"Now aren't you getting a little carried away with your bragging?" asked Nibbles. "I mean, I'm very much enjoying your story, even though I know little about baseball except that you play it on a bass drum. But really, I think you're carrying your pride a little too far into the negative." "Yeah," admitted Rube, "I am sorry about that. Sometimes that happens to me when I get too worked up. Anyway, I went out there that day and I pitched one of those unusual games: no hits, no runs, no errors. Twenty-seven men faced me and not one of them got to first base. And that evening in Columbus they put me up for sale, with all the Big League clubs bidding on me, like a horse being auctioned off. The Cleveland club went as high as ten thousand five hundred dollars for my contract, but the Giants went to eleven grand, and I was sold to them. At that time, that was the highest price ever paid for a baseball player. "I reported to the New York Giants in September of 1908, as soon as the American Association season was over. I was eigh ..." "It still feels a little odd to have you 'remembering' things from years that have not yet been," interrupted Hootsey. "Let him finish the story," admonished Elephant. "I am sorry," said Rube. "But it is a memory to me, and a prediction to you. I will try to be more careful about naming years if I can remember to be. But in any event, I was eighteen years old at the time, and already the most valuable player in the Big Leagues! Excuse me if I seem to boast, but I feel that I am justified this time. I was the hero of the hour. "Still, I came up too late in the season to make a trip to Chicago with the Giants that year, but the next season we made our first trip to Chicago the second week in June. And the first thing I did, as soon as I got there, was to make a beeline for that firehouse. "The only one there when I first got there was the Lieutenant. I walked up to him and said, 'Lieutenant, do you remember me?' "'Never saw you before in my life,' he said. "'Well, remember about three years ago you caught me sleeping back of that stove there?' "'Oh, are you that kid from Cleveland that said he's a ballplayer?' "'Yes!' I told him. 'Remember me? My name is Marquard. Richard Marquard.' "'Of course,' he said, not really interested. 'What are you doing here?' "'I am in the Big Leagues,' I explained. 'I told you when I got to the Big Leagues I was coming out to visit you.' "'Well I'll be ...' he began, then, 'Who are you with?' "'Why, I'm with the New York Giants,' I said with pride. "And boy, for years after that, whenever the Giants would come to Chicago, I'd go out to that firehouse. I'd sit out front and talk for hours. The firemen would have all the kids in the neighborhood there ... and all the families that lived around would stop by ... and it was really wonderful. Everybody was so nice and friendly. Gee, I used to enjoy that. It was a great thrill for me.