[CHAPTER XIII]
OFF FOR THE TRAINING CAMP
The next few days flew by as though on wings. There were a hundred things to be done before Joe would set out on the long swing around the circuit that was to increase or diminish his fame, as fate might decree. Above all, he was anxious to spend all the time he could in practice, so as to report at the training camp in superb condition.
One thing that pleased him immensely was the success of the scheme he had carried through with Dick Talbot. True to his promise, Dick had been on hand at the appointed time with his camera and they had carried out the program he had suggested. Joe broke the white sheet of paper stretched between the bamboo poles so repeatedly and conclusively that only an idiot could have questioned that he had curved the ball. And it is only fair to state that when the film was reeled off before the astonished eyes of Professor Enoch Crabbe he admitted this fact.
“I have to admit that you are right, Mr. Matson,” he avowed, “and I’m sorry that I was so positive about it the other day. I shall have to study up the law that controls the curve, and by the time you come back at the end of the season perhaps I shall have found out what it is.”
“I’m sure that you can find it if anybody can, Professor,” said Joe, not to be outdone in politeness; and so the two opponents parted with increased respect for each other.
“I hear the Giants are going to train at Marlin Springs this year,” said Tom Davis, as they left the gymnasium and walked up the street together.
“Yes,” answered Joe. “McRae seems to have a liking for Texas as a place to get in condition. And he ought to know, for he’s tried almost every place on the map. He’s taken his team to Birmingham, to Memphis, to Los Angeles, and one year he didn’t go any farther south than Lakewood, New Jersey. So that if he’s finally fixed on Marlin, he must believe that it has advantages over all the others.”
“Isn’t this southern training trip a rather modern idea?” asked Tom.
“Oh, no,” answered Joe. “All the big teams have been doing it for a number of years now. I think it was old Cap Anson of the Chicagos who started the thing, in 1882. He took the team down south while all the other teams stayed in the north as usual. The result was that when the Chicagos came north they mowed down the other teams like grass and won the pennant that year without half trying. That put a flea in the ears of the other managers, and since then it has been a regular thing. It’s a mighty good thing, too, in more ways than one. It gives the manager a chance to try out all the material he has bought or drafted from the minor leagues. In the north, with so many cold and rainy days, they wouldn’t get half a chance. Then, too, there are usually plenty of good teams in the vicinity of the training grounds and the boys can get plenty of practice in regular games without the weather’s interfering. McRae, for instance, can find crack teams at Dallas and Waco and Houston that sometimes give the Giants all they want to do to win. The result is that when the boys come north they’re in crackerjack condition. They’re like so many thoroughbreds waiting for the flag to fall, and the public gets good games for its money from the very start of the season.”
“Just what time do you have to report?” asked Tom.