“Win your own game now, Joe,” said Jim, as his chum left the bench for the plate. “None of the other boys seem to be doing much. Show them one of the clouts you made at the training camp.”
Joe grinned in reply and went to the plate. Albaugh looked at him and thought he sensed an easy victim. He seldom had much trouble with pitchers.
The first ball was wide and Joe let it go by. The second and third also went as balls.
“Good eye, Joe,” sang out Robbie, who was coaching at third. “Make him put it over.”
Albaugh now was “in a hole.” Three balls had been called on him, and he had to get the next one over the plate. He wound up carefully and sent over a swift straight one about waist high.
Joe timed it perfectly and caught it near the end of his bat. The ball went on a line straight toward the right field stands. On and on it went, still almost in a line. Neale and Barber had both started for it from the crack of the bat, but it stayed so low and went so fast that it eluded them and struck just at the foot of the right field bleachers.
Joe in the meantime was running like a deer around the bases, while his comrades leaped about and howled, and the crowds in the stands were on their feet and shouting like madmen. He had rounded second and was well on toward third before Neale retrieved the ball. He relayed it to Douglas like a shot. By this time Joe had turned third and was dashing toward the plate. It was a race between him and the ball, but he beat the sphere by an eyelash, sliding into the rubber in a cloud of dust.
For a few moments pandemonium reigned, as Joe, flushed and smiling, rose from the ground and dusted himself off while his mates mauled and pounded him and the multitude roared approval.
“Jumping jiminy!” cried Jim, “that was a lallapaloozer! It was a longer hit than you made off of me this spring, and that’s going some. And on a line too. I thought it was never going to drop.”
“It was a dandy, Joe,” commended McRae, clapping him on the shoulder. “It’s only a pity that there weren’t men on bases at the time for you to bring in ahead of you. But we’ve broken the ice now, and perhaps the rest of the boys will get busy.”