“I’ll explain it to you myself,” said Hal. “I’m not allowed to play to-day on account of this boil on my hand.”
“All right, then, I’ll surely go.”
When they got out to the grounds Hal found a couple of seats in the stand back of first which was his favorite place when watching a game, as from there he could see all of it and watch all the plays. When play started, though, he didn’t have much time to think of the game, he was so busy answering Parker’s questions.
When Parker had told him he didn’t know anything about the game of baseball, Hal thought of course, he didn’t mean that he knew nothing at all about it. He supposed Parker would know what the idea of the game was, but when Parker asked him what they had those big bean bags out there for, Hal commenced to realize that here was a fellow who didn’t know as much as a girl even about the great American game.
Once he had taken a girl cousin to see a game in California, and the foolish questions she asked him made him vow never to take a girl to a ball game again.
“What has that fellow got the cage on his face for?” was one of the first questions Parker asked.
“That’s Gibbie, the catcher,” answered Hal. “He stands behind the plate and he might get hit by a foul tip.”
“What’s a foul tip?” was the next question.
“A foul tip occurs when a batter strikes at a ball and almost misses it. The ball just touches the rounded side of the bat, and of course changes its direction. It does this so quickly that the catcher sometimes can’t see it and it might hit him on the head,” replied Hal.
“I see,” said Parker. This was during practice before the game.