“I don’t believe it. Even if he has, he can’t fill that field, and you must know it by this time. There are plenty of better men than he who are eager to get onto the nine.”
“Name a few of them.”
“Hershal, for one.”
“And would you advise me to drop Mason and take on Hershal?” asked Frank quietly.
“It would be worth trying.”
“Do you believe in experimenting at this stage of the season?”
“Not exactly in experimenting,” said Bart, uneasily. “But you have tried Mason and found him a fizzle.”
“Hodge, you know the condition in which I found things when I came back to college this spring. The prospects for a first-class ball-team did not look very bright. The coaches were worried and disgusted. The newspapers were saying Yale could not put a winning team onto the field. Everybody lacked confidence. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I had to do something. I went to my friends who had some ability to play and asked them to come out and take hold. I asked them to get out everybody who had any chance of making a player. You know how the cage was filled with new men. Some of them were no good and did not stay long, but the coaches were encouraged, and things began to look up. Confidence was restored, and people began to say Yale had a chance. The tone of the newspaper reports changed. Things began to go better. On the Easter trip I took along every man who was promising. From those men I made the nine as it now stands, and I am still confident that the team is all right. I have every reason to be confident. Yale, for all of prophecies to the contrary, has had a strong team on the field and has won a great majority of her games. I know the hard games are to come, but the team is pulling together better every day. As long as the men have confidence in each other and all work hard to win everything will go right. The moment they begin to pull apart things will begin to go wrong. Jealousy, petty hatred, small spite, and such feelings ruin many ball-teams.”