So, with the wonderful pitching of an angry rube, the Worcester team came into its own again.I sat through it all without another word;without giving a signal.In a way I realized the awakening of the bleachers, and heard the pound of feet and the crash, but it was the spirit of my team that thrilled me.Next to that the work of my new find absorbed me.I gloated over his easy, deceiving swing.I rose out of my seat when he threw that straight fast ball, swift as a bullet, true as a plumb line.And when those hard-hitting, sure bunting Bisons chopped in vain at the wonderful drop, I choked back a wild yell.For Rube meant the world to me that day.
In the eighth the score was 8 to 6.The Bisons had one scratch hit to their credit, but not a runner had got beyond first base.Again Rube held them safely, one man striking out, another fouling out, and the third going out on a little fly.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! The bleachers were making up for many games in which they could not express their riotous feelings.
``It's a cinch we'll win!'' yelled a fan with a voice.Rube was the first man up in our half of the ninth and his big bat lammed the first ball safe over second base.The crowd, hungry for victory, got to their feet and stayed upon their feet, calling, cheering for runs.It was the moment for me to get in the game, and I leaped up, strung like a wire, and white hot with inspiration.
I sent Spears to the coaching box with orders to make Rube run on the first ball.Igripped McCall with hands that made him wince.
Then I dropped back on the bench spent and panting.It was only a game, yet it meant so much! Little McCall was dark as a thunder cloud, and his fiery eyes snapped.He was the fastest man in the league, and could have bunted an arrow from a bow.The foxy Bison third baseman edged in.Mac feinted to bunt toward him then turned his bat inward and dumped a teasing curving ball down the first base line.Rube ran as if in seven-league boots.Mac's short legs twinkled; he went like the wind; he leaped into first base with his long slide, and beat the throw.
The stands and bleachers seemed to be tumbling down.For a moment the air was full of deafening sound.Then came the pause, the dying away of clatter and roar, the close waiting, suspended quiet.Spears' clear voice, as he coached Rube, in its keen note seemed inevitable of another run.
Ashwell took his stand.He was another left-hand hitter, and against a right-hand pitcher, in such circumstances as these, the most dangerous of men.Vane knew it.Ellis, the Bison captain knew it, as showed plainly in his signal to catch Rube at second.But Spears' warning held or frightened Rube on the bag.
Vane wasted a ball, then another.Ashwell could not be coaxed.Wearily Vane swung; the shortstop raced out to get in line for a possible hit through the wide space to his right, and the second baseman got on his toes as both base runners started.
Crack! The old story of the hit and run game!
Ashwell's hit crossed sharply where a moment before the shortstop had been standing.With gigantic strides Rube rounded the corner and scored.McCall flitted through second, and diving into third with a cloud of dust, got the umpire's decision.When Stringer hurried up with Mac on third and Ash on first the whole field seemed racked in a deafening storm.Again it subsided quickly.The hopes of the Worcester fans had been crushed too often of late for them to be fearless.
But I had no fear.I only wanted the suspense ended.I was like a man clamped in a vise.
Stringer stood motionless.Mac bent low with the sprinters' stoop; Ash watched the pitcher's arm and slowly edged off first.Stringer waited for one strike and two balls, then he hit the next.It hugged the first base line, bounced fiercely past the bag and skipped over the grass to bump hard into the fence.McCall romped home, and lame Ashwell beat any run he ever made to the plate.
Rolling, swelling, crashing roar of frenzied feet could not down the high piercing sustained yell of the fans.It was great.Three weeks of submerged bottled baseball joy exploded in one mad outburst! The fans, too, had come into their own again.
We scored no more.But the Bisons were beaten.Their spirit was broken.This did not make the Rube let up in their last half inning.
Grim and pale he faced them.At every long step and swing he tossed his shock of light hair.At the end he was even stronger than at the beginning.
He still had the glancing, floating airy quality that baseball players call speed.And he struck out the last three batters.
In the tumult that burst over my ears I sat staring at the dots on my score card.Fourteen strike outs! one scratch hit! No base on balls since the first inning! That told the story which deadened senses doubted.There was a roar in my ears.Some one was pounding me.As I struggled to get into the dressing room the crowd mobbed me.But I did not hear what they yelled.
I had a kind of misty veil before my eyes, in which I saw that lanky Rube magnified into a glorious figure.I saw the pennant waving, and the gleam of a white cottage through the trees, and a trim figure waiting at the gate.Then Irolled into the dressing room.
Somehow it seemed strange to me.Most of the players were stretched out in peculiar convulsions.
Old Spears sat with drooping head.Then a wild flaming-eyed giant swooped upon me.With a voice of thunder he announced:
``I'm a-goin' to lick you, too!''
After that we never called him any name except Rube.
