"Baseball Joe" Matson's great ambition is to go to boarding school and play on the school team. Joe is a wide-awake country boy who loves playing baseball above all. He and his hometown chum Tom Davis enrol in Excelsior Hall and join the school nine. When not on the diamond, Joe is saving lives and assisting his father against the foes who are once trying to steal Mr. Matson's machinery patents.

This is the second volume volume in the "Baseball Joe" series.

Howard Roger Garis (1873-1962) was an American author, who wrote many books for the Stratemeyer Syndicate under various pseudonyms. As Victor Appleton, he wrote about the enterprising Tom Swift; as Laura Lee Hope, he is generally credited with writing volumes 4–28 and 41 of the Bobbsey Twins; as Clarence Young, the Motor Boys series; as Lester Chadwick, the Baseball Joe series; and as Marion Davidson, a number of books including several featuring the Camp Fire Girls. He is also remembered for having created the character of the lovable old rabbit, Uncle Wiggily Longears.