“This’ll be different. You know the way you do when you take a tennis racket and try to keep the ball bouncing against a wall or a floor? Well, that’s the same idea. It teaches you quickness and sureness, doesn’t it?”
“I guess so. All right, we’ll have a go at it tomorrow. Have you a bat at home?”
“Yes, and some old balls. I’ll bring them down tomorrow and we’ll try the scheme. We’ve got to do something to beat Handsome Frank, that’s certain!”
“You do hate him, don’t you?” laughed Joe.
“No, I don’t hate him one mite,” replied Jack seriously. “I even have a sort of sneaking liking for the chump. But I do love to take him down a notch or two whenever I can. Besides, I want that bat-case!”
CHAPTER XIII
THE FIRST GAME
The game with the grammar school team came off the following Tuesday on extremely damp grounds and under weather conditions far from ideal. Although it was the first of April, the wind was in the northeast and it blew across the playing field with a most unfriendly ferocity. The game didn’t begin until ten minutes past four, and by that time the few spectators who had courageously turned out to witness the team’s début were shivering with the cold and had deserted the stands to keep their blood in circulation by moving about.
Joe, wrapped in a sweater, hands in pockets, sat with a dozen other substitutes on the home bench and tried to keep his teeth from chattering. It had been agreed that, because of the weather conditions and the lateness of the starting time, the game was to go but six innings. High School presented a batting-list composed, with two exceptions, of seasoned material. Gordon Smith, shortstop, led off, followed by Sidney Morris and Jack Strobe. Sidney played centre field and was a good hitter. Smith could be relied on to get his base five times out of ten under ordinary circumstances, and Jack was in third place as cleanup hitter. Buster Healey, second baseman; Steve Hale, third baseman; Frank Foley, first baseman, batted in that order, following Jack. Healey was a good but erratic hitter, Foley at best could be called fair, and Hale, a newcomer on the team this spring, was still an unknown quantity. Captain Craig followed Frank Foley. Then came Walter Cummings, another unproved hitter, and, finally, the pitcher, who today happened to be Toby Williams.