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Baseball Joe on the Giants:Or, Making Good as a Ball Twirler in the Metropolis
This ebook is Baseball fiction by Lester Chadwick about story of Baseball Joe example story is
“Now then, Joe, send it over!”
“Show us what you can do!”
“Make the ball hum!”
“Split the ozone!”
These and a host of similar cries greeted Joe Matson as he carelessly caught the ball tossed to him by one of his friends and walked over to a corner of the gymnasium that was marked off as a pitcher’s box.
“All right, fellows,” he answered, laughingly. “Anything to oblige my friends.”
“And that means all of us, Joe,” cried one of the boys heartily.
“You bet it does!” chorused the others, with a fervor that spoke volumes for the popularity of the young pitcher.
It was a cold day in late winter and a large number of the village youth had gathered at the Riverside gymnasium. Riverside was Joe’s home town where his people had lived for years, and where he always spent the months between the ending of one baseball season and the beginning of the next.
Joe wound up, while the spectators stretched out in a long line and waited with interest for the first ball.
“Not too hot at the start, Joe,” cautioned Tom Davis, his old-time chum, who stood ready at the receiving end. “Remember I’m out of practice just now and I don’t want you to lift me off my feet.”
“All right, old scout,” returned Joe. “I’m not any too anxious myself to pitch my arm out at the start. I’ll just float up a few teasers to begin with.”
He let the ball go without any conscious effort, and it sailed lazily across the sixty feet that represented the distance between himself and Tom, who stood directly behind the plate that had been improvised for the occasion. It was a drop that broke just before it reached the plate and shot downward into Tom’s extended glove.
“That was a pretty one,” said Tom. “Now give us an upshoot.”
Joe complied, and then in response to requests from the crowd gave them specimens of his“knuckle” ball, his in-and-out curves, his “fadeaway,” and in fact everything he had in stock.
Then with a twinkle in his eyes, seeing that Tom by this time was pretty well warmed up, he cut loose a fast one that traveled so swiftly that the eye could scarcely follow it. It landed in Tom’s glove with a report like the crack of a whip, and a roar of laughter went up from the crowd as Tom danced around rubbing his hands.