“I don’t agree with you,” Stillman returned decidedly. “There’s no denying that Elgin’s good. He’s got speed and fine curves and very fair control, but the combination of all three doesn’t always make a first-class pitcher. He’s got to pitch with his brain as well as his arm, and he’s got to have plenty of nerve, both of which qualities I’ve noticed in you. I’m curious to see what Elgin will do when he’s up against a real team.”
“Well, I hope the old man agrees with you,” Lefty returned. “It looks to me as if it would be a fight between us two as to which will be kept and which farmed out.”
“Why shouldn’t he keep you both?” the newspaper man inquired.
“Look at the corking bunch of regulars he has already,” Locke protested.
Stillman laughed. “Haven’t you got wise yet to the fact that a team can’t have too many good twirlers? A Big League season is a whole lot different from the ball you played last summer. It begins in April, and doesn’t end till October. It’s fight, fight, fight, week after week, month after month, with the knowledge that a single game, a single inning, sometimes even a single play, may start a slump. It’s hard, grilling work, and Brennan knows well that any minute one of his star twirlers may be down and out. He’s not running any chances, and you take my word for it that, if you and Elgin don’t fall down, he’ll keep you both.”
“You’re a real comfort, Jack,” Lefty said. “I’ll try not to slump. Wish I knew who was going on to the slab first to-morrow.”
“Don’t you?” the reporter asked, with sudden interest. “I thought he picked the team this afternoon.”
“So he did, all but the battery. Perhaps we’ll hear before bedtime. I’d sure like to go in. This will be rather different from the usual practice game.”
Stillman nodded emphatically. “You bet your boots! The first game with an outside team is usually an eye-opener. You fellows think you’re pretty hot stuff because you’ve trimmed the regulars a few times, forgetting that the old men take things so easy during training season that you’d hardly know they were working at all. Cy Russell lets you hit him a dozen times in a game; so does old Pop. I’ve seen you fan Dutch Siegrist twice running. Do you s’pose you could do that a month from now? Forget it! This game to-morrow is going to be a jolt for some lads, if what I hear about that wild Texas bunch is right. I wonder the old man would consent to a match so early. They usually aren’t pulled off till just before we start north.”
“Buck told me their manager had sent in a challenge, and the chief didn’t feel like turning it down,” Lefty remarked. “I s’pose he didn’t want to give ’em a chance to crow.”