“Piffle! At least, you’re a member of the First Team, even if you don’t play all the time, and you’ll get your letter, too, before the season’s over. Next month Bat will be putting you in somewhere for four or five innings at a whack. Then, if you get into the Petersburg game you’ll get your A.”
“Yes, but what’s to keep Bat from getting tired of seeing me sitting around and letting me go long before that?” asked Joe dismally.
“Everything! He’s got to have at least two substitute infielders, hasn’t he? And you’re one of them, aren’t you? Anyway, if you keep on batting as well as you’ve been doing it he won’t dare to let you go. Speaking of that, Joey, I guess we’ve done about all we can with that parlour baseball stunt of ours in the cage. We might as well call that off, I think.”
“Especially as we’ve missed about every other day lately,” Joe laughed.
“I know. It’s too warm now to feel ambitious. All a fellow wants to do at recess is lie on his back and watch the clouds go over and wonder where they get the energy to do it! You can’t say, though, that that scheme of mine hasn’t worked.”
“I don’t try to. It did me a lot of good, Jack. I—I almost think that by next year I’ll be a fairly good hitter.”
“You’ll be that this year if you keep on improving. Tom is the only fellow you can’t hit about as you like. And that’s no disgrace to you, because Tom Pollock is about as good a pitcher as you’ll find in the State, and I’m not excepting professionals, either!”
“Toby told me the other day that Tom has a chance to go to a league team whenever he wants to.”
“I should say he had! Why, three or four teams have been after him. He could get a try-out with Detroit tomorrow if he wanted it. But Tom says he’s going to college next Fall, and, of course, he wants to play ball there.”
“I should think he would. I wish I thought I could go to college, Jack.”