When the boys arrived at the ball field of their rivals they found a large crowd collected. The grand stand was comfortably filled, and in a prominent place they saw Mr. Corsen and a number of other friends. Laura was also there, with eight other girls, all with their flags of blue. Opposite were some girls with their flags of yellow. Some boys had horns and others had rattles, and a mighty noise went up as the Lakeports appeared. Then another roar followed for the Excelsiors.
"I guess everybody in Lakeport is here," said Frank, looking around. "Who ever saw such a crowd before?"
"That shows what folks think of baseball," answered Walter. "It's the great national game, no doubt of that."
A man named Hayward had already been chosen to act as umpire. He was an old ballplayer, having played on the Eastern League for six years. He knew some of the boys fairly well, but said he was going to "play no favorites."
"What you get you've got to earn," he said, and with this Joe said he would be perfectly satisfied. Si Voup had wanted a particular friend of his to be umpire, but this the Lakeports would not allow.
"All of you fellows will get a square deal, don't you worry," said one man in the crowd. "If you don't, we'll mob the umpire."
By a toss-up it was decided that the Lakeports should go to the bat first. Each side was allowed fifteen minutes for practice. Both clubs did their best and various were the comments made.
"Pretty well matched," said one gentleman to Mr. Corsen. "What do you think?"
"I think the team work of the Lakeports is a little the better of the two," was the reply.
"And I was thinking just the opposite."