“Three cheers for the Silver Stars!” called the captain of the successful nine and they were given with right good feeling.
“Three cheers for the Red Stockings,” responded Darrell. “They were too much for us,” and the cheers of the losers were none less hearty than those of their rivals.
“And three cheers for the fellow who made the home run!” added a Red Stocking player, and our hero could not help blushing as he was thus honored.
“It was all to the pepper-castor, old man,” complimented Darrell. “We didn’t put up a very good game, but you sort of stand out among the other Stars.”
“And I suppose the rest of us did rotten!” snarled Sam Morton as he walked past.
“Well, to be frank, I think we all did,” spoke Darrell. “I’m not saying that Joe didn’t make any errors, for he did. But he made the only home run of the game, and that’s a lot.”
“Oh, yes, I suppose so,” sneered the disgruntled pitcher. “You’ll be blaming me next for the loss of the game.”
“Nothing of the sort!” exclaimed Darrell quickly. “I think we’ve all got to bear our share of the defeat. We ought to have played better, and we’ve got to, if we don’t want to be at the tail end of the county league.”
“And that means that I’ve got to do better pitching, I suppose?” sneered Sam.
“It means we’ve all got to do better work,” put in Captain Rankin. “You along with the rest of us, Sam. You know you were pretty well batted to-day.”