Page:America's National Game (1911).djvu/141

 They had good grounds for that fear. Every member of the team cautioned me to take my time and keep cool; but I was not so rattled but that I recognized the fact that everyone of them was so scared that none could speak above a whisper. The fact is, we were all frightened nearly to death, with possibly the exception of Bob Addy, who kept up his nerve and courage by "joshing" the National players as they came to bat with his witticisms, which made him famous among ball players for many years.

In the first innings, the Rockfords made two runs and the Nationals three, which in those days was called good ball playing. In the second innings, five runs by the Nationals and eight by the Rockfords gave the latter a lead by ten to eight. In the third, the Nationals drew a blank and Rockford made five runs, thus putting Rockford to the good by a score of fifteen to eight for the Nationals. The fourth and fifth yielded three runs to the Nationals and one to the Rockfords. In the sixth innings the Nationals made seven runs and the Rockfords eight, which made the score at the end of the sixth innings. Nationals, 18; Rockford, 24.

While the Forest Citys had by this time gotten pretty well settled and their stage-fright had disappeared, yet none of us even then had the remotest idea that we were destined to win the game over such a famous antagonist. The thought or suggestion of such a thing at that stage would probably have thrown us into another mental spasm.

At this psychological moment, Col. Frank Jones,