Ball game

“ In the history of the world no such great crowds have gathered to watch anything the world has ever known—sport or anything else—with so few fights. Base Ball, you see, arouses no brutal instincts. It is a turmoil rather than a battle. It is more a war of skill than a war of strength. Foot ball often breeds fierce fights. That game calls for heavy muscles, don't you see? as well as skill, and I shall dare some critics when I say that foot ball science is less delicate than Base Ball science. Brute strength in one foot ball player can, and often does, overmaster the pure science of another. ”

“ But if base-ball is neither sprung from rounders nor taken bodily from another English game, what is its origin? I believe it to be a fruit of the inventive genius of the American boy. Like our system of government, it is an American evolution, and while, like that, it has doubtless been affected by foreign associations, it is none the less distinctively our own. Place in the hands of youth a ball and bat, and they will invent games of ball, and that these will be affected by other familiar games and in many respects resemble them, goes without saving. ”

“ Any player who does not catch the ball, but instead is touched by it, is "dead" (out of the game) , and must sit down. Each player tosses the ball upward in some new direction as soon as he receives it. ”

“ And this is the first ball game on record, though it is perhaps unnecessary to say that it was not yet base-ball.
No other single accident has ever been so productive of games as that invention. From the day when the Phaeacian maidens started the ball rolling down to the present time, it has been continuously in motion, and as long as children love play and adults feel the need of exercise and recreation, it will continue to roll. It has been known in all lands, and at one time or another been popular with all peoples. The Greeks and the Romans were great devotees of ball-play ”

“ When a player has five stones she goes out of the game.
GUESS BALL Use a soft ball. The players form in line. One stands before them, with back turned, at a distance of several feet. This player counts up to a certain number, as the ball passes back and forth along the line; as a certain number is called, the holder of the ball throws it so as to strike one of the players. If this player is hit, she turns suddenly and tries to guess by the attitude of the players which one threw the ball. If she guesses correctly, she goes to the front. ”

“ Base Ball is essentially the people's game, in that it is equally accessible to the sons of the rich and poor, and in point of exhilarating exercise to the player and healthy enjoyment to the spectator—whether played on the village common or the splendidly appointed grounds of the modern professional club—it satisfies and typifies the American idea of a manly, honest, entertaining recreation. ”

“ As the ball should not be allowed to touch the ground, scoring for the opponents whenever it does so, the players have to be very alert, and there is opportunity for much sport in the game. For a very large number of players, more than one ball may be used. ”

“ START.—The ball is put in play at the beginning of the game, and always thereafter, when necessary, by the Emperor. He must naturally be perfectly impartial, and may toss the ball to either side, in turn, or use his judgment in choosing which side shall have it. He will, of course, do his best to catch the ball for either side that throws it to him. The ball is put newly in play after every point scored, after every foul, and after going afield. ”

“ The game may be 20, or any other number agreed upon by the players before commencing, and the player or side that gains that number first wins the game. Should the game be nearly equal, so that both sides gain 20 in the same hand, then the side that makes the greatest number wins. The white ball must remain wherever it is rolled by the playing of the balls during each hand and placed back on some designated spot at the commencement of each hand. ”

“ The passion of ball-play begins not with this friendly, graceful delivery of the ball into the next hand, but when two hostile players or parties are striving each to take or send it away from the other. Thus, on the one hand, there comes into existence the group of games represented by the Greek harpaston, or seizing-game, where the two sides struggled to carry off the ball. ”

“ The game is a great deal of fun when the players number from twenty to forty, and four or five balls are used. The balls should be either very soft Indoor baseballs which have been considerably battered, or the larger Playground ball.
The leader tosses these balls into the center, which is the signal for the game to begin. Those nearest the balls pick them up and throw them at someone. If the people at whom the balls are thrown catch them, all is well, but if they do not, and are hit by the ball, they are out, and must go outside the boundaries. ”

“ Should there not be space for a point at which to leave the ball, the game may be finished by the last player holding up the ball when it reaches the end of the line, or by his running forward with it to the head of the line. ”

“ There should be nothing to distinguish the players from one another, each being dependent on his own memory and alertness to know to whom he is to throw the ball and from whom he is to receive it. The particular success of this game lies in having a very considerable number of balls in play at once. In this form the balls do not have to accumulate at the foot of the lines before being returned to the head, as the last Number One player to receive the ball tosses it directly across to the last Number Two player, who begins at once to zigzag it up the line. ”

“ Players will try to deceive their opponents as to the point where the ball is to cross the curtain, and the more rapid the play is the more alert the players will have to be. The great sport of the game consists in the unexpectedness with which the ball may appear at any given point. ”

“ To play Base Ball requires judgment, courage, presence of mind and the possession of much the same qualities as cricket. To see it played by experts will astonish those who only know it by written descriptions, for it is a fast game, full of change and excitement, and not in the least degree wearisome. To see the best players field, even, is a sight that ought to do a cricketer's heart good, the agility, dash and accuracy of timing and catching by the Americans being wonderful. ”

“ The person to commence the game is chosen by lot. He places his red ball at the distance of a mallet’s head from the edge of the board, and tries to send his ball against the cubes in the centre; he can roll his three balls in succession, and at the end of his play take back his balls and replace the cubes, if their position has been changed by his play. The player on his left then plays his three balls, and each in turn, until all have played. ”

“ The earliest summer game is with the ball, in the village streets or on the tender grass of the green,--it is thrown by old and young, men and women. Whoever has a coloured feather ball to throw sends it with a greeting to her he loves. The agile movements, the powerful throw, the short cheer to friends and opponents, are the pleasures both of players and spectators. When sunny May comes, then the maidens get their holiday attire from the press, and twine wreaths for their own hair and that of their friends. ”

“ The chief who has the first choice takes the ball corresponding in color with the top of the post, and the other chief the next ball according to the order of the colors on the posts, while the remaining balls are given to the other players in the order in which they are chosen. (See remark under Rule II.)
Eight persons can play, but a game of four or six is the most interesting. If four or more play, each player uses but one ball; but if only two play, the game is improved by each player taking two balls and playing them alternately as usual. ”

“ If the ball is struck so as to diverge too much either to the right or to the left of fixed marks, the player loses the number of his wide balls. These limits are agreed upon by the players before the game is commenced. ”

“ Time will not turn backward in his flight, but the mind can travel back to the days before Base Ball, or at least to the days before Base Ball was so well known and before it had become so scientific. There were ball games in those days, in town and country, and the country ball game was an event. ”

“ Gaze at me while I aim another blow; lo,
I've missed because I looked at her! With sighs
I murmur an apologetic solo.
The proudest athlete here might stoop,
To hit a ball just through a hoop,
And say the game—with her—beats golf and polo.
[Pg 81]
CRICKET—THE PRIDE OF THE VILLAGE
"Good match, old fellow?"
"Oh, yes; awfully jolly!"
"What did you do?"
"I 'ad a hover of Jackson; the first ball 'it me on the 'and, the second 'ad me on the knee; the third was in my eye; and the fourth bowled me out!"
[Jolly game.
[Pg 82]
ADVICE TO YOUNG CROQUET-PLAYERS
1. ”

“ The ball is the smallest ball we use, the striking face of the club is the smallest thing used in field sports for hitting a ball, and, most important, perhaps, of all, it is farther away from the eye than any other ball-striking implement, except, perhaps, the polo stick, in which game we, of course, have a much larger ball and striking surface. ”

“ The only way to learn base-ball is to play it, and it is a trite saying that the best practice for a ball player is base-ball itself. Still, there are points outside of the game, such as the preliminary training, diet, and exercise, an observance of which will be of great advantage when the regular work is begun. The method and style of play and the points of each position are given in the subsequent chapters, so that I shall here speak only of those points which come up off the field and are not included in the game proper. ”

“ WE present to our readers a new game of ball, which seems to have those elements in it which ought to make it popular among the Associations. It fills the same place in the gymnasium that foot ball does in the athletic field. Any number of men may play at it, and each one get plenty of exercise ”

“ It was a game in which men famous on the diamond in the seventies and eighties took part, and by instinct their old cunning, dulled a bit by long lack of practice, came back to them for the afternoon, and they played the best Base Ball of which they were capable. For seven innings men with gray hair, men with little hair at all, men grown rotund and men grown thin, assumed the old Base Ball gait, laid for infield and outfield flies, and handled the willow at the bat as only men to the diamond born can. ”

“ The players of one line, at a signal, throw the balls to those opposite them. They then turn and throw against the wall, if the game is played indoors.
BALL DULL The object of this game is to train the perceptions, the muscular sense, and the muscles themselves. The weight of the ball is suited to the players. The two-pound weights are used for girls.
The couples are far enough apart to allow space for full play. One of each couple has a ball for himself and his partner. The throwing of the balls to one of the opposite side is simultaneous, when a leader gives the command. ”

“ When two players have possession of a ball, the one who touched it first has the right to it. If this cannot be decided instantly, the ball is thrown up between them as at the start of the game, the nearest player tossing it. ”

“ Certain it is, that, good as they are in any branch of sport, it is in games in which a ball of any kind is used that the members of the English race are the most enthusiastic and proficient players. [2] There is another feature, too, in such games which renders them peculiarly interesting; they have all an ancient and an honourable history. So far back indeed does the history of the different kinds of ball-play reach, that the investigation of their origin, and for the present in particular of the earliest records of the game of football, can hardly fail to produce interesting fruit. ”

“ Base stealing, the gentle art of sprinting and 'hitting the dirt,' is the finest drawn and most closely calculated play in Base Ball, and the one that, above all others, reveals the mathematical exactitude of the national game. A player who can run eighty-five feet in three and one-third seconds from a flatfooted start, ought to reach second base exactly tied with the ball, nine times out of ten starts, if the play is perfectly made by the runner, pitcher, catcher and baseman. ”

“ The theory of base-ball is as simple as that of any field sport in vogue, and therein lies one of its attractive features. But yet to play the game up to its highest point of excellence requires as great a degree of mental ability, and the possession of as many manly physical attributes, as any known game of ball. The theory of base-ball is as follows:—In the first place, a level field for play is selected, about three hundred feet wide and five hundred long. ”

“ Aside from its spectacular effect, in calling attention to the great players of a great club and their wonderful achievements, it exerted a tremendous influence, afterwards to be felt in the game itself, for it portended the birth of a new era in which professional ball should become thoroughly established, though not without its serious vicissitudes. ”