第6章 THE REDHEADED OUTFIELD(6)

The teams changed sides with the Grays three runs in the lead.Morrissey, for the Stars, opened with a clean drive to right.Then Healy slashed a ground ball to Hanley and nearly knocked him down.When old Burns, by a hard rap to short, advanced the runners a base and made a desperate, though unsuccessful, effort to reach first the Providence crowd awoke to a strange and inspiring appreciation.They began that most rare feature in baseball audiences--a strong and trenchant call for the visiting team to win.

The play had gone fast and furious.Wehying, sweaty and disheveled, worked violently.All the Grays were on uneasy tiptoes.And the Stars were seven Indians on the warpath.Halloran fouled down the right-field line; then he fouled over the left-field fence.Wehying tried to make him too anxious, but it was in vain.Halloran was implacable.With two strikes and three balls he hit straight down to white, and was out.The ball had been so sharp that neither runner on base had a chance to advance.

Two men out, two on base, Stars wanting three runs to tie, Scott, a weak batter, at the plate!

The situation was disheartening.Yet there sat Delaney, shot through and through with some vital compelling force.He saw only victory.And when the very first ball pitched to Scott hit him on the leg, giving him his base, Delaney got to his feet, unsteady and hoarse.

Bases full, Reddie Ray up, three runs to tie!

Delaney looked at Reddie.And Reddie looked at Delaney.The manager's face was pale, intent, with a little smile.The player had eyes of fire, a lean, bulging jaw and the hands he reached for his bat clutched like talons.

``Reddie, I knew it was waitin' for you,'' said Delaney, his voice ringing.``Break up the game!''

After all this was only a baseball game, and perhaps from the fans' viewpoint a poor game at that.But the moment when that lithe, redhaired athlete toed the plate was a beautiful one.The long crash from the bleachers, the steady cheer from the grand stand, proved that it was not so much the game that mattered.

Wehying had shot his bolt; he was tired.Yet he made ready for a final effort.It seemed that passing Reddie Ray on balls would have been a wise play at that juncture.But no pitcher, probably, would have done it with the bases crowded and chances, of course, against the batter.

Clean and swift, Reddie leaped at the first pitched ball.Ping! For a second no one saw the hit.Then it gleamed, a terrific drive, low along the ground, like a bounding bullet, straight at Babcock in right field.It struck his hands and glanced viciously away to roll toward the fence.

Thunder broke loose from the stands.Reddie Ray was turning first base.Beyond first base he got into his wonderful stride.Some runners run with a consistent speed, the best they can make for a given distance.But this trained sprinter gathered speed as he ran.He was no short-stepping runner.His strides were long.They gave an impression of strength combined with fleetness.

He had the speed of a race horse, but the trimness, the raciness, the delicate legs were not characteristic of him.Like the wind he turned second, so powerful that his turn was short.All at once there came a difference in his running.It was no longer beautiful.The grace was gone.It was now fierce, violent.His momentum was running him off his legs.He whirled around third base and came hurtling down the homestretch.

His face was convulsed, his eyes were wild.His arms and legs worked in a marvelous muscular velocity.He seemed a demon--a flying streak.

He overtook and ran down the laboring Scott, who had almost reached the plate.

The park seemed full of shrill, piercing strife.

It swelled, reached a highest pitch, sustained that for a long moment, and then declined.

``My Gawd!'' exclaimed Delaney, as he fell back.``Wasn't that a finish? Didn't I tell you to watch them redheads!''