“What seems to be the matter with this pitcher of yours?” Merriwell asked a little later.
“Poor control,” Gardiner answered briefly. “He’s got excellent curves, but he’s wild. Some days he is fine, especially if we have things our own way from the start. But let the other side get a few hits off him to begin with, and he seems to go all to pieces.”
Dick took out his pocketbook, and selecting a bill, handed it to the waiter.
“That’s a bad fault,” he commented. “Curves are no earthly use unless a man can control them. Does he use his head?”
Gardiner hesitated a moment.
“Well—sometimes,” he said slowly. “I hate to knock a man, especially a fellow I don’t like, but you can’t very well help us much unless you know all about him. Morrison’s great trouble is a case of abnormally swelled head. Up to a month ago we had another pitcher we could fall back on. He didn’t have many fancy stunts, but he was steady, and in the long run he made a better record than Morrison. But he had to leave town, and since then Edgar seems to have the idea that he’s the whole team and that we can’t get along without him. He’s a great masher, and when he’s on the slab he spends more time thinking how he can make a hit with the girls in the grand stand than in preventing the batters from making a hit in the box. We’ve had several run-ins on that account, but there’s no reasoning with a fellow like that. I freely confess that, personally, I don’t like him; but I hope that fact hasn’t made me unfair.”
He looked questioningly at Ralph Maxwell.
“It hasn’t,” the latter declared quickly. “You haven’t been hard enough on him. The fellow doesn’t make any pretense at training. There’s hardly a night that he isn’t to be found at Dolan’s Café on Front Street. I don’t mean that he gets jagged, but he certainly drinks and smokes a lot there; and you can’t tell me that a fellow can play good ball when he spends his time that way.”
Dick picked up his change from the silver tray the waiter had just laid in front of him, and they all arose and started for the door.
“You’re up against a hard proposition,” said Merriwell. “It’s always difficult to do anything with a man like that. They usually resent advice and never by any chance follow it. How is your catcher?”