Argosy All-Story Weekly, June 27, 1925 — page 128: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Nobody was so astonished as the Cricket- ees; they were still accepting themselves at the popular estimate, but Hosmer spoke with authority, If he said they were good, they were good. Crab began to give out interviews pre- dicting that be would finish in the first division, but Mabel caused a general Jaugh when she declared she intended to win the pennant. “Don’t you think we shall?” she asked the college pitcher, whose name was Wen- dell Greening. She had been showing him especial favors since his auspicious début, walking with him in the evening frequent- ing ice cream parlors and the town movie house in his company. The youth shook his head. ; “T think it extremely doubtful. Why do you expect such a thing the first year you own the team?” “ Because I need money so badly. I have a grandmother in England who has barely enough to live on. I hoped to do so much for her when I came into my inheritance, and then I found this old ball club only earned fifteen hundred dollars over its ex- penditures last season. That won't pay my ewn expenses traveling with the team. Greening laughed a little. “Miss Mainwaring, being English, you don’t appreciate the value of exploitation. This team is going to make a barrel of money this year, no matter where it winds up, and you are going to be the cause. All this newspaper notoriety which you hate is making you a national figure. You are go- ing to be a box office attraction. In the big cities huge crowds will turn out to see you instead of the players. Tailend teams with a single great player have often drawn bigger crowds than very good teams witb- out stars. “You are the greatest star in baseball to-day. Only you must let them see you. You must sit on the bench with the players. You must appear to be running the team. You might carry a cricket bat, anything to make talk. Even this new name we have, the ‘ Cricketers,’ is going to create interest. J] wouldn’t be surprised if you made an aw- ful lot of money, really.” “You wish me to exhibit myself like a ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. circus woman, go out on the field, mingle with the players before crowds of people oh, I couldn’t do that.” “ Not even to make sixty or eighty thou- sand dollars. That’s a movie star’s salary, I know it’s hard for a lady to make an ex- hibition of herself, but isn’t the prize worth it?” “T don’t know,” she said slowly. “J. was thinking of asking those nice reporters to stop photographing me.”’ “For Heaven’s sake don’t! And lately you have learned so much about baseball you have stopped making funny breaks. You mustn’t drop out of the news. Let’s think up some good ones, you and I.” Her eyes danced, they put their heads together, and next day Mabel began again to say readable things. © First she suggested that the players should wear flannel trousers instead of knee breeches. Then she suggested several coach- ing expressions instead of the abuse which Crab McNulty showered on opposing players. ‘‘ Mabel wants Cricketers to be polite on coaching lines,” was one of the best stories of the year. IT. MEANTIME the team left the training camp and began its: spring barnstorming tour. The men were on their toes, ‘their listlessness had vanished and they cleaned up neatly in the exhibition games. Green- ing’s mystery ball was responsible for his winning his games with ease. The old-tim- ers were hitting the ball hard. The batting eye is the last thing a player loses. He may get too fat to run bases, too rheumatic to sprint after grounders, but he can lace them out always if he ever knew how. The early spring exhibition tour had usu- ally resulted in a financial loss for the Zulus. The Cricketers made a very neat profit as a result of the crowds who turned out for a glimpse of Mabel. The girl had balked at sitting with the team or being in any way active, but sharp eyes ferreted her, out in her front row box at every town. And then the Cricketers came to New GOMIGDOOo C SS Co