Lefty o' the Big League

“Say, fellows!” sang out Red Pollock, the snappy little shortstop of the famous Hornets. “Look who’s here!” There was a general turning of heads and craning of necks on the part...

The meeting had so surprised and startled Lefty that he stood there for a moment or two, ball in hand, watching Elgin join the manager and start with him toward another part of...

Lefty knew they were talking about him. He had been aware of the fact for five minutes or so, but this was the first remark which had reached his ears in its entirety. Sitting i...

Instinctively Lefty joined the rush toward the center of disturbance. He caught a glimpse of two men struggling in close embrace, each raining blows upon the other’s face and bo...

Dazed, bewildered, a sudden overpowering weakness gripping his limbs, Lefty felt himself thrust against the wall, and saw the massive form of the man who had baited him so succe...

On his way in to breakfast next morning, Manager Brennan bought a copy of the Ashland _Morning Chronicle_ to glance through during the progress of the meal. Having seated himsel...

“Well, it worked all right, kid,” remarked Buck Fargo as he caught up with Lefty on the way out to the field. “I’ll guarantee the old man didn’t even ask you a question, did he?”

Whirling swiftly, Locke saw standing before him a short, slim, wiry chap of about his own age, with a deeply tanned and freckled face, and a big mouth stretched to its utmost in...

Instantly every tongue stopped wagging, and each man turned an eager, inquiring face in his direction. After nearly two weeks of monotonous training, the prospect of a real game...

The liquid refreshments arrived while they were in the midst of an unusually animated hand. Everybody had dropped out but Cy Russell, Siegrist, the first baseman, and Lefty. The...

When Lefty came to himself the electric lights were still blazing in sickly opposition to the bright sunshine which poured through the two windows. For a moment or two he lay wo...

The call was for a curve ball, and Lefty did his best to respond. Unfortunately he put so much curve into it that the sphere missed the plate by at least two feet. Whalen looked...

On second thought, he withdrew the comment. Jim Brennan had left nothing to be said, nothing to the imagination. In stinging phrases, which bit like acid and made the pitcher wi...

Bert Elgin was decidedly a ladies’ man. A pretty face in any of the front-rows of the grandstand never escaped his attention, and, no matter in what part of the country his team...

Out on the field next morning Lefty Locke threw himself heart and soul into his work. He was conscious that Manager Brennan was watching his efforts with the eyes of a lynx, and...

It was rather difficult for Lefty to tell what sort of an impression the day’s work had made on Jim Brennan. That astute individual was thoroughly proficient in the art of keepi...

Bert Elgin bent slightly forward, a hurt expression in the eyes fixed upon her face. During the fifteen minutes in which he had labored strenuously to ingratiate himself with he...

It was not a strictly original remark, considering the fact that it had been uttered, in some form or another, on an average of every five minutes since breakfast time. Neverthe...

“Blue blazes!” roared Splinter Jones, his hands clutching Lefty’s windpipe. “You bonehead! You mutt! I’ll teach you to pull them towels from under me! I’m scalded――parboiled――bu...

Lefty did not devote much more thought that night to Bert Elgin and his doings. Just before supper a letter arrived which drove every other idea from his head. For a second or t...

There was a sniff of incredulity from the half dozen regulars gathered near the plate waiting their turn. They had heard before of these pugilistic prodigies, and were inclined...

Al Ogan, the promising cub first baseman and captain of the Yannigans, was not a bad fellow at heart. He had been as disgusted as any of his companions at Locke’s apparently ine...

In company with Jean Forsythe, a pretty, breezy Texas girl, Janet reached the baseball park the next afternoon about half past two. They drove down in Jean’s runabout, and the l...

The remainder of the afternoon was one long trial for Lefty Locke. He was under the necessity of keeping up an appearance of light-hearted indifference before the girls, when al...

Lefty went to his room rather early that night, but not to bed. The discovery of the terrible mistake he had made regarding Elgin bewildered him at first, and then made him feel...

“Because I had to,” retorted Lefty, with some asperity. He was tired of the whole subject, and desired to forget it. “Don’t be a fool, Jack. There wasn’t anything else to do.”

Jack Stillman lolled in the big cushioned chair, his eyes fixed on the backs of two men, carrying suitcases, who were just leaving the hotel in company with half a dozen of thei...

As the Broncs spread out on the field for preliminary practice, their opponents looked them over with undisguised interest. They saw nine husky, sunbrowned fellows, quick, lithe...

Andy Whalen, a little sore at having been left out of the game, nodded absently. Next instant, however, he turned his eyes from the diamond for a second to glance at his companion.

Lefty approached the bench in a very dubious state of mind. He was not at all sure that this first inning might not prove his last, and when he saw Ogan hurry up to the manager...

The Hornets were in high spirits as they took the field. To be sure, the score was no more than tied, but the expedition with which those two runs had been made was most encoura...

Instantly the whole field was in an uproar. The Hornets, fighting mad, invaded the diamond in a body. Schaeffer, his face white as that of the unconscious man, half turned as if...

The days passed without the truth coming to light. At first Brennan set about systematically interviewing every man who had been on the field that day, but without avail. Having...

It was a silver dollar he handed the boy. Without waiting for thanks, he darted back into the hotel, hastily secured a time-table, and found that there was a train leaving in le...

Locke would scarcely have been so self-contained had he known what had taken place at the hotel about the time he was feverishly pacing the platform at Flat Rock Junction.

The quickness with which a man can be forgotten is never flattering to his self-esteem. For a full month Lefty Locke had been a member of the Hornets’ training camp squad. Durin...

Slowly and leisurely the Hornets zigzagged their way northward, pausing here and there to play an exhibition game with some minor-league team, which was usually won by headwork...

A door opened, and a tall, thin man, with a slight stoop, stood on the threshold, looking down upon the manager of the Hornets. His dark eyes glimmered and a smile stretched his...

Three games had been insufficient to take the edge from the enthusiasm of the fans, intoxicated with the wine of spring and bubbling with the joy of looking down once more upon...

Amid the roaring of the crowd, the Hornets made their way across the diamond. Brennan was in the lead, with Cy Russell beside him; and, at moments when the scurrying phalanx of...

Rufe Hyland, the visitors’ right fielder and one of their crack hitters, stood at the pan, calm and smiling, swinging his stick with a short, gentle motion, which seemed to deno...

Like a flash, thousands of fans were on their feet. The roar which reverberated back and forth in the great inclosure was enough to shake the row of eagles ornamenting the roof...

Unconscious of the gathering storm, Bert Elgin continued his fine work. Inning after inning he held the visitors down, rising to his highest pitch of excellence in the fifth by...

Brennan’s reason for not doing at once the thing which was inevitable was not quite apparent. He had an obstinate streak in his make-up, and no doubt it went very much against t...

Again the crowd cheered and yelled like lunatics, shouting Locke’s name over and over as he walked toward the bench. His teammates surrounded him, patting him on the back and ut...

Cheer after cheer went up from the throng of visiting fans. Hats and canes and newspapers were thrown into the air with careless abandon. Men brought their fists down on shoulde...