“Meaning just now? Was I specially rude, Joey? Maybe I was a bit nasty. Well, never mind. You can’t really hurt Handsome Frank’s feelings. If you could he’d be black-and-blue by this time!”
“Black and blue are the only things he wasn’t,” said Joe. “He was about every other colour; buff and green and purple and lavender——”
“Shucks! He was dressed real quietly today; almost unostentatiously, so to speak! You ought to see him when he’s really dolled up! Now, look here, Joey. If you don’t buckle down and play ball and beat him out of his position at first I’ll never forgive you.”
“But, Jack, I can’t play first the way he can!”
“How do you know? You’ve never seen him play. Besides, you can out-hit him. Leastways, if you can’t you ought to be ashamed. And it’s batting that’s going to count this spring, old man. Petersburg has got a line of good pitchers this year and Bat will be going on the policy that hits mean runs. So you get your eye peeled, Joey, and win that bet for me.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be much of a batter,” said Joe sadly.
“Poppycock and piffle! You can hit the merry sphere just as well as anyone can if you’ll only tell yourself so. Look here, what you want to do is to go out there and when the ball comes say to yourself, ‘It’s so big I can’t miss it if I try! Why, it’s a cinch. Bing! That for you, Mr. Ball!’ Try it and see how well it will work.”
“You’re great on the psychology stuff, aren’t you?” laughed Joe.
“I don’t know the gentleman,” answered Jack serenely. “I only know that no chap ever became a decent batsman by telling himself that he was no good! Confidence, my friend, confidence! That’s the—er—the password, no, the keynote, to success! Think it over. Now, let’s go in and see how much money we’ve taken in this morning. Ah, as usual, Young has his Roman mob around the place. If he doesn’t make those loafers stay away we’ll get notice to quit, I’m thinking.”