the Shortstop (1992) (18 page)

"So I began to go round and ask questions. At first this searching for the truth was because of what I must tell my mother; afterwards the thing itself interested me. I went to the foundries and factories, to the big refineries, to the brick-yards - everywhere. And I found everybody knew me; everybody had a word for me; everybody's eyes shone at the mention of the next Sunday game. I talked to little boys and girls carrying dinner to their fathers, and I went home with them and talked to their mothers. One and all, these mothers welcomed the game.

" I visited the saloons and beer-gardens, the road houses and the dance-halls. I found them bitterly opposed to Sunday ball. Their Sunday business was ruined. Two big gardens closed up after the second Sunday. I had seen some of thes
e
places when in full blast on a busy Sunday. The beer ran in streams and the air reeked.

" It seems to me those who make the laws would learn something if they would become mere hard-working men. When their eyes burned in their heads, and their backs ached, and they never saw the sky, and grew dull and weary, they would see differently. They wouldn't ask any man to sit in church and be told how to be good and happy. A man or a boy penned up all the week needs some kind of a fling. Your Honor, I wrote my mother that I was not doing wrong when I played Sunday ball. I am not ashamed of it. We players are not a disgrace to Findlay."

Chase sat down. Judge Meggs stroked his chin and watched His Honor, while the crowd roared their applause. Finally Mayor Duff rapped on his desk.

" I am sitting in judgment on this case as Mayor of Findlay, as a deacon of the church bringing the action, and as a director of the Findlay Baseball Association. I am rather submerged in the dee
p
sea between the two sides. But I am happy to say that as mayor, church member, and director I have solved the problem.

" I do not want to go on record as agreeing entirely with Alloway. Still, so far as he is concerned, I uphold him. More than that, he has given us something to think about. I have long had my eye on those halls and gardens he spoke of, and now they shall be closed on Sundays.

" During the last few days I have visited every prominent business concern in Findlay, and I have laid before each this baseball situation. In substance, I said I would permit Sunday ball unless they gave their employees a half-holiday on Saturdays. I have spoken of Findlay's prosperity, and that no small factor in the activity of business for the last few years has been the advertisement of our crack baseball team. I have gone to the different leaders of the churches and of society, and I have solicited their co-operation, assuring them if they woul
d
join forces with me for the good of Findlay and the laboring classes and the base ball people, there need be no Sunday ball

" I am happy to say that I have been entirely successful. There will be no Sunday ball. There will be no open shops or factories or mills on Saturday afternoons. We, all of us, working people, church people, everybody concerned, will profit by this. How much better it is for the baseball team to have the undivided support of Findlay ! That is what it will now have. Findlay is proud of its baseball team. And it is proud of some other things, - its prosperity, its good name, its old-fashioned institutions. We want still to have the quiet, serene Sundays our fathers and mothers had.

" I think it is to the credit of Findlay that we can meet this question and settle it to everybody's satisfaction. I am sure the matter has been wholesome for us as a city and as individuals.

So, I am happy to dismiss the case, assuring the prosecution and the defence that they both have won, and that their victory is in every way an advance, a betterment, for the commonwealth of Findlay."

Chapter
XIV.

WAITING IT OUT
.

IT was a good thing for Chase and his batting average that right after the trial, the Findlay team took their usual monthly trip on the road. Chase's hitting had been slowly dropping off, except for an occasional vicious double or triple during the last two weeks; but once away from home he returned rapidly to form. The team broke even on the trip a satisfactory showing to Mac. " Shure, we 're restin' up fer the break into the stretch," he said.

They came home to find the town more stirred up than ever. The faction that had opposed the game now printed editorials, sent circulars and petitions, preached sermons, and worked indefatigably for Mac and his players, and therefore created all the more interest.

The directors came out with an announcement that, owing to the increased patronage, it was necessary to have mor
e
seating capacity, and they erected another open stand.

Chase was all the more popular, and more sought after than ever, but he could not take the pleasure in it that he had derived before his arrest. He was quiet and preoccupied, and haunted the ball-grounds on mornings and practised batting till Mac drove him out. " You Indian, you'll go stale! " Cried Mac. "Besides, you're battin' all my practice balls over the fence for the kids to steal."

Chase thought that a thousand persons beaming upon him could not make up for the coldly averted look of one individual. He fondly imagined that the few whom he met at long intervals, who passed him by as if he were nothing, were the occasion of his gloom. He began to revel in a species of self-pity. It remained for him to learn a good deal from his stanch friend, Mittie-Maru.

" Down in the mouth agin? Didn't I onct hear you ask Mac, ` Wot you want fer fifteen cents - canary birds?' Chase, me old college chum, you've got the pip.

You couldn't see tru a mill-stone wid a hole in it. Ain't you aeItAE round these diggin's? Sure as yer born, one of the big teams'll cop you out this Fall. Thet 'll mean two thousand next season. An' here you go mopin' round like a dead one. Wot t' 'll's the matter wid you?"

"I'm just a little off my feed, Mittie, I guess." " I reckon it's not thet. You've got the dingest case I ever seen, Chase. A pair of sky-blue eyes hev been yer finish. It's a case of shut out! No hit game! Not a look in! Marjory's folks hev trun you down, an' now everything you see is pea-green."

" Mittie-Maru - "

"Go wan! Yer insulted? Perfeckly rude, ain't I ? Say, I wanter beat some sense into yer block. You can't string me. I know, an' I wanter put in my oar. See! Fust thing you know, you'll be hevin' a slump, an' yer fine record'll go to bally-hoo. Listen, I've been with Miss Marjory most every day while the team was away, an' I hed my trouble
s
cheerin' her up. You ain't one-two-six to Miss Marjory fer a dead one!"

Chase gave a start, turned wildly to Mittie, and stuttered, " Is-s-s - sh
e
s-sorry? "

" Tho't you'd come to.
Sorry! Say, Marjory 's washed all the sky-blue ou
t
'en her eyes cryin'. She can't cry except when she's with me, so thet '
s
how I git it in the neck, as usual."

" W - what - did she - s-say ? "

" She don't say much 'cept, `Mittie, he's angry with me. - Is he angr
y
with me? - Will he stay angry with me?' An' then she weeps some more."

"Angel!" murmured Chase.

"Say, Chase, if you've any regard fer my friendship - cut thet out! An' ye
r
wrong about Miss Marjory's bein' an angel She's a little devil. I tell you, I
b
et she makes the fire fly for thet bunch as was after yer scalp. Sh
e
won't go to church, or Sunday school. She 's sore on her mother an'
w
on't speak to the old man. She showed yer speech, thet you made a
t
the trial, an' was printed in the Chronicle, to Mr. Marsden, an' sez it wa
s
better 'n any sermon he ever preached An' she won't see him any more.

She says they all make her tired. Oh! Marjory 's got her back up an'
s
he's gamer 'n a red monkey. So all you've got to do is slip out to th
e
river with me an' the rest's easy."

"No! No! No!" cried Chase. "Then her folks would have something agains
t
me."

" Wot? "

" I can't do it, Mittie, and yet I want to see her - "

" Are you goin' to quit, lay down, throw the game?"

Chase struggled with his temptation and overcame it. " It wouldn't b
e
right, Mittie."

" Well, I'll be dinged! Wot 's wrong about fightin' yer own battles? Ain'
t
Miss Marjory a girl? She don't know she's wild over you, but she is. Al
l
this knockin' of you has put the last crimp in her little romance. He
r
folks might hev hod sense enough to see thet. The more they say agi
n
you the more she'll be fer you. But darn her folks! I'
m
thinkin' about her. Presently she'll git wise to her own feelin's. An' there you are, standin' off like thet Greek feller on a monument. You want to be near home-base when Miss Marjory gets wise to herself, an' then, if you run hard an' make a good slide, you'll score! If you're not there she'll freeze. Girls is girls. Darn the old folks! They preach a lot, an' go round tellin' wot angels they was onct. It's dollars to doughnuts they half lie an' half forgit - "

" Mittie, will you shut up?" demanded Chase, in distraction.

" Wot? Of all ungrateful dubbs! But hol' on, my feelin's ain't hurt. You're got to listen! I've been savin' my best hit fer the last innin'. It 's a corker, a homer all right, all right! Miss Marjory's bought all the buttons with yer picture on thet she could find. She's wearin' 'em fer badges an' medals, an' shirt-waist buttons, an' sleeve-buttons, an' I'm dinged if I know what else. Now wot do you think of her?"

But Chase fled without answering, nor turned at Mittie-Maru's shrill yell.

The gloom that shrouded him rolled away. Something seemed to sing to him that all would end well; something whispered for him to wait. His mother had always told him to wait when in anger or doubt. And he applied her advice to temptation, to fear and trembling, to wonderful vague hopes.

After the game that day Mittie-Maru sidled up to Chase, searched his face with a gleaming glance, and said: " I won't kid any more, Chase. You can trust me to say the right thing to Miss Marjory. I see her every mornin', an' she wants to know a lot. An' I'm a good liar. But - wot 's yer game?"

"Waiting it out!" replied Chase, with a smile.

The little hunchback nodded gravely and walked away with his slow, labored steps. Chase found a note at his boarding. house. It was from judge Meggs, asking him to call in the evening on a matter of some importance. After supper he hurried to the judge's home. It was magnificent house, one of the finest i
n
Findlay. Chase felt proud of being invited to call there. A maid admitte
d
him and showed him into the library.

"Hello, Chase, have a chair," greeted the judge. "How's the game today?

Was busy late and couldn't get out."

"Mansfield was easy for us, 11 to 3. But they're weak, in last place."

" Did you get any hits today? "

"Four, but two of them were Texas leaguers."

" Four hits! You certainly are keeping it up. And what are Texas-leagu
e
hits? "

"Little measly flies that drop just over the head of an in-fielder. I hat
e
them. I like to feel the bat spring and hear the ball ring off. To `hang
a
bell on 'em,' as Mittie-maru says."

" You 're growing heavier, Chase. You're filling out."

"Yes, what do you think? I weigh nearly a hundred and seventy now. It'
s
funny I'm getting fat, when I perspire so much."

" What was the feature of today's game? "

"Cas's bulldog. He certainly made things hum. Now you know just before play is called every game, Mittie-maru puts the club colors on Algy -that's the bulldog's name -and runs him around the diamond. Just for luck, you know. Well, Algy surely is proud of that job. Today as he was coming in the stretch, a little, sassy, ugly pup ran out of the grandstand.

Algy saw it and must have taken it for a rat - he's death on rats -for he bolted after it. Mittie tried to grab him and Cas yelled like mad. I guess Cas knew what was coming off. Algy chased the little dog up into the grandstand. There was a big crowd -lots of women. Well, it was funny. I never saw such a muss in my life. Of all the screaming you ever heard! The women stood on the chairs and fell all over the men. Some of them got on the railing and were pushed off into the field. You know the wire screen in front of the grandstand back of the home-plate? Well, in the crush to get out of Algy's way some women jumped on the railing and of course fell u
p
against the screen. It sagged out and dropped down in a sort of bag, an
d
there the women were like fish in a net, kicking and floundering round.

Mac said it beat a bargain sale in loongeree, whatever that is. Cas finall
y
got hold of Algy, and it surely was time enough!"