Lester Chadwick

“ But neither in that inning nor in the next three, did the promised runs come in. Hamilton, the Chicago pitcher, was at his best, and his famous drop ball was working to perfection. It seemed as though the game were going to resolve itself into a duel between the pitchers, and the crowd held its breath as man after man went down before the rival boxmen.
“Isn’t he a wizard?” exclaimed McRae, as Joe mowed the enemy down as fast as they came to the plate. “They’re so much putty in his hands. That rise ball of his has a jump on it that’s got those fellows buffaloed. They miss it by six inches.” ”

“ I’m afraid I’ve been a fool, don’t you know.”
“Nonsense,” said Joe encouragingly. “We all make mistakes. The fool is not the man who makes a mistake but the one who makes the same mistake twice. The perfectly wise man has never yet been born. At least, if he has I’ve never met him.”
“It’s awfully good of you to talk that way,” replied Reggie, “and it makes it easier for me to tell you what I’ve got to say. But before I go any further, let me ask you one question: Have you seen anything of that Talham Tabbs I mentioned in my telegram?” ”

“ Only a young fellow in his “first season” can know how utterly friendless and forlorn he is sometimes made to feel.
But in baseball, as in everything else, “nothing succeeds like success.” Joe had “arrived.” He had stood the gaff and won his spurs by the hard ordeal of actual battle. He had faced the best batters of the country and outguessed them. He had won his right to a place in the inner circle. And here he was on a plane of equality and talking as a friend and comrade with Hughson, the king of them all.
It was in no spirit of vainglory that Joe recalled these things. ”

“ The next was a ball.
“He’s in the hole now!” yelled the Boston coachers. “He can’t get it over. He’s going up.”
Joe did his best to get the next one over the rubber, but he had not warmed up enough yet to get perfect control, and the umpire waved the batter down to first. He ran down, laughing derisively, while his comrades moved up to second and third.
“All over now but the shouting,” was the cry that went up from the enemy’s coaching lines. “We don’t need to hit the ball. Just leave him alone and he’ll win the game for us.” ”

“ It was with a sigh of relief that he found himself at last within the welcome shelter of the club’s quarters.
His comrades were not far behind him and came tumbling in pell-mell, filled with delight at having the game snatched from the fire at the last moment.
“Gee!” said Larry. “That was a close call! I never saw a prettier double!”
“You’re some pitcher, Joe!” cried Red Curry. “I thought we were goners sure with those three men on the bags.” ”

“ Then, too, we’re pretty sure to be well up in the race and fighting for the lead, instead of being down in the ruck. You don’t know how much difference that makes to a player. Instead of being in the doleful dumps, he’s feeling as frisky and gay as a two year old. But the most important thing of all is that with a good club he has smart, snappy fielding behind him, and that makes him feel that he’d pitch his head off to win. With the Giants’ brilliant infield behind me, many a hard-hit ball will be turned into an out where with a poorer club it would go as a hit. ”

“ Get up on your toes and play the game.”
“By George, old man, it’s good to hear you talk that way!” cried Reggie, with a sudden accession of hope. “I get so moody and dopey mulling the thing over to myself that I lose heart. But you’re right. I’ll pull myself together and fight the thing out to a finish.”
“That’s the real stuff,” approved Joe. “The man can’t stay hidden forever, and any day may see the end of the chase. I have a feeling that you’re going to win out. But there’s one thing I’d do, old fellow. Tell Mabel all about it. As you said yourself one time, she’s a thoroughbred. ”

“ You must remember, too, that all the teams on the circuit play harder against the New Yorks than they do against any other team. They take a special delight in downing the Giants before their home crowds, and they always save up their best pitchers for those occasions. So, take it altogether, there’s only a mere chance to win my twenty games during the season. I’m going to take that chance, though,” and into Joe’s eyes came a steely look that would have delighted McRae if that fighting leader of the Giants could have seen it. ”

“ If the baseball players are ‘slaves,’ as they sometimes like to call themselves, they’re the most happy and well paid slaves in the world, and there are lots that would like to change places with them and wear their chains.”
“Do you suppose you will get a bigger salary than you had in St. Louis?” asked his father.
“It’s almost a sure thing that I shall,” replied Joe, hopefully. “If I was worth three thousand dollars a year to the Cardinals, even before I had made good, I ought to get at least four thousand or a little more to start with on the Giants.” ”

“ Joe was slated to pitch that day, and as he did not like to eat a heavy meal immediately before the game, he had come down for a light lunch earlier than the rest of the team.
Hartley came up to him with a pleasant smile.
“I’m sorry I spoke to you the way I did yesterday, Matson,” he said. “But I was feeling sore and wanted to take it out on somebody. I hope there’s no hard feelings.”
“Not in the least,” said Joe, whose nature was too large to cherish a grudge. “Any man is liable to say what he doesn’t mean when things aren’t going just right. ”

“ But now he was expecting very soon the call of his team to go with them to a southern training camp, to prepare for the coming season, and for some time past he had been faithfully training in the Riverside gymnasium, where we found him when this story opened.
He was a fast and seasoned runner—any one in a big league has to be, or he would not last long—but it seemed to him he had never run as fast and hard as now when he was rushing toward the lumber yard. He knew that what was to be done had to be done quickly. And he shuddered, as he thought of the helpless baby in the grasp of a lunatic. ”

“ Mabel declared. “You surely wouldn’t have the heart to lose after I’ve come all the way from Goldsboro.”
“I haven’t any heart to lose anyway,” replied Joe. “I lost that long ago.”
“I see Hughson is going to pitch the first game,” said Mabel, hastily changing the subject to a safer ground. “Do you think he will win?”
“Sure I do,” replied Joe, enthusiastically. “He’s the greatest pitcher that ever threw a ball.”
“They say there’s a good deal of professional jealousy among artists,” laughed Mabel, “but you don’t seem to be troubled that way.” ”

“ Joe put on steam and fanned the rest of the side, but the damage had been done. In so close a game as that, three runs seemed like a winning lead.
McRae was raging, and stormed among his players like a cyclone as they came in to bat.
“Get after them!” he cried, furiously. “Give Matson something to go on. Your bats have holes in them. You’re hitting like a lot of old women. Knock the ball out of the lot. We’ve got to win.”
[240]
They made a gallant effort and got two men on bases. But although they hit the ball hard a Chicago fielder always seemed to be in front of it. ”

“ Varley was especially interested in Joe’s contract and bonus, and his chance of getting into the World’s Series. It is more than likely that the shrewd business man already saw [141] what way the wind was blowing and guessed pretty well the nature of the question that Joe hoped some day to ask him. Reggie was gayer than he had been for a long time, now that he had determined to share his secret with his sister. And Mabel, winsome, sweet, bewitching, worked such havoc with her smiles and eyes and dimples that poor Joe was more hopelessly enslaved than ever. ”

“ One thing that pleased him immensely was the success of the scheme he had carried through with Dick Talbot. True to his promise, Dick had been on hand at the appointed time with his camera and they had carried out the program he had suggested. Joe broke the white sheet of paper stretched between the bamboo poles so repeatedly and conclusively that only an idiot could have questioned that he had curved the ball. And it is only fair to state that when the film was reeled off before the astonished eyes of Professor Enoch Crabbe he admitted this fact. ”

“ MAKING GOOD
“Ladies and gentlemen!” roared the umpire, taking off his cap, “Matson now pitching for the New Yorks!”
There was a yell of applause from the packed stands to greet the newcomer. There had been a great deal of curiosity stirred up by the newspaper accounts of Joe’s exploit with the madman, and the crowd was in a friendly mood. Besides, they realized that they ought to encourage him at this critical time when the game hung in the balance. So they cheered him loyally, though not many thought he could win with such a handicap. ”

“ It isn’t often that we have a chance to entertain a hero.”
Joe shook his finger at her menacingly, as with a laugh she entered the door that was opened by a servant.
“I suppose Mabel was referring to that scrap you had with Talham Tabbs,” said Reggie, as he guided the car to the garage in the rear of the house.
“Yes,” replied Joe, “as luck would have it, one of the New York papers got hold of that and played it up strong. Mabel happened to get hold of it on the train and she’s given it a good deal more importance than it is worth.” ”

“ So chummy did they become that Joe proposed that they room together during their stay in the training camp. Barclay jumped eagerly at the chance and on a word to the manager the matter was so arranged.
In due time the train rolled into Marlin Springs and the pilgrims disembarked, glad to stretch their legs after the long journey. A big crowd of citizens and officials of the town were on hand to give them a boisterous greeting, and the village band struck up a triumphal march as the band of athletes moved on to the hotel. They made a splendid picture of physical manhood. ”

“ There isn’t one man in a million that would have thought and acted so quickly and skillfully. So there now, Mr. Hero,” she added in a lighter tone, to conceal her real feeling.
Joe, whose head was in a whirl and who was not quite sure whether he was in Goldsboro or Heaven or a blending of both, was about to reply when a well-known voice fell on his ears:
“Hello, Sis! Why, Joe Matson, by all that’s lucky! What good wind blew you into Goldsboro? Welcome to our city.”
And the next minute Reggie had grasped his [135] hand and was shaking it as though he would wring it off. ”

“ You’re the whole thing in Riverside.
“But say, Joe,” Dick went on jokingly, “why didn’t you wait to pull this thing off till I reached town with my little camera. My, what a scene for a moving picture! I’d have given my eyes to have a crack at it. Wild-eyed madman, holding baby above his head; frightened mob in the yard below; handsome young pitcher hurling the ball of ice. Say, I could have made a fortune with that film. All of the managers would have been crazy to get hold of it.”
“Oh, cut it out,” remonstrated Joe. “The whole bunch of you are making far too much out of it. ”

“ If every one were left free to act entirely for himself, the big leagues would go to pieces in less than no time. Players would be jumping from one team to another every week, and no manager would know what he had to depend on. There’s such a tremendous amount of money invested—you couldn’t buy out the Giant club at this minute for less than two million dollars—that the men at the head have to take some means to protect themselves. ”

“ We old boys are the has-beens. There are only four [114] of our old team left. All the others have crossed the Great Divide.”
“Their memory won’t die, though, as long as there is a baseball fan left in these United States,” declared Joe. “Why, there’s scarcely a ‘fanning bee’ that I’ve ever been in, but what the name of the famous old Red Stockings comes up in some way or other. They’ve left a mark upon the game that will never grow dim.” ”

“ And Robson soon had to admit that what he could do was “plenty.” Before long, it had become clear that, whoever might be sent back to the bushes, Jim would not be among them.
As for Joe himself, he had never been in finer shape at the beginning of a season. He had “speed to burn.” The ball shot over the plate, like a bullet from a gun. His control was nearly perfect. He made the ball fairly “talk.” He won a game from the strong Houston team with comparative ease and saved another from Waco after Markwith had been batted out of the box. ”

“ These predictions interested Joe, but were not especially convincing. He had seen so many “good things” go wrong, so many teams strong [125] on paper “come a cropper,” while those who were only given an outside chance by the baseball scribes came up from the ruck, that he had become an habitual resident of “Missouri,” and had to be “shown.” Moreover, this was a New York paper, and he knew that local sheets in the seven other cities of the National League were industriously trying to prove, to their own satisfaction at least, that their favorite sons could not lose. ”

“ McRae grinned.
“I can see that you’ve been figuring on it,” he rejoined. “It’s too early in the season to make any promises. A good deal will depend upon how my veterans come along. But I don’t mind telling you that I’m going to figure you as one of my first-string pitchers and give you your regular turn in the box. The rest will depend on you. I play no favorites. I’m out to win from the first crack of the bat, and it’s the man who wins his games that makes a hit with me. Whether you’ve been ten years in the league or one doesn’t cut any ice. ”

“ Have you ever seen one?”
“I’ve only seen one in my life,” answered Joe. “They are pretty scarce birds and often the league goes through a whole season without one being made. And when they do happen, it’s an infielder who makes it. I don’t exactly see how an outfielder could pull it off.”
“I don’t think it has ever been done but once,” returned Wilson, “and I had the luck to be playing in that game. Paul Hines, the center fielder of the Providence Club, was the player who turned the trick. ”