t
McCarthy, another run counted and the Travelers were one run ahead
before the attack could be stopped.

The Travelers held their advantage to the eighth, when, rallying
desperately, the Bears drove home two runs by sheer force of hitting
and the ninth found them hanging to a one-run lead. They failed to
increase their advantage in the first half of the inning and took the
field determined to hold their lead. McCarthy was puzzled. He thought
Clancy knew what was happening on the field and had expected each
inning that the manager would rebuke Williams when they returned to the
bench. Instead Clancy had remained strangely silent.

Tuttle, the first batter for the Travelers in the ninth inning, hit a
fierce bounder down the third-base line. McCarthy, knowing Tuttle to
be a right field hitter, was swung a little wide from the base. He
threw himself out toward the line, his hands extended to the full
limit, and the ball stuck in one outstretched hand. Scrambling to his
feet he threw hard and fast to first, retiring the speedy runner by a
step. The next batter hit fiercely between third and short and
Swanson, by a great play, retrieved the ball back on the edge of the
grass, but could not throw the runner out. The next batter, a
right-hander, hit a vicious single past McCarthy and there were runners
on second and first.

McCarthy felt the next drive would be toward him. He believed Williams
was striving to lose the game, and that he was pitching so as to compel
the batters to hit in the direction of third base so that the baseman
and not he would be held responsible for the defeat. He gritted his
teeth and crouched, waiting, as Watson, the heaviest-hitting
right-handed batter in the league, faced Williams. Crouching, he saw
Kennedy signal for a fast ball high and outside the plate, and then saw
a straight easy ball sail toward the batter, low and inside. Watson
swung. McCarthy saw a flash of light and threw up his hands just in
time to keep the ball from hitting him. The ball broke through his
hands and rolled a few feet away. His hands were numb to the wrists
from the terrific shock. He stood still one trice. Then he saw the
runners were stopped, bewildered. They had lost sight of the ball, so
rapidly had it traveled and had stopped, thinking he had caught it. He
leaped after the ball, framing the play as he touched the spinning
sphere. He could have run back to third base and forced out one, but
i