Finkler's Field: A Story of School and Baseball

by Ralph Henry Barbour

Ted gripped his bat. This one would have to be a good one. And it was, and ball and bat met. The result was a Texas Leaguer behind first. Truesdale raced home, tallying the fifth run and tying the score, Dolph made it 6 to 5. Grady took third on the throw-in and Ted was safe on second. Time was called while Mr. Shay ordered the spectators back from the base-lines. Cook went to bat looking like one determined to do or die. But, when a clean hit would have scored Ted, the best he could do was to hit a liner to third baseman, who was playing well in. Third shot the ball to second, putting out Ted and ending the slaughter.

But 6 to 5 looked pretty good to the Boarders and they made the fact known unmistakably. Dolph patted Morris on the back as that youth walked to the pitcher’s box and picked up the ball. His arm may have been tired and lame; undoubtedly it was; but you wouldn’t have guessed it during the fifth and sixth innings, for only two Towners hit safely and only once did a man reach second. In the same innings the Boarders fared no better, for Prince struck out four of the eight men who faced him.

In the seventh, the lucky seventh, as the Towners hopefully proclaimed it, Morris began to weaken. Two one-baggers started the trouble, and a base on balls, with one out, made the situation look rather desperate. A double-play, however, neatly executed by Smythe, Dolph and Ted caught a runner at the plate and nipped the batsman at first, awakening loud jubilation amongst the Boarders.

In the last of the seventh Jack, who had taken Cook’s place at the beginning of the fifth, had his first try at the bat, being the first man up for the Boarders. He didn’t feel very hopeful as he faced Prince, and Prince, recognizing a substitute, put the first two deliveries over at different heights and scored two strikes. Then came a ball. Then what looked to Jack like a straight one swerved wide of the plate, fooling him and causing him to hit at it wildly. He was prepared to walk back to the bench when shrieks of “Run, you chump!” sent him speeding for first. Catcher had let the third strike go by, and to do that today was fatal, for the ball once lost in the crowd was extremely difficult to locate, it being kicked here and there by the spectators. Urged on by the coachers, Jack went on to second and finally to third and would have raced home amidst the urgent appeals of the Boarders had not Mr. Shay waved him back to first. Dolph objected to the ruling, but the umpire was firm. Smythe fouled out to third baseman. Cassart struck out and Jack got his orders to steal. He shot away for second on the first ball thrown and would have been out had shortstop, who received the throw-down, held the ball. But he and Jack collided and the ball trickled away in the dust. But Jack got no further, for Watkins was an easy third out, pitcher to first.

The Towners started a rally in the eighth that looked very promising. Morris showed his weariness plainly now, and the balls he pitched wouldn’t have fooled any intelligent batsman. That he received no worse punishment than he did only proved the inability of the opponents to take advantage of the situation. The first man up hit safely for one base and then was caught off. The next man lined a three-bagger over center fielder’s head and might have stretched it into a home run had he used more speed and better judgment. Then came a base on balls, followed by an easy steal to second. The fourth man hit what looked like a safe one into left field, but Jack made a fine run and pulled it down, following that up with a throw to the plate that caught the runner from third a foot short of base and retired the side.

“What do you think about it?” asked Ted wearily as he sank to the bench beside Dolph. Dolph wiped his face on his sleeve and shook his head doubtfully.

“If there was only some one we could put in for Hal,” he said, “we might hold them. But Hal’s just about all in, and if the game goes to extra innings he will be plugged all over the lot and they will do what they like to us. Say, Joe Cassart, you used to pitch, didn’t you? Couldn’t you hold those chaps down for a couple of innings?”

“Pitch? I never could do anything,” answered Joe. “I used to try it, but I was no earthly good. I’d do it in a minute, Dolph, if I thought I could help. But you’d be worse off than you are now, old man.”