Part 34 (1/2)
CHAPTER XX
A TIN CAN FOR THE YELLOW DOG
With Ripley in the box Gridley won its third game of the season, beating Brayton High School by a score of five to two.
”It ought to have been a whitewash against a small-fry crowd like Brayton,” Coach Luce confided to Captain Purcell.
”What was our weak spot, Coach?”
”Have you an opinion, Captain?” asked the coach.
”Yes, but I'm afraid I'm wrong.”
”What is your idea?”
”Why, it seemed to me, Mr. Luce, that Ripley went stiff at just the wrong times. Yet I hate to say that, and I am afraid I'm unfair, for Rip surely does throw in some wonderful b.a.l.l.s.”
”You've struck my idea, anyway,” responded Mr. Luce. ”Please don't say anything about it to the other men. But, between ourselves, Captain, I think we'll do well to give Ripley few and unimportant chances this season. Most people can't see where real grit comes in, in baseball”
”Yet you think the lack of grit, or stamina, is just what ails Rip?” asked Captain Purcell keenly.
”You can judge, from what I've said,” replied Coach Luce.
”I'm glad then, Coach, for it shows I wasn't so far off the track in my own private judgment.”
Yet, to hear Fred Ripley tell about the game, it wasn't such a small affair. He judged his foemen by the fact that they had to contend with _him_.
”Five to two is the safest margin we've had yet,” he confided to those who listened to him at the High School. ”More than that, we had Brayton tied down so that, at no time in the game, did they have any show to break the score against us. Now, if Luce and Purcell fix it up for me to pitch the real games of the season”
”Oh, cut it out, Rip,” advised one listener, good-naturedly.
”Brayton is only a fishball team, anyway. Not a real, st.u.r.dy beef-eater in the lot.”
The season moved on briskly now. d.i.c.k pitched two games, and Darrin one in between Prescott's pair. d.i.c.k's first game was won by a score of one to nothing; his second game, the return date against Gardiner, was a tie. The game in which Darrin pitched was won by a score of three to two.
Then came a game with a team not much above Brayton's standing.
”Prescott and Darrin must be saved for some of the bigger games,”
decided Coach Luce. ”Purcell, don't you think it will be safe to trust Ripley to pitch against Cedarville High School?”
”Yes,” nodded the captain of the nine. ”I don't believe Cedarville could harm us, anyway, if we put left field or shortstop in the box.”
Fred Ripley was notified. At once Cedarville became, in his talk, one of the most formidable nines on the state's High School circuit.
”But we'll skin 'em, you'll see,” promised Fred, through the week.
”Be at the game, and see what I can do when I'm feeling well.
Cedarville has no chance.”
Ripley was in high spirits all through the week. All through that Sat.u.r.day forenoon he moved about in a trance of exultation.
Yet, underneath it all, he was somewhat seedy in a physical sense, for he had been out late the night before to meet Tip and hand over some money.