will recall, performed up until some twenty years ago as third baseman on the New York professional team. And Tom Swift was that same Speedy Swift who came out of the Middle West as a rookie to take his place at Dillon's side as shortstop. A great combination—Swift and Dillon—cause of the frustration of many a bold base runner and slugger in their day.
Dillon was already a veteran when the eager and fiery Swift joined the team. Swift was at the start a rather cocky youngster whose supreme confidence in himself offended some of the more sensitive members of the squad. The tolerant Dillon, however, saw the streak of pure gold that lay beneath the newcomer's assertiveness and liked him at once. They became cronies, roommates. Dillon taught Swift many of the subtler tricks of the big league game. Swift made good from the start and was a fixture on the New York club for two years. After the first year Dillon, already too old for the game and slowing up fast, was released and replaced by a younger man. But the two kept up their friendship, Pop being almost a daily visitor at the New York ball park when Speedy Swift and the team were playing at home.
For Pop Dillon, nearly forty at the time of his release from the New York team, old age for a professional ball player, was unsuccessful in selling his services to another major league club and a certain pride prevented him from descending to a berth in the minors. So, ill fitted for any other form of employment, he had much leisure at his disposal,
