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The man at the bat will always strike himself out quick enough if he has forgotten how to find the pitcher's curves, so you needn't worry about that. But you want to be ready all the time in case he should bat a few hot ones in your direction.
Prescott," remarked Lieutenant Lawrence in an even voice. Poor Dick flushed, but was about to turn away from the pitcher's box when Durville turned to the Army coach. "If you really don't mind, sir, I'd like to see Prescott throw in a few more. He hasn't held a ball in his hands for a long time, and I think he has only been warming up." "If you really think it worth while," nodded the lieutenant.
He thought Gordon a semi-god, a worker of miracles, and urged the putting up of a monument to him at once in the public plaza, to which Albert objected, on the ground that it would be too suggestive of an idol; and to which Stedman also objected, but for the less unselfish reason that it would "be in the way of the pitcher's box."
The reliable Salisbury rolled the ball in his hands, feinted to throw to the bases, and showed his steadiness under fire. He put one square over for Homans and followed it upon the run. Homans made a perfect bunt, but instead of going along either base line, it went straight into the pitcher's hands. Salisbury whirled and threw to Prince, who covered the bag, and forced Trace.
Six minutes later, the umpire called the captains to the home plate for the toss. "There they are -the same old chums!" cried Dick, hitting Greg a nudge. Darrin and Dalzell, of the Navy nine, had been trying to catch the eyes of the Army battery. Now the four old chums raced together to a point midway between pitcher's box and home plate. There they met and clasped each others' hands.
The game seesawed along, inning after inning; it was a pitcher's battle that looked as if the first run scored would win the game. Mackay toyed with the Salisbury boys; it was his pleasure to toss up twisting, floating balls that could scarcely be hit out of the diamond.
He glowered upon the cool little umpire, and then turned grandly toward the plate. It may have been imagination, yet I made sure Merritt seemed to shrink and grow smaller before he pitched a ball. For one thing the plate was uphill from the pitcher's box, and then the fellow standing there loomed up like a hill and swung a bat that would have served as a wagon tongue.
Here, Hurtle," I said, drawing him toward the pitcher's box, "don't pay any attention to their talk. That's only the fun of ball players. Go in now and practice a little. Lam a few over." Hurtle's big freckled hands closed nervously over the ball. I thought it best not to say more to him, for he had a rather wild look. I remembered my own stage fright upon my first appearance in fast company.
This done, take a rope or line one hundred and eighty feet long, fasten one end to the home plate and the other to second base; then draw the middle of the line at first to the right and then to the left, till it is tight. This will mark the places of first and third base. The place of the pitcher's box is fixed by measuring a line of fifty feet from home to second base.
For a long time after its existence was familiar to every ball-player and spectator of the game, there were wise men who proclaimed its impossibility, who declared it to be simply an "optical delusion," and its believers the victims of the pitcher's trickery.
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