A high ball followed. To Crockett it seemed as if the ball would pass over the plate level with his shoulders. As he swung to meet it the ball seemed to take a singular outward and upward sweep, and he missed.
“What sort of a curve was that?” growled Anson, who had been watching closely. “Looked like a high out-rise to me.”
“Out-rise!” sneered Warren. “Who ever heard of an out-rise?”
“Well, that’s what it looked like,” nodded Anson. “You know this fellow has some mighty odd curves.”
“Well, we’re ready for his old jump ball to-day,” retorted Warren. “We’ve practiced to hit a sharp rise, and he will find his jump ball n. g.”
“But you know he has a queer combination rise and drop,” said Milliken.
“Don’t know anything of the kind,” asserted Warren. “It’s an impossibility. The way he delivers a ball makes it seem to rise and drop, that’s all.”
“Well, anyhow, he has the reputation of throwing it,” said Milliken.
Crockett was anxious to start the thing with a hit, and Dick found himself compelled to work cautiously with the fellow, for, even though desiring a hit, the batter was one who refused to be deceived by ordinary methods.
With three balls and two strikes called, the batter and pitcher paused an instant to look hard at each other.