Baseball league

“ BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE
or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher In this volume the scene of action is shifted from Yale college to a baseball league of our central states.
BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE
or A Young Pitcher’s Hardest Struggles From the Central League Joe is drafted into the St. Louis Nationals. A corking baseball story all fans will enjoy. ”

“ The most energetic, lively and exciting method of playing a game of ball can mark a professional club contest without its being disgraced by a single act of rowdyism—such as that of spiking or willfully colliding with a base runner; bellowing like a wild bull at the pitcher, as in the so-called coaching of 1893 and 1894; or that of "kicking" against the decisions of the umpire to hide faulty captaincy or blundering fielding. ”

“ In the recent past, the rule on the League ball fields—and minor leagues copy all that the major league does—has been that, from the time the umpire takes up his position behind the bat, from the beginning to the end of a game, he finds both the contesting teams regarding him as a common enemy, the losing side invariably blaming him as the primary cause of their losing the game. ”

“ This year marked the advent of modern professional baseball in New York City. The Eastern Association was formed April 11, with the Metropolitan, New Yorks, Athletics, of Philadelphia; Quick Steps, Atlantics, of Brooklyn, and Nationals, of Washington. The American Association, a formidable rival of the National League, was organized at a meeting held in Cincinnati on November 2, and started the following season with the Athletics, of Philadelphia, and Baltimore in the East; Alleghany, of Pittsburgh; Cincinnati, Eclipse, of Louisville, and St. Louis in the West. ”

“ The official averages of League players contain the number of bases stolen by each player during the season, but furnish no means of comparison between the clubs in that most important department of the game. A glance, however, shows that the three tail-end clubs possess the three most successful base-runners in the League, in Hoy of the Washingtons, Seery of Indianapolis, and Sunday of Pittsburgh, the latter of whom would probably have finished first had an accident not prevented him from playing during the last two weeks of the season. ”

“ Know when you have a good lead and then never stop until you have hit the dirt.”
It is up to the pitcher as much as the catcher to stop base stealing, for once a club begins running wild on another, the bats might as well be packed up and the game conceded. Pitchers make a study of the individual runners and their styles of getting starts. In my mind, I know just how much of a lead every base runner in the National League can take on me with impunity. ”

“ There are many fair ways to steal the signs of the enemy, so many that the smart ball-player is always kept on the alert by them. Baseball geniuses, some almost magicians, are constantly looking for new schemes to find out what the catcher is telling the pitcher, what the batter is tipping the base runner to, or what the coacher’s instructions are. The Athletics have a great [Pg 150] reputation as being a club able to get the other team’s signs if they are obtainable. This is their record all around the American League circuit. ”

“ Support the team. Come out to every game; let the boys who are playing know that you are behind them. Make a noise when you are there and don't let the players think that the whole crowd is rooting for the other team.
City senior baseball is good and any team that can make good in the league are ball players.
In view of the fact that this is the H.B.C. store's first attempt to field a team in the city league, and all other teams have the rest of the city to choose from, whereas the H.B.C. team is being confined to store boys, we have a very formidable aggregation. ”

“ When the Brotherhood League was formed and withdrew so many players from the National League the latter organization undertook to strengthen itself where it could and when Brooklyn and Cincinnati applied for membership in the circuit both were admitted.
The New York National League club had lost many of its players and, upon the substitution of Cincinnati for Indianapolis in the National League circuit, procured from Mr. Brush many players of note, among them Rusie, Glasscock, Buckley, Bassett and Denny. ”

“ The success achieved by the National League in its efforts to develop base ball as the national game became apparent in its rapid growth in popular favor, and the establishment of clubs and associations throughout the various States. It became evident soon that something must be done to foster and protect the rights and interests of these various bodies, and "that there was a recognized need of some central power in base ball to govern all associations, by an equitable code of general laws, to put the game on a prosperous and lasting basis." ”

“ From that day The Honeymoon Trip of the Worcester Baseball Club, as the newspapers heralded it—was a triumphant march. We won two out of three games at Montreal, broke even with the hard-fighting Bisons, took three straight from Rochester, and won one and tied one out of three with Hartford. It would have been wonderful ball playing for a team to play on home grounds and we were doing the full circuit of the league. ”

“ Since the reconstructed National League began its new life, blundering management of teams has characterized the running of a majority of its twelve clubs, and it will continue to do so while the system of engaging players for their records merely and not for their ability in doing team work and in playing harmoniously together, is continued. Especially, too, is the plan of engaging players whose daily habits of life are at war with their ability to do first-class work in the field. ”

“ Two more nations have been conquered by the national game of the United States; a whole race has succumbed to the fascinations of the greatest of all outdoor sports. Both France and Sweden have announced their intention of organizing Base Ball leagues. That of Sweden is well under way. Indeed, they have a club in Stockholm and there are more to follow, while the French, who have gradually been awakening to the joys of athletic pastime in which they have hitherto chosen to participate in other ways, hope to have a new league by the expiration of the present summer. ”

“ The Yeggmen lead the league just now—that team is full of tricks;
They beat the Con Men yesterday by seventeen to six.
The Lifers have an outside chance to win the prison flag;
The Counterfeiters still have hopes, although they seldom brag.
The pitcher for the Grafters, namely, Alderman McGee,
Has bet his good behavior that they’ll finish one, two, three.
Yes, the finest “inside” baseball I have seen in many a day
Is inside the dear old prison, where they like to have me stay.
The game we had last Saturday was sure a corking sight ”

“ The cost of the amalgamation of the four American Association clubs with the National League, together with the financial losses incurred by the revolutionary period of 1890 and 1891—losses, by the way, which the players did not participate in, the clubs alone being the sufferers—left a heavy burden of debt to handicap the reconstructed National League in its efforts to recover the public confidence in professional ball playing lost by the malcontents of 1890 and 1891. ”

“ Realizing that such players were not given a chance to advance in the Base Ball profession, this matter was thoroughly thrashed out and the new ruling under which all of the National Agreement clubs operate was adopted. Now it is possible for a player in any of the smaller leagues to be drafted by a major league club, and when the latter party does not care to retain possession of such a player he is first offered to the Class AA clubs. ”

“ Louis, as has been said, was especially strong with the bat, and her sluggers were feared by every pitcher in the league. She had a strong pitching staff, too, none of them bright particular stars with the exception of Leadows, but well up to major-league standards.
Pittsburgh, too, was a team to be treated with respect. The boys from the Smoky City had been the runners-up in the previous season and during [85] the winter they had secured some very promising material from the minor leagues. Their infield was a stone wall, and very little got by it. ”

“ In the first place, the amateur clubs could never have given the game the time and labor required for its evolution which the professional clubs were enabled to do; and, moreover, not one club in a thousand could have spared the money required to fit up and keep in serviceable condition such finely equipped ball grounds as those now owned by the leading professional clubs of the National League. ”

“ Then as soon as the catcher drew his arm back to throw, the runner on third started home. No Big League club can have a look into the pennant set without trying to interrupt the journey of that man going to second in a tight place, because if no play is made for him and a hit follows, it nets the club two runs instead of one.
Most teams try to stop this play by having the shortstop or second baseman come in and take a short throw, and if the man on third breaks for home, the receiver of the ball whips it back. If both throws are perfect, the runner is caught at the plate. ”

“ To make the contest a little more even the St. Louis team were to bat first, giving the visitors the advantage of coming up last in the ninth inning.
"Doolin up!" called the score keeper, and the lanky left-handed hitter strolled up to the plate, while Riordan, who was on deck, took up a couple of bats, swinging them about nervously to limber his arms.
"Strike one!" bawled the umpire, at the first delivery of the visiting pitcher. ”

“ It is well managed and harmonious teams, not picked nines led by special stars, which win in the long run. Now and then—as there are exceptions in all cases—a picked nine will attain a certain degree of success. But for steady struggles for permanent success in the professional championship arena, team work of the very best, and admirably managed teams will alone achieve steady victory. The old Boston teams under Harry Wright, and the Chicago teams under Anson, are a standing proof of this fact. Let the National League magnates ponder these truths earnestly. ”

“ My plan is that the National League shall pass a rule forbidding the sale of a player from a club in the second division, to a club in the first division. I think this would, in a measure, prevent some of the hustling to dispose of a clever man for the sake of the cash that is in the trade. ”

“ It is the history of Base Ball that more inequitable treatment has arisen by fifty per cent in the minor leagues than has had its origin in the major leagues. The reason for this existed almost wholly in the inability of Base Ball as a whole to bring the minor league owners to a realization of the injury that they might be doing and to extend such punishment and insist upon such regulation as were necessary to change this undesirable condition. ”

“ In most Big League ball games, there comes an inning on which hangs victory or defeat. Certain intellectual fans call it the crisis; college professors, interested in the sport, have named it the psychological moment; Big League managers mention it as the “break,” and pitchers speak of the “pinch.”
This is the time when each team is straining every nerve either to win or to prevent defeat. The players and spectators realize that the outcome of the inning is of vital importance. And [Pg 55] in most of these pinches, the real burden falls on the pitcher. ”

“ When a representative major league team is made up of players who represent every section in the Union, engaged for their skill, it seems as if Base Ball has become nearer an ideal and a national pastime than ever before in the history of the sport. ”

“ Football—Our team continues to win and is at the head of the league table, having played four league games and won them all by scores of 4-0, 1-0, 5-0, and 7-0, and there seems to be nothing to stop us from annexing the league championship.
Baseball—The baseball team has played three league games so far, and won them all, so they too are strongly in the running, being the only unbeaten side so far. ”

“ Some remarkable pitching was done during the season of 1888, alike in the American arena, as in the League. The strategic work was up to a very high mark in the League, and in this, Keefe, Conway, Buffinton, Clarkson, Welch, Galvin, and Morris bore off the palm, while in speed alone, Crane of New York excelled.
The detailed record of victories and defeats pitched in during the championship campaign of 1888 by those who pitched in at least five victories, is as follows. ”

“ For instance, we find that while Chicago used no less than eleven pitchers during the championship season Philadelphia was content with but four. No less than twenty new pitchers entered the League season in 1888, and of these, Sanders of Philadelphia; Tener and Krock of Chicago; Sowders of Boston; Staley of Pittsburgh; Burdick of Indianapolis, and Widner of Washington, proved to be acquisitions.
Below will be found the individual club pitching records for 1888, showing the victories and defeats each club pitcher participated in as an occupant of the box. ”