The Rival Pitchers: A Story of College BaseballChadwick, Lester
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The Rival Pitchers: A Story of College Baseball
Chadwick, Lester
Baseball stories; College sports -- Juvenile fiction
The following Saturday the team went to the Indian school at Carlisle
and played a game with the red men. It was a hard-fought battle and the
aborigines made the mistake of putting in a lot of substitutes for the
first few innings, for they had a poor opinion of Randall. But the
visitors rolled up a good score and Tom was a whirlwind at pitching,
holding the red men down to a low score. Then the Indians awakened and
sent in some of their best players, but the Randalls had the game "in
the refrigerator," as Holly Cross said, and took it home with them,
despite the war cries of the redskins and their efforts to annex the
scalp-locks of the palefaces.
The winning of this game against what was generally considered to be a
much stronger team than that of Randall did much to infuse an aggressive
spirit into the latter players. The trip, too, acted as a sort of tonic.
"Boys, I think we're fit to make the fight of our lives a week from
to-day," declared Captain Woodhouse as he and the team were on their way
back to college. "We'll wipe the diamond up with Fairview and then maybe
that banner won't look fine at the top of our flagstaff."
"That's what!" cried Phil Clinton. "I'm ready to play 'em now."
"Same here!" cried Pete Backus, giving a great jump up into the air,
seemingly to justify his title of "Grasshopper."
"My uncle says----" began Ford Fenton, but Holly Cross gave such an
imitation of an Indian war whoop that what the former coach had said was
lost "in the shuffle."
"Great work, old man!" cried Phil Clinton to Tom as he linked his arm
in that of the new 'varsity pitcher.
"That was a fine catch of yours, to return the compliment," said Tom
with a laugh.
"Don't go forming a mutual admiration society," advised Mr. Lighton.
"Play ball--that's the thing to do."
"It's queer what's become of Langridge," remarked Tom to Sid when they
were in their room a few nights later, talking over the approaching
final game with Fairview. "He seems to have dropped out of sight."
"That's where he'd better stay," declared Sid. "He'll never be any more
account to the team. We'll have a new manager when we whip Fairview."
"If we only do!"
"Oh, we will. I only hope I can play."
"Why, is there any chance that you won't?"
"Well, I'm pretty shaky in Latin, and Pitchfork has warned me that if I
slump, it's me to the bench for the rest of this term. I'm going over
and see Bricktop Molloy. He's a fiend at Latin. Rather study it than
eat. He's been coaching me lately, and I want to get the benefit of it.
So I'll just go and bone with him a bit."
"Go ahead, old man. Wish I could help you, but I've got to look after my
own rations. I'm none too safe."
Sid went out and Tom was left alone with his books. But somehow he could
not study. He took no sense of the printed page. There was an uneasiness
in his mind and he could not put his thoughts into form.
"Hang it all!" he exclaimed. "I guess I'm thinking too much of baseball."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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