“He’s a dandy all right,” agreed Jim. “It takes a mighty good pitcher to fool him. But you’re ahead of him now in your batting average, and when it comes to long hits—triples and homers—you have him skinned.”
“He’ll bear watching, just the same,” observed Joe. “I wish we had him on our team. I urged Mac to try to get him last year, and he tried his best to do it, but it was no go.”
“No wonder,” replied Jim. “The St. Louis management might as well shut up shop if they let him go. I guess we can get along without him, anyway, the way the boys are playing now.”
The Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburghs followed in order. The Giants swept the series with the Reds, but the Pirates were another story. They put up a bitter fight and captured two games out of three, the fourth being prevented by rain.
Still the western invasion resulted very satisfactorily from the Giants’ point of view. They had met the most formidable teams in the league and gathered in ten out of the fifteen games actually played.
For this stage of the season they could scarcely have asked for a better showing. They were leading the league, six games out in front of the Chicagos, their nearest competitor. And with all the players in excellent condition so that they could always put their strongest team on the field, the outlook for the pennant was rosy.
One night as Joe was strolling toward home after the game, Jim having had an errand downtown, he stopped to buy a paper at a newsstand.
As he picked up the paper and turned away, an elderly man, poorly dressed and rather unkempt in appearance, bumped into him, nearly knocking him off his balance. Joe looked up, annoyed, but when he saw that the man was old said nothing. The man did not apologize, but glared at Joe as though the ball player instead of himself had been the offender. He bought a paper and hurried away.
“Who is our genial friend?” asked Joe of the newsdealer, whom he knew well.
“That old fellow?” replied the dealer. “I don’t know his name. Lives round here somewhere, for he often comes here for papers. He’s a queer dick. Think he’s a little touched in the upper story. Some one round here told me that he was a nut on science—a chemist or an electrician or something of the kind.”