"What's the matter. Ain't I pitching all right?" angrily demanded the deposed one.
"I'm sorry to say you're not. I'm not afraid of losing the game, but I don't want any more of this sort of stuff going back home," replied the manager, as he nodded over to where the newspaper reporters were chuckling among themselves over the comparatively poor exhibition the St. Louis Cardinals had so far put up.
So Willard went to the bench, while crafty Cooney, with his left-hand delivery, went to warm up. And how Joe did wish he would get a chance!
But he did not, and the game ended, as might have been expected, with the Cardinals snowing under their country opponents.
Hard practice followed that first exhibition game, and there were some shifts among the players, for unexpected weakness, as well as strength had by this time developed in certain quarters.
"I wonder when I'll get a chance to show what I can do?" spoke Joe to Rad, as they were on their way back to the hotel, after a second contest with Reedville, in which our hero had still stuck to the bench.
"Oh, it's bound to come," his chum told him. Personally, he was joyful, for he had been given a try-out, and had won the applause of the crowd by making a difficult play.
"Well, it seems a long time," grumbled Joe, with a sigh.
The practice became harder, as the opening of the season drew nearer. Some recruits joined the Cardinals at their training camp, and further shifts were made.
Joe was finally given a chance to pitch against a team from Bottom Flats—a team, by the way, not as strong as the Reedville nine. And that Joe made good was little to his credit, as he himself knew.