id not rave and swear that he had been double-crossed, as many players
do under the same circumstances. I never heard Bridwell swear, and I never
found any one else who did. He had been playing for weeks, when every time
he moved it pained him, because he thought he might have a share of the
money that winning a pennant would mean. It was a staggering blow to him,
this sending him from a pennant possibility to a hopeless tail-ender, but
he took it gamely.

"I guess I was 'gumming' the inside stuff," he said.

And he did get some of the prize money. The boys voted him a share.

It will be seen that the "inside" game sometimes fails. Many a time I have
passed a catcher or good batter to take a chance on a pitcher, and then
have had him make a hit just when hits were not at all welcome. I walked a
catcher once and had the pitcher shove the ball over first base for a
single, when he closed his eyes and dodged back in an effort to get his
head out of the line he thought it was pursuing before it curved. In
ducking, he got his bat in front of the ball, a result he had never
obtained with his eyes open.

Once I started to pass "Hans" Wagner in a pinch to take a chance on the
next batter, and was a little careless in throwing the ball too close to
the plate. He reached out and slapped it for a single. Again the "inside"
game had failed.

Speaking pretty generally, most managers prefer to use this "inside" game,
though, and there are few vacancies in the Big Leagues right now for the
man who is liable to steal second with the bases full.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Punctuation has been corrected without note.

The following misprints have been corrected:
"Crounds" corrected to "Grounds" (page 65)
"temperameut" corrected to "temperament" (page 69)
"penant" corrected to "pennant" (page 205)
"te ephone" corrected to "telephone" (page 263)
"innnings" corrected to "innings" (page 282)

Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in hyphenation
have been retained from the original.

End of Project Gutenberg's Pitching in a Pinch, by Christy Mathewson

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