“And you’re the only catcher on the Fairhaven team?”
“I opine I am. Some of the others might go under the bat, but they don’t advertise themselves as catchers.”
“There’s no other man on the team who can hold Merriwell, is there?”
“I don’t like to get swelled up in my statements, Mr. Fernald; but I will say that Dick and I are a whole lot familiar with each other, and work pretty well together.”
The Rockford manager smiled.
“That’s right,” he confessed. “I have watched you, and you work together like machinery. Without a catcher behind the bat who knows him thoroughly and can hold him, Merriwell would not be particularly effective. Surely he couldn’t use that so-called combination ball. It would fool a catcher just as much as it fools a batter. Whatever that combination ball is, it’s a case of luck when a batter hits it fairly. Of course, I know it’s no combination rise and drop, for that’s impossible.”
“You think so,” laughed Brad. “I don’t blame you any, Mr. Fernald; but I’ll bet something some of your players will tell you it is a combined rise and drop.”
Fernald shook his head.
“I know it’s something mighty odd,” was his acknowledgment; “but reason teaches me that a ball can’t be thrown in such a manner that it will curve in one direction and reverse and curve in another. Merriwell apparently throws a rise to start with, but it’s his style of delivery that makes the ball seem to rise. He throws it with a rotary movement that finally turns it into a drop.”
“It certain appears that you’ve figured the thing out to your satisfaction; but what are you driving at?”