Fish 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. ”

“ The starting of a covey of flying-fish, the fringe of cocos palms rising against the horizon, the Southern Cross and the Magellanic clouds, the reversed apparent motion of the sun from right to left—none of them very marvellous as mere observed facts—are so many keys that unlock the closed-up recesses, the blue chambers of the memory, which the youthful imagination had peopled with shapes of beauty and wonder and mystery. ”

“ I showed the fine fish that we had to eat; cat, perch, mullets, and especially two large pikes, that had been caught to-day, and assured them that upon such fare as this, men must needs get fat. I now perceived that victory was with me for once. All the gentlemen faltered, hesitated, and began to talk of other affairs, except the overseer, who still ran about the landing, swearing and scratching his head, and saying it was strange that we were so fat, whilst the hands on the plantation were as lean as sand-hill cranes. ”

“ The plain fact of the matter is, that the origin of the ball is one of those matters which must of necessity be lost in antiquity. Nature herself supplies an endless variety of balls of all sizes, suitable for throwing from hand to hand, and the act of playing with them is instinctive. The apple and the orange are, so to speak, objects which nature supplies, not only as objects of food, but also as materials for pastime; clay, too, and snow, are of so plastic a nature that the hands even of children naturally mould them into a spherical form and hurl them to and fro in sport. ”

“ Divide the remaining balls equally among the players, or give an equal number of balls to each player. If four play, it is more interesting to form sides, the two players on one side taking the dark balls, and the other two the light ones. Blue and black are considered dark—red and yellow, light. The players, retiring to some part of the room more or less distant from the white ball, now bowl the colored balls, which they hold, at the white one, by turns. Each player bowls one ball at a time, the play passing around the company as many times as there are colored balls for each player. ”

“ A game fish may be defined as one that will make a good fight for its life and that is caught by scientific methods of angling. Almost any fish will struggle to escape the hook, but generally by game fish we understand that in fresh water the salmon, bass, or trout family is referred to. Pickerel and pike are also game fish, but in some sections they are considered undesirable because they rarely rise to the fly, which is the most scientific method of fishing.
A fisherman who is a real sportsman always uses tackle as light as he can with safety and still have a chance of landing the fish. ”

“ To sit back of the catcher and see the balls come sailing over the plate, one will wonder why they are not hit out of creation, and when some player, who has allowed a couple of balls to pass directly over the plate without making the least attempt to hit at them, finally lets go at one that he could scarcely reach with a wagon tongue, much less with a 36- inch bat, the spectator is likely to question the fellow's sanity. It is amusing to sit in a base-ball crowd and hear the remarks. ”

“ The imminence of a sweeping destruction is announced. Ruin is to overtake every existing thing; not only the besotted people and their dumb idols, but beasts and birds and even the fish of the sea are to perish in the universal catastrophe. ”

“ Though on foot, I was at the landing as soon as the gentlemen, and was first to announce to the master the feats we had performed in the course of the day, adding, with great emphasis, and even confidence in my manner, "You know, master fish-master, whether we have had any meat to eat here or not. If we had meat here, would not you see it? You have been up with us every night, and know that we have not been allowed to take even shad, let alone having meat to eat." ”

“ It is all right, I suppose, for a club to have rules, and not count or credit an angler who breaks a rod or is driven to the expedient I had proposed. But I do not fish for clubs or records. I fish for the fun, the excitement, the thrill of the game, and I would rather let my fish go than not. So I said:
“We’ll certainly lose the fish if we don’t change reels. I am using the regulation tackle, and to my mind the more tackle we use, provided we land the fish, the more credit is due us. It is not an easy matter to change reels or lines or rods with a big fish working all the time.” ”

“ Each player is provided with an assortment of curious-looking clubs and a small white hard-rubber ball, and the object is to finally knock the ball into the hole in the fewest possible number of strokes. Each player has his own ball, and the play begins from a particular spot, called the teeing-ground, and marked by whitewash or pins driven into the turf. This first stroke is called the tee-shot, and the player is allowed to tee his ball, or place it upon a little mound of sand, so that he may have the best possible chance of hitting it. ”

“ The balls they use are rather larger than those made use of at tennis, and are formed of a piece of deer-skin; which being moistened to render it supple, is stuffed hard with the hair of the same creature, and sewed with its sinews. The ball-sticks are about three feet long, at the end of which there is fixed a kind of racket, resembling the palm of the hand, and fashioned of thongs cut from a deer-skin. In these they catch the ball, and throw it to a great distance, if they are not prevented by some of the opposite party, who fly to intercept it. ”

“ Down on the waterfront the broad, smooth quays offer a tempting place for baseball, especially on Sundays and summer evenings, when they are generally bare of freight. But it has one serious drawback, that a foul ball on one side invariably goes into the river, and the players must have either several balls or a willing swimmer if the game is to continue long. One Sunday game, for instance, between two fourteen-year-old teams, played near the water, cost five balls, varying in price from 50 cents to $1.00 each. ”

“ A smooth place on the prairie, or in winter, on a frozen lake or river, is chosen. Each player has a sort of bat, called "Tâ-kée-cha-psé-cha," about thirty-two inches long, with a hoop at the lower end four or five inches in diameter, interlaced with thongs of deer-skin, forming a sort of pocket. With these bats they catch and throw the ball. Stakes are set as bounds at a considerable distance from the center on either side. Two parties are then formed and each chooses a leader or chief. ”

“ A. M. Chesley, to be used in place of medicine balls for adult players. In addition they may be used for many bean-bag games. Oat sacks are made of heavy (10 oz.) duck. They are circular in shape, 14 inches in diameter when finished. Two circles of this size are stitched around the edge, except for an opening where the oats are inserted. The bag is then turned and stitched a second time. They are then filled with four pounds of oats each.
PLAYGROUND BALL.—For the game of Playground Ball there is used a ball that in size is between a baseball and indoor baseball. ”

“ That is why he prefers the rod to the seine, one big fish to many smaller ones, one cunning old trout or pickerel outwitted to a basket of stupid fish that contended for the bait. Presently he begins to desire more delicate tackle, and understands that he is fishing for sport, not fish. I take it that the whole art and mystery of angling is how to get the most sport and enjoyment out of it. But how?
To begin with, no one will destroy a fish which is not dangerous to man, nor will he fish just for amusement ”

“ Then holding his hand high above the paper cover, he makes a “crumbling” movement with it, immediately showing it empty, and lifting the cover with a slight pressure, so as to carry the shell with it, shows the ball beneath. The attention of the spectators being naturally attracted to the ball, it is an easy matter to let the hollow shell slip out of the paper cover upon the servante, and again to hand the cover for examination.
Some performers, instead of using the goblet, work the small cone with the “ball-box” (see page 296) . ”

“ Too lame to jump from a moving vehicle, my first emotions of dismay gradually disappeared, however, as I found that our passage was not disturbed even by the most untoward outward events. For a base-ball from the bat of some players in an adjoining field hit the noble animal full in the flank without occasioning any alarm to his gait or divergence from his resolved purpose. ”

“ At each hole stands a player with a club, called a 'dog.' A piece of wood, [8] four inches long by one in circumference, is tossed, in place of a ball, to one of the dogsmen. His object is to keep the cat out of the hole. 'If the cat be struck, he who strikes it changes places with the person who holds the other club, and as often as the positions are changed one is counted as won in the game by the two who hold the clubs.' Jamieson says this is an 'ancient sport in Angus and Lauder.' A man was bowled when the cat got into the hole he defended. ”

“ Nine balls are used, generally one black, four white, and four red, the distinction between white and red being made only for the sake of variety. In the ordinary game, at starting, the black ball is placed on a point in the longitudinal middle line of the board, a few inches in front of the nearest [352] of the sockets, and the player places one of his eight balls on a corresponding point at the other end of the board, and tries to strike the black ball into one of the sockets with his own. ”

“ Behold the ball is mounted upon a little pyramid of mud which rejoices in the name of a tee, to the end that the smiter may get the more cleanly at it. A ball is only teed at starting from each hole; after each first stroke the player must hit the ball as he finds it. What an ordeal this is. All that crowd we saw before, ladies, &c., &c., and all kinds of cads, are drawn up in two parallel rows, leaving a vista of certainly not more than five yards. ”

“ ONE OR TWO OLD CAT is a modification of town-ball, and was played by our great grandfathers while in camp during the Revolution. It is a good game for three or four boys, not less than three, as there must be a pitcher, a catcher, and a batter. Any goal can be decided on in advance, but usually the striker, after making a hit, runs and touches the pitcher's base. If he gets back without being it, or stung by the thrown ball, he can keep on, each run counting one. If the ball is struck at and caught, the striker is out, and the catcher goes to the bat. ”

“ The choice of innings shall be given to the Captain of the Home Club, who shall also be the sole judge of the fitness of the ground for beginning a game after rain.
THE DELIVERY OF THE BALL—FAIR AND UNFAIR BALLS. RULE 30. A Fair Ball is a ball delivered by the Pitcher while standing wholly within the lines of his position, and facing the batsman, the ball, so delivered to pass over the home base, not lower than the batsman's knee, nor higher than his shoulder. ”

“ Nothing is more provokingly exciting than to have a magnificent fish rush again and again at your fly, leap over and around it, [92] break near it or strike at it with his tail, without, however, showing the slightest desire to take it in his mouth.
A fish hooked foul, though he gives a great deal of trouble, and often breaks the tackle, does not afford half the legitimate sport of one that has the hook in the mouth. ”

“ A word about high foul flies, since many of the catcher's put-outs are from these hits. A ball thrown directly up into the air by the hand will descend in a direct line, and may be easily "judged," but a pitched ball hit directly up is given a tremendous twist by its contact with the bat, and, in descending, this twist carries the ball forward sometimes as much as ten, or even twenty feet. ”

“ The balls, which are of the size of a large cricket-ball, are made of leather, and are so heavy, that, when well played, they are capable of breaking the arm, unless properly received on the bracciale. They are inflated with air, which is pumped into them with a long syringe, through a small aperture closed by a valve inside. The game is played on an oblong figure, marked out on the ground, or designated by the wall around the sunken platform on which it is played; across the centre is drawn a transverse line, dividing equally the two sides. ”

“ The goals are spaces 4 feet long and 12 inches wide at each end of the tank and placed 18 inches above the water line. Six men on a side constitute a team.
It is a game in which skill in swimming is absolutely essential. It is also a very rough game. The player endeavours to score goals by swimming with the ball, and his opponents are privileged to tackle him and to force him under water or in other ways to attempt to secure the ball from him. Meanwhile the other players are blocking off opponents, and in general the game resembles a football game in its rudiments. ”