The fast Blake, with a long
slide, made third base. The stands stamped. The
bleachers howled. White, next man up, batted a
high fly to left field. This was a sun field and
the hardest to play in the league. Red Gilbat was
the only man who ever played it well. He judged
the fly, waited under it, took a step hack, then
forward, and deliberately caught the ball in his
gloved hand. A throw-in to catch the runner scoring
from third base would have been futile, but
it was not like Red Gilbat to fail to try. He tossed
the ball to O'Brien. And Blake scored amid
applause.
``What do you know about that?'' ejaculated
Delaney, wiping his moist face. ``I never
before saw our nutty Redhead pull off a play like
that.''
Some of the players yelled at Red, ``This is a
two-handed league, you bat!''
The first five players on the list for the Grays
were left-handed batters, and against a right-
handed pitcher whose most effective ball for them
was a high fast one over the outer corner they
would naturally hit toward left field. It was no
surprise to see Hanley bat a skyscraper out to left.
Red had to run to get under it. He braced himself
rather unusually for a fielder. He tried to
catch the ball in his bare right hand and muffed it,
Hanley got to second on the play while the audience
roared.
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