Catcher

“ In cricket the wicket-keeper, who, like the baseball catcher, is protected, although he has no mask, is the most difficult man to obtain, because he has the hardest time and the least public approbation; in baseball the catcher is a hero and every boy aspires to his mitt. ”

“ In putting this obvious theory into practice, though suffering from lack of experience, Rob had the advantage of his catcher's training in watching bases. In throwing in from the field, however, this catcher's training was distinctly a handicap, for the short-line throws across the diamond are very different from the long returns from the outfield. ”

“ A good catcher steadies and encourages a pitcher at all times, and particularly at such moments as the game is hanging in the balance so that a safe hit or a fumble may win it or lose it. At such a time, if the pitcher has perfect confidence in his catcher, he stands a good show of doing his level best ”

“ The pitcher goes out each morning and gets a catcher with a big mitt and a loud voice and, with a couple of his fellow artists, starts to warm up with this slave-driver. The right sort of a catcher for spring rehearsing is never satisfied with anything you do. I never try to throw a curve for ten days at least after I get South, for a misplaced curve early in the season may give a man a sore arm for the greater part of the summer, and Big League clubs are not paying pitchers for wearing crippled whips. ”

“ To fill this position properly, requires no small measure of dexterity and skill, always on the alert to secure foul bounds and tips, with a vigilant eye to the bases, together with precision and power in throwing to them, the catcher’s position is so important that he is generally chosen captain of the nine.
After a striker has made his first base, the catcher should advance toward the pitcher and stand directly behind the bat so as to take the balls before they bound and by throwing swiftly at the second base cut off a player from making that [59] base. ”

“ I was no more than dead when I got among a lot of spirits, big fellows all dressed in white, and they knowed right away 'bout my being the best catcher on the Rangtown nine, so the first thing they said was, 'Hurray! here's our great catcher at last,' and before I knew it I was catching back of one of those big white fellows, and, what do you think, he was using the tail of a comet for a bat. 'Way off in the distance (say, they have awful big diamonds up there) was another fellow pitching, and all he did was to pluck one of the stars out of the Milky Way and throw it at me for a baseball. ”

“ Many a time I have passed a catcher or good batter to take a chance on a pitcher, and then have had him make a hit just when hits were not at all welcome. I walked a catcher once and had the pitcher shove the ball over first base for a single, when he closed his eyes and dodged back in an effort to get his head out of the line he thought it was pursuing before it curved. ”

“ After a fair catch has been made, the opposite side may come up to the catcher's mark, and (except in cases under Rule 50) the catcher's side retiring, the ball shall be kicked from such mark or from a spot any distance behind it, in a straight line, parallel with the touch lines. ”

“ He saw the scurry of uniformed figures to the field, the catcher adjusted his mask. The Greatest Pitcher the World Has Ever Known stood nonchalantly in the box, stooped for a handful of earth and with it polluted the fair surface of a new ball. ”

“ The catcher, whenever he sees two or more fielders running to catch a ball, should designate by name the one he deems most likely to catch it, in which case the others should refrain from the attempt to catch the ball on the fly, and strive only to catch it in case of its being otherwise missed. ”

“ Some catchers—chiefly among boys, however—actually stand to the right of the home base purposely for this style of game; and even when the pitcher and catcher are inclined to do their duty, the batsman is not, and the latter is frequently allowed to stop the progress of the game by his refusal to strike at good balls, under the plea that they do not suit him, when it is apparent to all that he simply wants to allow his partner to get to his second base. ”

“ One is that the show of the spikes is a sort of assurance the base runner is going to have room to come into the bag, and the second is that the great amount of armor which a catcher wears in these latter days makes some such formidable slide necessary when coming into the plate.
If a base runner hits a catcher squarely with his shin guards on, he is likely to be badly injured, and he must be sure that the catcher is going to give him a clear path. ”

“ The catcher should have a thorough understanding with the pitcher in regard to a code of signals by means of which he can not only direct the pitcher to throw to a base to catch a player napping off the base—as a wicket-keeper does the batsman when out of his ground in cricket—but also so as to direct him where to send a ball to the bat, high or low, in or out, as the peculiarity of the batsman’s play may require. ”

“ When it comes to catching, the percentage of missed catches is far higher at cricket than at baseball; but there are good reasons for this. One is that in baseball a glove is worn; another that in baseball all catches come to the fieldsmen with long or sufficient notice. The fieldsmen are all, except the catcher, in front of the batsmen; there is nothing to compare with the unexpected nimbleness that our point and slips have to display. ”

“ An odd number of players is required for this game. One is chosen for catcher, who stands at one end of the playground with his back to the other players. The other players stand in couples in a long line behind him, facing in the same direction that he does. The catcher should be not less than ten feet in front of the first couple. ”

“ Eyah! twice, it means to the batter ‘Bunt.’ If he only says Eyah! once it means hit it out as hard as you can.”
“Catcher’s Signals.”
“If the catcher in telling the pitcher what kind of a ball to serve up lays two fingers of his bare hand against the inside of his catching mitt, thumb outstretched, he is signaling for an outcurve. One finger means an incurve. With two fingers on the glove, thumb turned under, a low outcurve is wanted. If with one finger on the glove, thumb turned under, a low curve is asked for. ”

“ Now, think of the speed of a ball thrown, or rather pitched, with just sufficient force to be caught by a person ten yards off: it is a mere nothing. The catcher can play with it as he likes; he has even time to turn after it, if thrown wide. ”

“ They players then run towards each other's marks, and if any one be caught before he gets home to the opposite mark, he has to carry the one who catches him to the mark, where he takes his place as an additional catcher. In this way the game goes on till all are caught. ”

“ In former times, the friends of the interested party would have gathered around the rear and sides of the horse forcing him forward in the lead of the "catcher". This whole catching procedure is said to symbolize the capture of an enemy. ”

“ Mitglieder der nicht an der Reihe befindlichen Partei R (right fielder) , ⊙ (centre fielder) , L (left fielder) in einiger Entfernung hinter und auf beiden Seiten von II. Der pitcher wirft den Ball über das home dem catcher zu, während ein Mann der Partei, welche in (= am Spiel) oder at the bat (= am Schlagholz) ist, neben dem home steht und den vom pitcher geworfenen Ball, ehe er zum catcher gelangt, mit seinem Schlagholz zu treffen sucht. ”

“ To catch with a bagged crosse is no art whatever; to catch and play with the netting flat is the perfection of catching, because it makes your play scientific. It was not unusual before laws were made, to find the best catchers those who had bagged netting, and there were passable players who could not play at all when obliged to use the netting flat. When you find you must resort to bagging, to make you equal with others, you may be convinced you have yet to learn the very elements of good and scientific play. ”

“ I cast the Pitcher flies you gave me well out on the rough water, allowed them to sink a hand-breadth, and at the first movement of the line I saw that heart-expanding flash of a broad silver side gleaming from the clear depths. The trout fastened on savagely, and as he was coming my way, I assisted his momentum with all the spring of the rod, and he came flying out into the clean, fresh grass of the meadow behind me. ”

“ One afternoon I had put up my rod and strolled down to the river where one of our party was whipping a pool of the Big Hole, trying to induce a fish to strike. He said: 'There's an old villain in there; he wants to strike but can't make up his mind to do it.' I said: 'I have a fly that will make him strike,' and as I had my book in my pocket I handed him a No. 8 Pitcher. He made two casts and hooked a beautiful trout, that weighed nineteen ounces, down. I regard the Pitcher as the best killer in my book. ”

“ The depth being taken, and the ground-bait thrown in, the angler, sitting with his face down stream,, drops his tackle in close to the boat, and allows it to float down stream unchecked as far as the line, which is generally a yard or two longer than the rod, will permit, when he strikes, pulls up the tackle, drops it again in close to the punt, and repeats the operation time after time. In the middle of these punts there is generally a well, so that the fish when caught are kept alive in the well until the day's fishing is over. ”

“ Remember that the fighting qualities of fish are as a rule best developed in those which live in rapid and turbulent water, and in those which pursue their prey and catch it by their own nimbleness. But any fish will fight better if you make the struggle more even by using delicate tackle. You win then only by dexterity of handling, which is one of the great charms of angling, and about the only one, as regards the mere catching of fish, on which the experienced angler sets much value. The secret of success with delicate tackle may be told in two words—care and coolness. ”

“ Inseparable from all is angling. And what a variety of anglers one meets with on the Broads! They fish from wherries, from yachts, from boats, from the bank, and, indeed, from any and every point of vantage. They use all sorts of tackling, from the boy’s polished ash-wood rod and ready furnished line—evidently purchased merely for the holiday and the fun of the thing—to the perfectly tapered roach pole and line of gossamer fineness, greatly prized tackling handled by an expert, who means fishing in all seriousness. ”

“ Thus I watched, through the typical stages of the sport: the delicate flip of the bait into the current at just the right spot; its swift descent, imperceptibly guided by the rod’s quivering tip; its slower drift toward deep water; its sudden vanishing, and the whir of the reel as the line goes out; then the pause, the critical moments of “feeling for him”; at last the strike ... and then, a flopping in the grass behind me, and Jonathan crawling back to kill and unhook him. ”

“ As soon as there is a bite from a perch the angler feels it at the rod-point, slackens line for two seconds to let the fish get the minnow well into his mouth, and then strikes. Should the immediate neighbourhood not afford a bite, the tackle is cast to a distance, and after being allowed to rest for a minute, it is drawn in a few feet, when another cast is made, and then another draw, until the tackle is worked up on the boat or bank, when another cast is made. ”

“ Proper tackle for all purposes—How to catch bait—The fly fisherman—General fishing rules
Fishing is one sport of boyhood that we never outgrow our love for. Some of the most enthusiastic fishermen are gray-haired men. We often hear about the boy with the bent pin and the piece of thread who catches more fish than the expert fisherman with modern, up-to-date tackle, but I doubt if it is so. As a rule the better our tackle the more fish we shall catch. If the country boy catches the most fish, it is simply because he is better acquainted with the places where the fish hide or feed. ”

“ For if a catch could be missed (and most catches can) , I was the man to miss it. Swift ones used to hit me and hurt me, long ones I always misjudged, little simple poppy ones spun out of my fingers. Now the unlucky thing about Cricket, for a Duffer, is that your misfortunes do not hurt yourself alone. It is not as in a single at Golf, it is not as in fishing, or riding, or wherever you have no partner. To drop catches is to madden the bowler not unnaturally, and to lengthen the period of leather-hunting. ”

“ I prefer myself—and so I am sure do all true sportsmen—to give the animal or fish I endeavour to capture a fair chance of escape, or, in other words, fair play, which is the true principle of all sport. In live-bait fishing for jack the same means are used as for perch, only that your cork float must be larger, as must the hook, and this latter must be gimp-fastened, as the jack would make short work of gut. Of course a larger bait is used for jack than for perch, and, indeed, at this period of the year, a large bait is rather “killing” than otherwise. ”

“ With river-bank fishing, and it is with that that we are dealing, it would be a bold fisherman indeed that would count a fish hooked as a fish landed, and a half-hearted angler that would be content to hand over to the gillie the cream of the contest between the fish and the man. ”

“ Now don’t sniff, you owners of hand-made split-bamboo rods and scorners of all fishing except that for trout or bass! If you will just think back along the years until you catch sight of yourself as you once were, you will realize that the boy knows but one rule when fishing, and that is, “Get there!” Methods do not matter to him so that he catches fish. ”

“ In bottom fishing in running water the same preliminaries are observed in taking the depth of the water, baiting, &c.; but when the tackle is dropped into the water the stream carries it along, and the angler, keep ing the top of his rod over his float, follows it down his swim, as it is called, until he reaches the end, or as far as he desires to fish, when he pulls his tackle out, and returns to the head of the swim, and recommences striking at every bob or dip of his float. ”