three o'clock
`` Ripley never was strong on the truth . '' Though the gossip about Fred Ripley was not general , the anxiety over Pitcher Prescott was heard on all sides . `` It 'll be a sure hoodoo if Prescott ca n't pitch the season 's first game , '' declared a man who seldom missed a High School game on the home diamond . Before three o'clock the grand stand was comfortably filled . The cheaper seats beyond held about as many spectators as they were built to hold . The attendance , that day , was nearly three thousand . Gardiner had sent a delegation of nearly one-tenth of this number .