his gloved hand.
Burkett had started toward second, thinking the ball was safe, and before he could get back [89] to the bag Trench had sent the ball whistling down to first, completing the snappiest double play of the day.
It was one of the miraculous stops that make baseball the most fascinating game in the world, and though it killed their hopes, the Giant supporters were as generous in their applause as the partisans of the team from across the bridge. ”

“ The catcher too was on the alert. The chances of a clean steal home were too heavy to take. It would be little less than suicide.
But Joe was not yet at the end of his tether.
He stepped off the bag and edged along just far enough to draw a throw from Axander. The ball came like a shot into the hands of Henderson. Joe saw the look of triumph in the latter’s eyes. He made an apparent effort to go back that brought him within five feet of the third baseman. Then, as though finding he was trapped, he turned toward home with Henderson after him with outstretched arm. ”

“ New York is the richest team in the league. The club has unlimited money and it can buy the best talent. It can get men that the other clubs are unable to buy. You know it’s common talk that while other managers have to develop their stars all McRae has to do is to buy them.”
“I’ve heard that old wheeze!” exclaimed Joe indignantly. “I want to nail it right here as a falsehood. To be sure McRae has money, but the money wouldn’t do him any good if he didn’t know what to buy. He’s the best judge of ball players in the country. ”

“ Thompson, the Brooklyn manager, was furious.
“If you can’t hit him why don’t you wait him out?” he snarled to his discomfited henchmen. “If we can only get a man on base, he may work himself around.”
“Wait him out!” returned Trench. “That would be suicide, the way that bird is working the corners of the plate. He isn’t giving any bases on balls. If we don’t strike at ’em the umpire will call ’em strikes anyway. We might as well die one way as another.”
“You’re a lot of old women,” growled Thompson. “I’m going to fire this team and get another from the Old Ladies’ Home.” ”

“ They were as helpless as babes.
Elwood stormed and raged at his men, but all to no purpose. He put in pinch hitters until his batting order looked like a crazy quilt. Joe did the pinching. They did no hitting.
Miles was doing excellent work, but compared with Joe’s it was like a tallow candle to an electric light. ”

“ Larry, who had come to the bat full of pep, was somewhat disconcerted by this order, but it spoke well for the discipline that Joe as captain had infused into the team that he did not think of disobeying.
He stooped down to fasten his shoelace while Axander, all ready to pitch, fumed and fretted at the delay. His nerves were strained to the highest tension and anything a little out of the usual order tended to throw him out of his stride. ”

“ If the dividend is to be passed, we can buy for a fall. If it’s going to be increased, we buy for a rise. In either case we make money.”
“In other words you’re betting on a sure thing,” remarked Joe dryly, with a growing distaste for his companions.
“Doesn’t seem exactly sportsmanlike, does it?” smiled Harrish. “As a matter of fact, we don’t put it that way. It is simply capitalizing our knowledge, a perfectly legitimate thing to do.”
“But the money you make is lost by somebody else,” remarked Joe.
“That’s their lookout,” said Tompkinson. “They don’t have to buy or sell unless they want to. ”

“ Steadily the gap widened between the Giants and the Pittsburghs and the Cubs, their most formidable competitors. It seemed as though one of the records that Joe had hung up as a goal was sure to be realized, namely that the Giants should win more games than they ever had before in a single season. ”

“ But now get busy, you fellows,” he stormed at his men. “Are you going to let Joe do it all alone? He can hold the other fellows down, but it’s up to you to give him some runs. Get up there now and knock the cover off the ball.”
It seemed at first that his adjurations would have their effect. Jackwell and Bowen cracked out two singles in succession. It looked as though the long expected rally had arrived.
Robbie ran down to first on the coaching lines, his face as red as the setting sun. ”