Publisher's Synopsis
"Now then, Joe, send it over!" "Show us what you can do!" "Make the ball hum!" "Split the ozone!" These and a host of similar cries greeted Joe Matson as he carelessly caught the ball tossed to him by one of his friends and walked over to a corner of the gymnasium that was marked off as a pitcher's box. "All right, fellows," he answered, laughingly. "Anything to oblige my friends." "And that means all of us, Joe," cried one of the boys heartily. "You bet it does!" chorused the others, with a fervor that spoke volumes for the popularity of the young pitcher. It was a cold day in late winter and a large number of the village youth had gathered at the Riverside gymnasium. Riverside was Joe's home town where his people had lived for years, and where he always spent the months between the ending of one baseball season and the beginning of the next. Joe wound up, while the spectators stretched out in a long line and waited with interest for the first ball.
