“We licked them when they had the advantage of being on their own lot,” said Fred Penny who was sitting in the stand with Johnny King, “and I guess now we have them on our own lot, we will make it two straight.”
The practice before the game gave the crowd a chance to pay their particular respects to the individual members of the team, by special songs and cheers for each of them. The band played “Hail to the Chief” once for the President and two or three times for Hughie. Then each member of the team was introduced to the President, and as each member of the team came up the Noise Club announced:
Here he is—HONUS.
What’s the matter with HONUS?
And then everybody would sing:
For he’s a jolly good player,
For he’s a jolly good player,
For he’s a jolly good player,
Which Jefferson can’t deny.
And they gave a special yell for each of the particular stars of the first game. It was enough to make any player nervous and anxious and it’s a wonder it didn’t. What it did do, however, was to make every one of the boys take a special vow to play the game of his life that day.
Again the two men in the blue suits and blue caps trotted out on the field. Again the umpire, who was to work behind the bat (this time it was M. S. Lee), consulted with Hughie and Church. The gong sounded. The umpire said, “Play ball.” The Lowell boys trotted out onto the field to their positions. Again the umpire took off his cap, faced the stands and said:
“Ladies and gentlemen: The batteries for to-day’s game are Cam, pitcher; Brest, catcher for Jefferson. Radams, pitcher; Gibbs, catcher for Lowell. Cam and Brest for Jefferson. Radams and Gibbs for Lowell—Batter up.”
This time Laird of the Western school stepped quietly to the plate. He looked at Radams and Radams looked at him. Each was studying the other, though to-day Radams had a little advantage. He had seen Laird at bat and Black had gone over the other game carefully with him so he knew something about each of the batters. At least he was sure he did have a slight advantage, and so he did not hesitate an instant, but began to shoot them over. The second big game was on.