Never before has baseball had a portrayer at once so vivid, so dramatic and so humorous. "A good, honest picture of the game," says Frank Chance. "A lot of fun. I've read every one of these stories and so have all the boys on the Detroit team," says Wm. E. Donovan, of the Detroits. "The best thing of the kind," says Mordecai Brown, of the Chicago "Cubs." Here is the list: I THE CRAB. "It was Charley Brydon who christened Henry Gilman 'The Crab'." He was a great catcher but one day his arm went back on him and it looked as if he had made his last throw to second. The game of the year came and "The Crab" showed that his _legs_ were all right--and showed some other things, too. II THE LOW BROW. "When they were dealing out foreheads they gave Biff the lowest one they had in stock. Biff was a low brow, and he never denied it; but he was also the greatest catcher that ever buckled on a wind pad, and he never denied that either." III THE FRESH GUY. "The freshest young thing that a big-league currycomb ever hauled out of the baseball business"--that was Potts, a pickup from nowhere, without reputation or standing in the world of baseball. But watch him play ball! IV THE QUITTER. "The Gamecocks were specialists, welded by a baseball genius into the snappiest, scrappiest collection of fence breakers, umpire baiters, and 'goat-getters' in professional baseball." Then they imported a "quitter"--a curious kind of "quitter," who piled up surprise on surprise. V THE BUSH LEAGUE DEMON. "He's got a yellow streak," said the old third baseman. "Wait until some one stings him good and hard!" And this tells how the "Demon" was stung! VI THE CAST-OFF. Walloping pitchers are rare birds. The man who can wrap a ball around a batter's neck and also hit a .340 clip from one end of the season to the other is of the extraordinary type. That's the "Cast-Off." But one thing he lacked--a sense of humor. VII THE BUSHER. "Old Reuben Glue's only son" came to town and was introduced to a Big League training squad as the new man. You would say he looked like a farmer, on or off the diamond; but looks don't always tell the story. VIII A JOB FOR A PITCHER. The Clarksville rooters were delirious with joy. Every time the stranger whipped a strike over the plate some Clarksville man was sure to yell: "What did you say his name was?" And the answer would come like a thunderclap: "SMITH!" IX THE GOLDEN BALL OF THE ARGONAUTS. Old Tom Carson, the proprietor of the Golden Eagle Hotel, renews his acquaintance with an old baseball antagonist and many things surprise the town of Collinsville. SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY Publishers, Boston