`He's got a new manager.Watch him pitch now!'' That was what Nan Brown said to me about Rube Hurtle, my great pitcher, and I took it as her way of announcing her engagement.
My baseball career held some proud moments, but this one, wherein I realized the success of my matchmaking plans, was certainly the proudest one.So, entirely outside of the honest pleasure I got out of the Rube's happiness, there was reason for me to congratulate myself.He was a transformed man, so absolutely renewed, so wild with joy, that on the strength of it, I decided the pennant for Worcester was a foregone conclusion, and, sure of the money promised me by the directors, Milly and I began to make plans for the cottage upon the hill.
The Rube insisted on pitching Monday's game against the Torontos, and although poor fielding gave them a couple of runs, they never had a chance.They could not see the ball.The Rube wrapped it around their necks and between their wrists and straight over the plate with such incredible speed that they might just as well have tried to bat rifle bullets.
That night I was happy.Spears, my veteran captain, was one huge smile; Radbourne quietly assured me that all was over now but the shouting;all the boys were happy.
And the Rube was the happiest of all.At the hotel he burst out with his exceeding good fortune.He and Nan were to be married upon the Fourth of July!
After the noisy congratulations were over and the Rube had gone, Spears looked at me and Ilooked at him.
``Con,'' said he soberly, ``we just can't let him get married on the Fourth.''
``Why not? Sure we can.We'll help him get married.I tell you it'll save the pennant for us.
Look how he pitched today! Nan Brown is our salvation!''
``See here, Con, you've got softenin' of the brain, too.Where's your baseball sense? We've got a pennant to win.By July Fourth we'll be close to the lead again, an' there's that three weeks' trip on the road, the longest an' hardest of the season.We've just got to break even on that trip.You know what that means.If the Rube marries Nan--what are we goin' to do? We can't leave him behind.If he takes Nan with us --why it'll be a honeymoon! An' half the gang is stuck on Nan Brown! An' Nan Brown would flirt in her bridal veil!...Why Con, we're up against a worse proposition than ever.''
``Good Heavens! Cap.You're right,'' I
groaned.``I never thought of that.We've got to postpone the wedding....How on earth can we? I've heard her tell Milly that.She'll never consent to it.Say, this'll drive me to drink.''
``All I got to say is this, Con.If the Rube takes his wife on that trip it's goin' to be an all-fired hummer.Don't you forget that.''
``I'm not likely to.But, Spears, the point is this--will the Rube win his games?''
``Figurin' from his work today, I'd gamble he'll never lose another game.It ain't that.I'm thinkin' of what the gang will do to him an' Nan on the cars an' at the hotels.Oh! Lord, Con, it ain't possible to stand for that honeymoon trip!
Just think!''
``If the worst comes to the worst, Cap, I don't care for anything but the games.If we get in the lead and stay there I'll stand for anything....
Couldn't the gang be coaxed or bought off to let the Rube and Nan alone?''
``Not on your life! There ain't enough love or money on earth to stop them.It'll be awful.
Mind, I'm not responsible.Don't you go holdin'
me responsible.In all my years of baseball Inever went on a trip with a bride in the game.
That's new on me, an' I never heard of it.I'd be bad enough if he wasn't a rube an' if she wasn't a crazy girl-fan an' a flirt to boot, an' with half the boys in love with her, but as it is----''
Spears gave up and, gravely shaking his head, he left me.I spent a little while in sober reflection, and finally came to the conclusion that, in my desperate ambition to win the pennant, I would have taken half a dozen rube pitchers and their baseball-made brides on the trip, if by so doing I could increase the percentage of games won.
Nevertheless, I wanted to postpone the Rube's wedding if it was possible, and I went out to see Milly and asked her to help us.But for once in her life Milly turned traitor.
``Connie, you don't want to postpone it.Why, how perfectly lovely!...Mrs.Stringer will go on that trip and Mrs.Bogart....Connie, I'm going too!''
She actually jumped up and down in glee.That was the woman in her.It takes a wedding to get a woman.I remonstrated and pleaded and commanded, all to no purpose.Milly intended to go on that trip to see the games, and the fun, and the honeymoon.
She coaxed so hard that I yielded.Thereupon she called up Mrs.Stringer on the telephone, and of course found that young woman just as eager as she was.For my part, I threw anxiety and care to the four winds, and decided to be as happy as any of them.The pennant was mine! Something kept ringing that in my ears.With the Rube working his iron arm for the edification of his proud Nancy Brown, there was extreme likelihood of divers shut-outs and humiliating defeats for some Eastern League teams.
How well I calculated became a matter of baseball history during that last week of June.We won six straight games, three of which fell to the Rube's credit.His opponents scored four runs in the three games, against the nineteen we made.
Upon July 1, Radbourne beat Providence and Cairns won the second game.We now had a string of eight victories.Sunday we rested, and Monday was the Fourth, with morning and afternoon games with Buffalo.
