“Seems to me I’ve heard of a similar case.” “I s’pose there’s lot of similar cases,” replied Kennedy, giving a pull at his pipe, which had gone out during the narration. “I was young, and it broke me up bad. I played so rotten that my manager got sore, and put me on the bench. I took to hittin’ the bottle, too. Drank altogether too much until a friend gave me a talking to and showed me what a dumb fool I was. Then I tried to forget it and get back into form again. I succeeded, too, and I’ve stuck to baseball steady, saving my dollars, with the idea of having something to live on when my days at the game was finished. I am out of it now, though I’m managin’ this little Deering team. Kinder got pulled into that. I wouldn’t if it hadn’t been for Hank Bristol, who’s managin’ the Buccaneers. He sorter rubbed me the wrong way, and it’s my object now to beat him out if there’s any way to do it. To beat him, I’ve got to have another A-one pitcher, and I need a left-hander.” Lefty was silent. “I know the very man I’d like to have,” Kennedy went on musingly. “He come out of the bush this year. Brennan, of the Hornets, had him in the South to start with; but Brennan also had another promisin’ young slabman by the name of Bert Elgin. It seems that the left-hander and Elgin had some sort of a mix-up at college, and they didn’t cotton to each other a great deal. Elgin put up some sort of a dirty job on the other chap, and made him look like a quitter and a useless pup. Brennan was fooled, and dropped him. “I’d been after him before that, and he comes to me after being handed the can by Brennan. I sent him out into the bush with a team from which I could pull him in any time I wanted to, and he made good out there. My pitchers started cold, and didn’t get into the game just right, so I sent out a hurry call for the southpaw, and he joined the team just in time to pitch in our first game against the Hornets. I took a chance on spoiling him by shovin’ him into that game. Had to do it, you know, though I hated to. The proper way to break in a pitcher is to work him against a weak team, and give him confidence by a good chance to pull off a win to start with. It was hard on him, rammin’ him into that game against the Hornets, but he come through with flying colors, and he pitched against Bert Elgin, too. “There was a reporter named Stillman who had it in his noddle that Elgin was responsible for what my left-hander got from Brennan, and he chased the thing down and got the proof, which he hands out to Brennan hisself. That was Mr. Elgin’s finish in Big League company. Brennan sent him down into class C company, but he didn’t last even there. Nobody seemed to have much use for him, and I dunno where he’s faded to.