“I wish there were two of him, Robbie,” said the manager, smiling. “One to cover the mound and the other to use as a pinch hitter or play him in the outfield. That would make a combination hard to beat.”
“It was the best day’s work you ever did when you got that lad from St. Louis,” remarked Robson. “I’ll bet the Cardinal’s manager feels like throwing a fit every time he thinks what a fool he was to let him go.”
“Well,” said McRae, “if everybody’s foresight in baseball was as good as his hindsight, there’d be no trading done. I don’t mind saying that I throw out my chest a little for having seen what was in the kid. He’s certainly been the making of the team.”
“One thing is certain; and that is that you wouldn’t have the World’s Championship tucked away if it hadn’t been for his great work in the Series,” rejoined Robson. “He just had those Chicago birds eating out of his hand.”
“Right you are,” admitted McRae. “Here’s hoping he’ll repeat this season.”
“Don’t worry a bit about that,” was Robson’s confident answer. “You can see for yourself that he’s been going great guns in practice. And even at that he hasn’t been letting himself out. He’s taking good care of that old soup-bone of his.”
“He was never better in his life,” declared McRae. “I’ll admit that I was a little worried for fear that the trip around the world had taken something out of him. You know what a strain he was under in that All-Star League affair, Robbie. But it hasn’t seemed to affect him at all.”
“He’ll need all he’s got this year,” said Robbie thoughtfully. “We’ll have to depend more on the pitching than we did last year, because we’re not so strong on the batting end. When Burkett quit, it took away a good deal of our hitting strength, and you’ve seen that Mylert is slipping. On the form he’s shown in practice this spring, he won’t be good for more than a two hundred and fifty per cent average, and that’s about sixty points below what he showed last year.”
“I know it,” agreed the manager, a worried look coming into his face. “And what makes it worse is that Larry, too, is slow in rounding into form. Instead of lining them out, he’s sending them up in the air. He’ll be just pie for the fielders if he keeps it up. I can’t understand the thing at all.”
“Oh, well,” said Robbie, whose jolly disposition never let him stay long under a cloud, “here’s hoping that they’ll come to the scratch when the season opens. Some of the rookies look pretty good to me, and if the old-timers fall down we may be able to fill their places all right. Come along, Mac; let’s finish working out that schedule for the trip north. We’ll have to get a hustle on to be in shape to start to-morrow.”