Batter

“ Each man in his turn would step forward, receive the ground ball struck by the batter, return it quickly to the competitor for first base who stood beside the batter, and then give place to the next man. ”

“ You look round you. There are ten, twenty, forty thousand people, a moment ago just as tense and rigid as you, thinking of nothing else but that catch, who are now settling back in their seats, happy and content, everyone of them, excepting of course the few “rooters” for the other side.
The next ball pitched is a good one, fast and straight over the plate. The batter sets himself to [181] meet it fair and square. ”

“ Place both hands on the middle of the handle of the bat, near to each other, yet not so as to touch. The young player will find this simple direction of the utmost importance; for, in the course of my experience, I have noticed many instances of failure in batters, from their ignorance of, or inattention to, this valuable rule, and who would otherwise have become very promising players. ”

“ Batters was most anxious to keep concealed, was Mr. Batters himself—for reasons. So he’s put about a cock and bull story making out he’s dead, and then hidden himself in this house of which you’re talking. ”

“ Rub a piece of butter the size of an egg, into a pint of corn meal—make it a batter with two eggs, and some new milk—add a spoonful of yeast, set it by the fire an hour to rise, butter little pans, and bake it.
SWEET POTATO BUNS.
Boil and mash a potato, rub into it as much flour as will make it like bread—add spice and sugar to your taste, with a spoonful of yeast; when it has risen well, work in a piece of butter, bake it in small rolls, to be eaten hot with butter, either for breakfast or tea. ”

“ Make a batter of one quart of flour, three eggs, a quart of milk, and a gill of yeast; when well risen, stir in a large spoonful of melted butter, and bake them in muffin hoops.
CHOCOLATE CAKES.
Put half a pound of nice brown sugar into a quart of flour, sift it, and make it into a paste, with four ounces of butter melted in as much milk as will wet it; knead it till light, roll it tolerably thin, cut it in strips an inch wide, and just long enough to lay in a plate; bake them on a griddle, put them in the plate in rows to checker each other, and serve them to eat with chocolate. ”

“ Towards four o'clock, the rebels felt strong enough to take the offensive. A brigade with a battery under Earle managed to strike the Federal right on the flank and rear and throw it into utter confusion, which spread rapidly along the whole front. Now came the disastrous, disgraceful end. ”

“ Having now given the example of the above eminent men, some playing one way and some another, I shall venture to ofter to the young batsman my own opinion. I have frequently played in both styles, and I consider the holding of the bat upright the safer, and horizontally the more brilliant playing. At the same time, whichever way it be played, I still recommend the movement of the left foot across the wicket. The power that this action gives the striker over the ball, must always be felt and acknowledged. ”

“ From behind the wicket and elsewhere, observe the commonest hits off the commonest balls with this or that break, especially when the batsman shapes thus or thus. Observe how the poking potterer is dismissed by the high full-pitch or by the ball to entice a catch in the slips—for him you will note in your mind, “Two short slips and perhaps two square legs.” Watch the fingers of the nervous batsman grip the bat tight; watch the feet and body shuffle in anxiety; watch the feeble strokes that result; watch the balls that worry him most before he gets confidence. ”

“ No longer could he do a fast twenty rounds, hammer and tongs, fight, fight, fight, from gong to gong, with fierce rally on top of fierce rally, beaten to the ropes and in turn beating his opponent to the ropes, and rallying fiercest and fastest of all in that last, twentieth round, with the house on its feet and yelling, himself rushing, striking, ducking, raining showers of blows upon showers of blows and receiving showers of blows in return, and all the time the heart faithfully pumping the surging blood through the adequate veins. ”

“ By all means let fast bowlers lay siege to the leg-stump of inferior batsmen; but good batsmen, getting over this ball, will play it with an almost perfectly straight bat on the outside, and tax it most unmercifully for the total of their side. ”

“ Rather the scorned—the rejected—the men hemmed in with the spears;
The men of the tattered battalion which fights till it dies,
Dazed with the dust of the battle, the din and the cries,
The men with the broken heads and the blood running into their eyes. ”

“ This Arm shall cease the far-driv'n Ball to throw,
Shrink from the Bat and feebly shun the Blow;
The trophies from this conqu'ring Forehead torn,
By Boys and Women shall in Scorn be worn;
E'er I neglect to let these Blust'res know,
There live who dare oppose, and beat them too. ”

“ Il y a le "wicket," une chose fait de trois morceaux de bois, a qui le "bowler" jette la balle, dur comme une pierre, et si ça vous attrappe sur le jambe, je vous promis, ça vous fera sauter. Et bien, avant le wicket se place l'homme qui est dedans et qui tient dans ces mains le "bat" avec lequel il frappe la balle et fait des courses. ”

“ People who are learned in horses, however, inform us that the contrary is the case, and the greater weight of the leg of the cart-horse is more than counterbalanced by the far more rapid and sudden movement of the thoroughbred. The bat wielded by a player with a strong wrist goes through the air like lightning, and comes down on the ball far quicker and harder than a ponder ous stroke from the arms and shoulders of the batsman with no wrist action. ”

“ The bats to be of wood, and made the same size and shape as battledores.
6. The striker to be out if the ball when bowled hits the wicket, or if the ball be caught in the hands of any of the opposing side, or if in running, preparing to run, or pretending to run, the ball be thrown or touch the wicket before the striker reaches it, and the ball in all cases must strike the face of the wicket, and in running the striker must at each run strike the wicket with her bat.
7. There should be eleven players on each side. ”

“ A Fair batted ball that goes over the fence at a less distance than two hundred and ten feet from Home Base shall entitle the Batsman to two bases and a distinctive line shall be marked on the fence at this point.
STRIKES. RULE 41. A Strike is
SEC. 1. A ball struck at by the Batsman without its touching his bat; or
SEC. 2. A fair ball, legally delivered by the Pitcher, but not struck at by the Batsman.
SEC. 3. Any obvious attempt to make a foul hit.
RULE 42. A foul strike is a ball batted by the Batsman when any part of his person is upon ground outside the lines of the Batsman's position. ”

“ Should a striker stand at the bat without striking at good balls repeatedly pitched to him, for the apparent purpose of delaying the game, or of giving advantage to a player, the umpire, after warning him, shall call one strike, and if he persists in such action, two and three strikes. ”

“ Good batting consists in a defence that is proof against all the bowler’s craft, combined with the skill to seize every opportunity for making runs that the latter may inadvertently offer. If the batsman’s whole task consisted in keeping the ball out of his wicket, the accomplishment of his art would be comparatively simple ”

“ I saw a horse fall down in a heap, and his rider extricate himself, looking this way and that to see where the bullet had come from. I fired again and again—there was a stir among them—the little chaps on either side of me bucked up and began to let off their rifles—the cavalry began fidgeting, crowding and jostling together—more horses fell—there was a sudden turning of the horses' heads, and they all began to retire. ”

“ When all that side has batted and been put out, the other side comes to bat. A wicket knocked down puts a man out, also a fly caught, a foul caught or a runner struck with a batted ball, or touched out. ”

“ A man directs us round the corner—and actually does not demand money. It is the sack again. So—there, I see the knot of men, soldiers chiefly, fighting in a bare room round a tiny wicket. I recognise the place where I have fought before.
So while the q-b stands guard over sack and bag, I plunge into the fray. It literally is a fight. Some thirty men all at once want to get at a tiny wicket in a blank wall. ”

“ Seen from a flank at the rear, the moving battalion, bending round the curve or straining to a hill, looks like the plesiosaur of the picture shown in the act of dragging its cumbrous length [pg 72] along. The silence is full of mystery, the gigantic mass, of which you form so minute a unit, is entirely voiceless, a dumb thing without a tongue, brooding, as it were, over some eternal sorrow or ancient wrong to which it cannot give expression. Marching thus at night, a battalion is doubly impressive. The silent monster is full of restrained power ”

“ Of course those effects have been mutual; the bowling has educated the batting, and in his turn, again, the batsman has been the instructor of the bowler. No sooner has the one changed his tactics at all than the other has changed front a little in order to meet this new attack. Naturally, perhaps, it seems that the bowler has the oftener taught the batsman, than vice versa; the aggressor, by a new form of attack, forcing on the defendant a new line of defence. ”

“ Consider a battalion as a bit of paper fastened by a pin to a map, and moving it right or left was a simple matter; but moving men under shell- and machine-gun fire, in the darkness, from one series of fox-holes to another with which they were not familiar, you may be assured on the word of any soldier, who lost a night's sleep, while soaked to the skin by the chill rain, and had his comrades killed in the process, was anything but a simple matter. ”

“ Batting, art of, 34; shape of bat, 35, 36; choice of bat, 41; rules for the guidance of batsmen, 41; position at wicket, 42-44, 46; Fuller Pilch as a model batsman, 36, 43; W, G. Grace's attitude, 44; manner of holding the bat, 45; playing fast bowling, 46; position of right foot, 46, 55, 58, 67; pulling a straight fast ball to leg, 47; correct pose of left shoulder and elbow, 48, 56, 73; what to do when the ball is well outside off stump, 48; forward play, 36, 48; how to meet shooters, 50; tactics when playing and unable to smother the ball at the pitch, 51 ”

“ Revers montant.—You feint in Seconde; the opponent comes to its parry and replies in Tierce; you withdraw the arm, leaving the heels as they were, and cut upwards with the false edge, tightening the grasp of thumb and fore-fingers as much as possible. This movement is especially useful; it is one of the best of Time Cuts, when the adversary indulges in long and complicated feints and false attacks. ”

“ These batsmen, if they kept their keenness of eye and activity till they were a hundred, would still be seen playing a quick forward stroke on the sodden ground, sending the ball up in the air in every direction. ”

“ Every hit was run out, and the fieldsman in pursuit of the ball plunged right into the middle of carriages, spectators, and horses' legs, and picked it up, the batsman in the meanwhile running out the full value of the hit. Now the case is altogether altered. There is a strong cord running all round the ground, every decently hard hit is certain to reach the ropes if the ball once passes the fieldsman, and the batsman stands coolly in his ground, being altogether spared the trouble of running and the loss of breath which naturally follows the exertion. ”

“ All at once a flash burst forth over our heads, the whiz of a ball shot past our ears, and the report of a gun echoed through the ravine, accompanied by a dull sound, as if the ball had been flattened against the rocks. ”

“ It is time for us to emerge from our concealment and fire a volley at the enemy’s centre, by which several are brought down. The whole battalion of cowards instantly wheel about, and fly towards the hills in the utmost disorder; while the horses, hearing the sound, come galloping up to us for protection, and by their neighing express their joy and gratitude at our timely interference. ”

“ It is certain that shooters are far less frequent than they were; still, unless a man's bat be grounded, a shooter will inevitably bowl him, so he raises his bat at his own risk. Fig. 3 illustrates grounding the bat in forward play, and fig. ”

“ The blade of his sword was soon broken against the tough handle of a club, and, while he was thus disarmed, an athletic warrior, no less a personage than Black Horse himself, rushed upon him, seized him by the throat and bore him to the ground. ”

“ If there is any chance of wearing out such a batsman's patience, very slow twisters, repeatedly bowled, may tempt him to desperation and suicide. There is a class of batsmen who consider their honour seriously at stake unless they hit a lob-bowler over the ropes once every over. ”

“ The exploits of the Battalion in Football, Cross-country Running, and Boxing—revealing as they did the elements of challenge, perseverance, cheerfulness in defeat, and also the power to win honours to their name—have their grand reflex in the more grim and arduous experiences through which the Battalion was called to pass. ”

“ Each carried his lance, to which weapon the men-at-arms of that day clung with peculiar tenacity, as a vestige of that ancient chivalry which people felt was rapidly passing away before improved science, but from which they did not like to part. ”

“ Find we're to act as rearguard to something. Got told off to occupy a bit of a wood right away on the flank. Thank goodness they haven't told me what to do or how long to hold on, or anything, so I shall get out of touch as soon as I can and play off my own bat. Rather good little wood. Men awfully keen on the job. ”

“ They take up an apparently respectable old bat, swing it around, feel its weight, hit the ground with it, and just when you think that the bat in self-defense will swat them one they throw it down in disgust. The bat often rolls back again, asking for another trial. ”