“Not on a fly. He has to wait until the ball is caught. After a fly is caught he can run to the next base.” The fielder muffed the ball and Ross ran like the wind to second, Everson reaching first easily.
“I thought you said he couldn’t run until the ball was caught. That fellow out there missed it,” came from Parker.
“I ought to have told you at first that if a fielder muffs a fly ball everybody runs, except in the case of a foul,” explained Hal.
“Yes, but there are only two of them running,” Parker replied.
Hal laughed. Everybody near them was paying more attention to them than to the game. They were calling Parker “the Rube.” One freshman said: “Get a copy of the ‘Book of Rules,’ Rube, and learn it by heart before the next game.”
The game proceeded for some time and Hal did the best he could to answer the many questions Parker put to him. He had his own troubles when it came to explaining the “hit and run play,” “the double steal,” and the “squeeze play,” especially the latter. Some one in the stand said when Ty was on third base and Tris at bat with one out, “They’re going to work the squeeze.” They did work it, and successfully, as sometimes happens, and the fans yelled, “Did you notice that squeeze?”
“I didn’t see anybody get squeezed,” said Parker, “who was it?”
“Why,” said Hal, “Ty was on third and Tris squeezed him in.”
“Did he hurt him?” asked Parker.