Bob Gowan’s confidence in his team was colossal. There was now no wavering uncertainty about him.
“Bet you a hundred we win this game, Grafter,” he promptly wheezed, producing his money.
“Go you,” said the Tammany man, diving into his pocket.
A stakeholder was agreed upon, and the money placed in his hands.
“Just because you happened to beat the New York Nationals you seem to think you can’t be downed,” grunted Grafter.
“I know something about baseball, Mike,” retorted Gowan, with unusual animation. “I know we have the team to beat anything in the country.”
“That’s right,” nodded McGann. “Every year the big leagues throw over enough clever youngsters to make another league. Out of the discards a champion team can be selected by any man who knows his business. I give Hugh Hurley the credit of knowing his business. He knows a baseball player by instinct. He picked up this team. If we were in either of the big leagues we would be pennant winners. Look how our boys work together. They are like the individual parts of a perfect machine. Every man seems to have brains, and brains count in this game. We didn’t get all the good men discarded. We tried for Josslyn, the young wizard twirler that Collins of the Bostons was chump enough to hand over to Providence. If we’d landed him, we’d had two of the greatest youngsters in the business. You know what Josslyn has been doing. He shut out Newark six to nothing in the first game he pitched for Providence, and he’s been making batters blink and fan ever since. Still Collins is called one of the shrewdest managers in the American League. They all make mistakes of this sort. He hung onto a certain old-stager on account of his reputation, when Josslyn could pitch right round the old boy any day in the week. I’d like to get against the great bean-eating champs. Oh, say! we wouldn’t do a thing to ’em!”
Grafter grinned.
“You have a bad case of it,” he said. “Better have your head clamped before it gets any bigger.”
“Results count,” retorted McGann. “This will make our fifteenth victory, without a defeat.”