Baseball Joe in the Big League by Lester Chadwick

"Baseball Joe" Matson's great ambition is to become a professional baseball pitcher. The Baseball Joe series follows his career as he seeks to attain his goal. In this fifth volume, Joe is drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the major leagues. A successful season of pitching is marred by mishaps beginning with a request for a loan by a has-been ball player and ending with the kidnapping of our hero. Lester Chadwick is one of dozens of house pseudonyms created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate in the early to mid 1900's, to "author" children's series. Contract writers (whose identities were to remain unknown under tight secrecy) were hired to write the books in the series under the various names, usually multiple writers contributing volumes to a particular series. Howard R. Garis (1873-1962) is thought to have ghost-written most, if not all (sources vary), of the 14-volume Baseball Joe series. (Summary by Donald Cummings)