CHAPTER XVDUD SERVES THEM UP
Between Dud and Starling Meyer existed an armed neutrality. They passed with covert glances, avoided each other when possible and doubtless caused some disappointment to a certain element in the school who had been for several weeks eagerly expecting a fracas between the two. The boxing lessons had been abandoned, since, as Jimmy pathetically pointed out, there was no use getting ready for something that couldn’t happen. The gloves were returned to their owners, and, robbed of self-defense as a principal interest in life, Jimmy gave his attention to playing baseball. It occurred to him at about this time that it wouldn’t look well for Dud to make the first team, even as a substitute, and for him to get chucked back to the second nine. So the Monday after the Portsmouth Grammar School game Jimmy buckled down to make good. Right field seemed the only position open to him, and even to earn that he would have to beat out Harold Boynton, and Boynton, while not an exceptional fielder, was a pretty fair hitter.Therefore it behooved Jimmy to get busy and learn to “lam ’em out” a bit better. His first step was to attempt to bribe Brunswick and Dud to pitch easy ones when he was at the net. Failing at that, he sighed and set out to conquer by labor. Jimmy always preferred to take short cuts. The longest way around might suit some fellows, but he took it only as a last resort. Having, however, made up his mind to the circuitous journey, Jimmy was capable of settling down to the task and seeing it through.
On Wednesday the second team was again defeated, and on the following Saturday Grafton High School, supported by a large and noisy mob of pennant-flaunting boys and girls, engaged the attention of the first team. The batting order that afternoon gave a line on what was likely to be the final selections: Blake, ss; Murtha, 2b; Parker, cf; Winslow, 3b; Ayer, 1b; Ordway, lf; Boynton, rf; Gordon, c; Myatt or Leddy, p. There might be, probably would be, changes later on in the arrangement of the players for batting purposes, but it was generally conceded that the team as made up that day was practically as it would be six weeks later. It was likely that Ben Myatt would occasionally be played in center field, for Ben, aside from being a remarkable pitcher, was a steady outfielder and a good hitter. There were some critics who sneeredat Hugh Ordway’s presence on the nine, hinting at favoritism, and it must be acknowledged that Hugh accomplished little that afternoon to vindicate his selection for the middle-garden position. Hugh had a bad day, missing one easy fly and failing to reach first base once. His muff in the third inning let in two runs and made the outcome doubtful until the sixth, when a single by Guy Murtha with one down, a sacrifice by Parker, a screeching two-base hit by Bert Winslow and an error by third-baseman landed two tallies for the home team.
The score stayed at five to five until the ninth, when the home team started a rally. Bert Winslow, first man up, was passed. Neil Ayer laid a bunt in front of the plate, sending Bert to second and going out himself at first. Mr. Sargent sent Milford to bat in place of Hugh and Milford came through with a clean single that landed him on first. Bert, however, was out at the plate by inches only. With two gone, a second pinch-hitter was sent to the rescue in the person of Gus Weston. As a pinch-hitter Gus was ordinarily something of a joke, but on this occasion he turned the laugh on High School’s pitcher, landing on the first offering and sending it down the third-base line for a hit that advanced Milford to second. Gordon followed with a pop-fly that should have been an easy out, but which secondbaseman and shortstop managed between them to let fall safe.
With bases full and Nate Leddy up—Myatt had gone through five innings and been sent to the showers—Mr. Sargent took a chance and let Nate go to bat. Evidently the latter was instructed to wait out the pitcher, for he stood idly by while two strikes and two balls went across. Then the coach called him back and Jimmy Logan was sent in to distinguish himself. Anyone but Jimmy would have suffered from nerves, I fancy, for it is something of an ordeal to step up to the plate with two out, bases filled and the pitcher’s score two-and-two. But Jimmy approached the task with beautiful assurance. Some said he even swaggered a little. Perhaps he did, and perhaps that swagger was the undoing of the opposing pitcher. At any rate, all Jimmy had to do was dodge two wild deliveries and trot, smilingly, to first, while Milford ambled over the plate with what proved eventually to be the winning run. Nick Blake brought the inning to an end a moment later when he sent a long fly to the outfield.
Grafton High School begrudged that victory and showed it, at the time by the half-hearted way in which they cheered their successful rival, and later by sending a challenge for another contest on High School grounds. The challenge was accepted and avacant date a week and a half later was awarded her. Since faculty rules prohibited the team from playing away from the school on Wednesdays during April and May, a special dispensation was asked for and obtained, and the game came off in due time and High School went down in decisive defeat, the score at the end of the seven innings played being 9 to 2 in favor of Grafton.
Before that, however, Leeds High School had administered the first beating to the Scarlet-and-Gray to the tune of 3 to 0. It was a good game and Grafton showed up well in all departments except that of hitting. Leeds’ pitcher was a hard proposition and only four scattered hits were registered by Grafton. On the other hand, Leddy, who started in the box for his team, was found for six hits in four innings, one of them a three-bagger, and although Ben Myatt, who relieved him, held the enemy well in hand, the mischief was already done. In the eighth and ninth innings that day Mr. Sargent used every available player in his determined effort to stem the tide of disaster, even Dud getting a chance to show his batting prowess and rapping a liner straight into the hands of shortstop as his contribution to the cause. Jimmy, called into the fray in the eighth, managed to get hit with an in-shoot and so, luckily, earned his base. It was Starling Meyer who came nearest to accomplishing anythingin the batting line, for Star, after watching two good ones pass him, landed on what was palpably intended for a wide one and managed to drop it behind first base some three inches inside the foul line. Unfortunately there was no one on the bases to take advantage of the miracle.
As a result of the Leeds game there followed, beginning on the next Monday afternoon, a series of batting practices that for the rest of the week, barring Wednesday and Saturday, left no time for line-ups. There also followed a change in the batting order and a slight shakeup of the team. Bert Winslow took Guy Murtha’s place as second batter, Guy following him and Parker slipping into fourth position. Gordon and Boynton also changed locations. Milford was tried out at first and for the next three weeks he and Neil Ayer had a very lively struggle for the first sack. Eventually Ayer came into his own again, although had batting ability alone entered into it Milford would undoubtedly have won the place. Jimmy got several opportunities to show what he could do in right field and Starling Meyer received some recognition in center. Southlake Academy was defeated on the nineteenth at Southlake, Gus Weston pitching for once a remarkably steady game until he was taken out in the seventh. By that time the contest was on ice and Coach Sargent sent Brunswick in for a couple of innings of experience.Experience came his way, too, to the tune of four hits for a total of six bases, but luckily only one run resulted.
Track and field sports were by now engaging much of the school’s interest. The team had held its handicap games the last of April, had defeated St. James Academy the week before and was at present very busily at work getting into condition to meet Mount Morris, Grafton’s principal rival, on the twenty-sixth. Over on the big oval ribbon of gray-blue cinders the twenty-odd youths who wore the scarlet-and-gray stripe across their chests or who hoped to wear it after next Saturday, sprinted and ran and hurdled, while about the jumping pits a dozen or fifteen others strove mightily with shot and hammer and vaulting-pole or worked zealously at the jumps. Nowadays the audience at the first team diamond was smaller each afternoon, and one heard much learned talk of dual records, and the names of Zanetti and Tray and Keyes and Yetter and Musgrave and many others pursued one from breakfast to bedtime. “Dinny” Crowley divided his time as best he could between Track Team and second nine, while Davy Richards, at last really in his element, loomed large in importance. Davy had a reputation as a trainer of track and field talent to vindicate and Davy in the process of vindicating was a fine imitation of a tyrant. Even Mr.Sargent forsook baseball for a space each day and gave his attention to the weight men and jumpers, for “Pete” in his day had held a college record for two years with the hammer and had, as a side issue, leaped his twenty-two feet-odd for the honor of the Blue. So for one week at least baseball took a back seat at Grafton and the real heroes were the slim-waisted, bare-legged chaps in fluttering white trunks.
The ball team met Middleboro High School on Wednesday afternoon and had no trouble in winning a 14 to 3 contest that offered little in the way of excitement or suspense to the listless spectators. It was an intolerably hot day for May and audience and players alike drooped. For Grafton, Nate Leddy started the twirling, but after his teammates had scored eight runs on the opponents in five innings Nate ambled off and Joe Kelly tried his hand. Joe was not a success, for the enemy took most kindly to his slants, and after facing two innings of trouble Joe likewise retired and Dud was given his first taste of hostile batsmen.
With the score 12 to 3, Dud was not expected to kill himself, and Ed Brooks, who had taken Gordon’s place behind the plate with the advent of Kelly on the mound, was all for an easy life. But Brooks was reckoning without Dud’s ambition to win a place on the list of battery candidates. Dud had warmed the bench and twirled his glove duringso many games that this opportunity presented itself to him as Heaven-sent and he resolved to use all the skill he knew and all the control he possessed. For a fortnight he had been experimenting with his curves again and, at Ben Myatt’s suggestion, had even attempted a side-arm delivery that looked promising. He had little fear of being punished much, but he went to the mound and picked up the ball determined to deny any sort of a hit to the opponents. That is why he shook his head so frequently at his catcher, much to that gentleman’s surprise, and why when Middleboro’s tail-enders faced him in that first of the eighth he worked so carefully and cunningly that one after another the three last batters on the list retired without even fouling-off a ball! The Middleboro pitcher stood like a graven image while Dud shot two fast ones over the outer corner of the rubber, wasted one for luck and then ended the inning with a slow ball that floated as perfectly over the center as though it had been rolled on wires! For the first time during the game the somnolent spectators showed enthusiasm as Dud dropped the ball and made for the bench. Brooks squeezed in beside him and thumped him on the knee.
“Great work, Dud!” he said. “We made ’em look like pikers, didn’t we?”
“You!” laughed Parker, sitting next him. “Whatdid you do, Eddie? Baker scratched every signal you gave him!”
“Me?” asked Brooks sarcastically. “Oh, nothing! I just held him, that’s all! You get up there and put your mitt against some of Dud’s fast ones and see how simple it is! Say, Dud, it would be fine if we could send them down in the next inning the same way, eh? Only thing is, that fellow Dollard, who bats second, is a pretty good hitter. He’s made two already out of three times up.”
“What’s the first fellow like?” asked Dud.
“Chapman? I guess that’s his name. Plays third. Oh, he’s not dangerous. He wants his base. Sneak over the first one for a strike and then tease him a couple of times with high ones. He’ll go after them every time. But Dollard’s not so easy. He waits for the good ones.”
“Then we’ll have to see that he doesn’t get them,” replied Dud simply.
“Well, if you can keep on working the corners the way you did last inning you’re all right. That ump has his eyesight with him. If he didn’t you’d get the worst of it lots of times.”
Grafton tallied twice more in her half of the eighth and then Dud went back to the mound and faced the small and stocky third-baseman. But he wasn’t hard. Once Dud thought he had lost his wish, but the ball rolled foul before it reached thethird sack. After that there was no more trouble. Chapman, if that was his name, bit at a high one and missed it badly, let a ball go by and then again swung too late at a fast one that crossed the plate and retired disgruntled to the bench.
But Dollard was more canny. Dollard had to have good ones. Dud tried him on two that looked fair until they broke, but the batter treated them with contempt. Then Dud tried him out with a slow one and caught him napping. Dollard fouled the next one into the stand and the score was two-and-two. Brooks signaled for a straight one, hoping to finish him off, but Dud shook his head. Instead, he changed his position in the box a mite, wrapped his fingers about the ball, wound up, stepped forward and swung his arm wide at the height of his elbow. Brooks had to jump for that ball, for it proved a cross-fire indeed, and there was a perceptible moment of hesitation before the umpire reached his verdict. But when he did he said “You’re out!” so decisively as to make up for the hesitation. Dollard voiced objections all the way to the bench and let it be known by the manner in which he slammed his bat to earth that he was totally out of sympathy with that umpire! But the crowd cheered the strike-out and jeered the victim and the next batsman stepped to his place.
Then, for once, and for the first time since he hadprofited by Ben Myatt’s advice, Dud went back to his hooks and that third batter swung and dodged and swung again while Dud brought the game to an end with exactly four deliveries!
Two days later there came the final cut in the first squad and six disappointed candidates were turned over to the second team. One of the six was a pitcher, but his name was not Baker. It was Kelly.