“Yes, it was hot. But now I’ve got to write a letter to see about a game for next Saturday.”
Tommy could not arrange for a regular contest during the next week, but he managed to have a game between his own team and a scrub one from boys about town, for there was quite a baseball fever in Riverdale since Tommy’s nine had won. Every boy who could manage it, had a glove, a ball and a bat, and practiced at odd times in vacant lots or on the new diamond.
Tommy’s nine won their second game, but they did not take much credit for that, as the scrub team they played had no regular organization.
“But it is good practice for us,” remarked Tommy, and the others agreed with him.
At odd times they worked on the diamond, getting rid of the stones, clearing away the grass from the home plate and along the base lines.
Several of the other boys did odd bits of work about town and earned money so that they were able to buy bagbases, some new balls and occasionally a new bat. The catcher had a second-hand mask.
But they could not quite manage the uniforms. Some of the boys did coax their parents to buy them ball suits, but the nine, as a whole, did not have them, and there were hardly any two alike. Tommy got one, with the letters “R. R.” in red on his shirt, and very proud he was, too. Sometimes, when some boy could not play, he would loan his suit to a friend.
As the days of summer went on, Tommy’s nine played many games, losing some and winning more. The fathers, and, in some cases, the mothers of the players, came to see a game occasionally, and Mr. Fillmore, the florist, and his friend, Mr. Wentworth, the hardware man, paid several visits to the new diamond.
It was a warm summer’s day, and Tommy, who had been at the head of his class in school for seven times in succession, was, as a reward of merit, allowed to come out at two o’clock on Friday. There were none of his close friends who had the same honor, so Tommy did not have anyone to chum with, and, though he was glad to be out of school, he hardly knew what to do with himself.
“I guess I’ll go fishing,” he decided, as he hurried toward home.