The coach didn’t seem to take practice very seriously to-day. A number of balls were given out and for twenty minutes or so these were tossed about from one player to another, usually for a distance of no more than twenty feet. A simple, easy appearing pastime, this, but one which nevertheless, if correctly indulged in, called nearly every muscle of the body into play and speedily warmed one up to the point of perspiration――or beyond. In tossing as a preliminary to real work, the ball, as Clif soon discovered, was not delivered you where you could reach it the easiest but where you had to exert yourself to get it; at one side, overhead, shoe-high; in brief, anywhere save where you might reasonably expect it. Having caught it――or missed it――your play was to snap it back as soon as possible in the general direction of the next catcher; and the more general the direction the better. For awhile this sort of thing seems real fun, and there is much laughter, much shouting and many gymnastic performances, but after, say, ten minutes the laughter subsides, suppressed groans succeed the shouts and extraordinary attempts to capture the ball become fewer and fewer. And by this time your body is in a healthy glow, you are probably perspiring from every pore and you wish to goodness that Coach would think up a new stunt! And presently he did. The candidates for pitcher went off by themselves; Jeff Ogden, last season’s ace, Bud Moore, Erlingby, Frost. With them went two others to catch their easy offerings. Manager Longwell hit slow bunts to a selected few. For the rest there was labor on the diamond or at the plate. With five men playing infield and six sharing the further territory, with Pat Tyson in the box and Assistant Manager Cotter behind him to feed the balls to him, the remaining candidates took turns with the bat. They were warned against slugging the ball, and it was infrequent that it went beyond the infield. Long or fast throws were prohibited by the fielders and more than once a too-energetic or too-ambitious player was reprimanded. The outfielders caught or chased flies sent up by Gus Risley, but they were not allowed to return the ball all the way to him in the air, and when one committed that breach of the law he was fiercely called to order by Jimmy Cunningham, catching for Gus. Jimmy was Second Assistant Manager and fully aware of the dignity and authority connected with his position. Frequent changes were made, and in the course of a half-hour every one made the journey to the plate twice. When practice ended, which it did very early, there were many tired youths among those who, obeying instructions, trotted all the way back to the gymnasium; and, despite that preliminary work indoors, there were many, many sore muscles.