Highball

“ 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. ”

“ We have some birds in this bunch. Bush, our pitcher, requires only nine balls to put out a side; he nearly always does it. We've an infield that a ball wouldn't go by if it had a chance. Baseball as we play it can only be seen at the big league games. I shall ask our esteemed friend, Mr. Bill, to remember what I say."
"What's the name of your nine?" asked Mr. "Bill."
"The High School 'Hopes.'"
"We'll promise to dash 'em," grinned the other.
"Commiseration for your feelings after the game prevents me from making a tart reply," said Brown. "What day shall we come over?" ”

“ Meanwhile the ball is beating round beneath their feet, their skates are clashing steel on steel. I hear the shuffling kicks, the battling strokes of clubs, the husky mutterings of passion half suppressed; I hear the panting breath and the impetuous whisperings between the teeth, as they push and wrestle and jam. A lucky hit now sends the ball a few feet from the fray. A ready hand improves the chance; but as he lifts his stick a youngster’s nose gets in the way and spoils his stroke; he slips, and falls upon the ball ”

“ I wasn't so strong on sweets and pastry, because I usually drank a few highballs during the day, and highballs and cocktails and sweets do not go well together—that is, the man who takes alcohol into his system usually does not care for sweets. ”

“ The ball flew from the young hero’s hand like a bolt from a sling, and it struck the giant in the middle of the forehead below the rim of his helmet, but above his blazing eyes, and the ball crashed through the strong frontal bone, and tore its way through the hinder part of his head, and went forth, carrying the brains with it in its course, so that there was a free tunnel and thoroughfare for all the winds of heaven there. ”

“ If your swing is too straight up and down, and you are drawing in your arms across the line of fire, a "top" is pretty sure to follow. Let your arms go out so that the curve of your swing may be longer, or rather flatter, and try to look at the side of your ball, and not straight down upon it. If you are looking persistently at the top of your ball, and your "eye is in," the club head must perforce obey its instructions. It is not only the ball but the side of the ball that you want to hit. Another reason why players "top" is because they are afraid of the ground and of breaking their clubs. ”

“ All baseball players like to bat, and nothing pleases them so much as base hits; on the other hand, nothing is quite so painful as to send out hard liners only to see them caught. And it seemed as if every man on our team connected with that lanky twirler's fast high ball and hit with the force that made the bat spring only to have one of these rubes get his big hands upon it. ”

“ In hitting at a high ball the bat should be swung overhand, in an almost perpendicular plane, and so, also, for a low ball, the batter should stand erect and cut underhand. If the bat is swung in a horizontal plane the least miscalculation in the height of the ball will be fatal. If it strikes above or below the centre line of the bat, it will be driven either up into the air or down to the ground. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Any number may play the game. One side may play another or the players may rotate, as in base ball. A high bar is needed by which the batter can support himself by the hands. The ball must be struck with the bottom of one or both feet. A ball passing in front of a perpendicular drawn from the end of the bar is a fair ball. A ball struck by any other part of the body, or passing behind the aforesaid perpendicular, after being struck, is a foul. Three fouls are out. If the batter misses the ball entirely it is a strike. One strike is out, if caught on the fly. ”

“ 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 proper parent of cricket seems to have been club-ball, which is a very old game, and of which there is a picture in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, dated 1344 A.D. It represents a female throwing a ball to a man who is in the act of raising his bat to strike it. Behind the woman, at a little distance, appear several other figures of men and women waiting attentively to catch or stop the ball when hit by the batsman. ”

“ I endeavor, of course, to hide my right hand as much as possible from the batter, and go through exactly the same motions as for a straight ball. I can get just as much speed with my curve as my straight, which in consequence, has proved my most successful ball.
"The drop ball is a most effective one if a pitcher can get control of it. If the ball falls even a half inch from the expected line, the batter is liable to strike over it. In pitching this ball I take a tight hold with the thumb and two forefingers, with the third finger underneath in touch with the sphere. ”

“ Everyone rowed, and the girls as well as the youths had their races, and developed their muscles in the most scientific manner. The large, level meadow near the old willow was now the college playground, and here baseball battles raged with fury, varied by football, leaping, and kindred sports fitted to split the fingers, break the ribs, and strain the backs of the too ambitious participants. ”

“ POETIC LITERATURE OF BASE BALL—INTERESTING STORY OF "CASEY AT THE BAT"—ITS AUTHOR—DE WOLF HOPPER'S PART IN MAKING THE POEM A CLASSIC—OTHER POEMS. LIKE every other cause worthy the best efforts of writers of note, Base Ball has a literature peculiarly its own. Love has its sonnets galore; War its epics in heroic verse; Tragedy its sombre story in measured lines, and Base Ball has "Casey at the Bat."
To this day men of splendid mental equipment are burning midnight oil in labored efforts to solve the authorship of the immortal productions usually accredited to the "Bard of Avon." ”

“ The Athletics, for two seasons, have carried with them on all their trips a combination bat boy and mascot who is a hunchback, and he outjinxed our champion jinx killer, Charley Faust, in the 1911 world’s series. A hunchback is regarded by ball-players as the best luck in the world. If a man can just touch that hump on the way to the plate, he is sure to get a hit, and any observant spectator will notice the Athletics’ hitters rubbing the hunchback boy before leaving the bench. ”

“ In addressing his ball the amateur stands rigidly facing it with muscles set, and with careful attention and painstaking deliberation shown in his entire attitude, concentration written on every feature. Gradually he begins a carefully guarded movement of his club away from his ball. Up to the top of his swing he makes this careful, deliberate movement, consciously controlling every change in position, and then when he reaches the top of his swing, he makes a wild, vicious attempt to whack that ball to “kingdom come.” ”

“ The ball, which is commonly made of a blown bladder and cased with leather, is delivered in the midst of the ground, and the object of each party is to drive it through the goal of the other, which being achieved the game is won.... When the exercise becomes exceeding violent, the players kick each others’ shins without the least ceremony, and some of them are overthrown at the hazard of their limbs. ”

“ In wrestling the Cornwall and Devonshire men excelled, and a ram, or sometimes a cock, was the prize of the victor. Bowling alleys were commonly attached to the houses of the wealthy, and to places of public resort. Among the games at ball we find tennis, trap-ball, bat and ball, and the balloon-ball, in which a large ball filled with air was struck from one side to the other by two players with their hands and wrists guarded by bandages. ”

“ There is no place where trap-ball, fives, prison-base, foot-ball, quoits, bowls are better understood or more successfully practised; and the very names of a cricket bat and ball make English fingers tingle. What happy days must ‘Long Robinson’ have passed in getting ready his wickets and mending his bats, who when two of the fingers of his right hand were struck off by the violence of a ball, had a screw fastened to it to hold the bat, and with the other hand still sent the ball thundering against the boards that bounded Old Lord’s cricket-ground! ”

“ Budd hit a nine at Woolwich, strange to say, it proved a tie match: an eight would have lost the game. Practise clean hitting, correct position, and judgment of lengths with free arm, and the ball is sure to go far enough. The habit of hitting at a ball oscillating from a slanting pole will greatly improve any unpractised hitter. A soft ball will answer the purpose, pierced and threaded on a string. ”

“ If you find, on going out to hit a ball, that it is too short, and you cannot get at the pitch of it, you have several courses open to you. If you are a very big hitter, and the field is not very far out, it is worth while to try the experiment of hitting as hard as you can; the ball must go high, and may go over the ropes or out of harm’s way; indeed, some great hitters seem to prefer a ball that is not quite a half-volley. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If he dodged the ball, he kept on running till the den was reached. Some of the players became proficient in ducking, dodging and side-stepping, and others learned to throw the ball with the accuracy of a rifle bullet. No matter how many players were on a side, each and every one had to be put out. And if the last one made three successive home runs, he 'brought in his side,' and the outfielders, pitcher and catcher had to do their work all over again. The boy who could bring in his side was a hero. No victorious general was ever prouder or more lauded. ”

“ While these movements are in progress the batter has elevated his weapon with which he strikes the ball a blow, oblique with its course after it has passed the line of the wicket in the direction of the slips. If the bat is held at an angle of about 50° when it strikes, the ball will rebound from the turf and elude the nimble fielder. The force of the late cut is tremendous, as it combines the power of the shoulder hit with the speed of the ball. ”

“ In forward play, or driving, fine hitters seem as as if they felt the ball on the bat, and sprung it away an elastic impulse: and in the more forcible hits, a ball from one of the All England batsmen appears not so much like a hot as a shot from the bat: for, when a ball is hit in the swiftest part of the bat's whirl, and with that part of the bat that gives the greatest force with the least jar, the ball appears to offer no resistance ”

“ The new possessor of the ball now endeavours, before the rest can reach him, to go through the same required moves, and send the ball back in the direction from which he received it. A good deal of laughing, shouting, and wrestling accompanies this boisterous game, and sometimes heavy falls are given, in endeavouring to trip up the controller of the ball’s movements before he can effect his desired object of bearing it away and performing the requisite ceremonial. ”

“ The multiplicity of blows, acting in different directions, had the effect of bringing the ball to the ground, where a fine scramble took place, and a glorious clatter of sticks mingled with the cries of the savages. At length, an Indian, more expert than the others, contrived to nip the ball between the ends of his two sticks, and having managed to fork it out, ran off with it like a deer, with his arms raised over his head, pursued by a whole party engaged, in the first struggle. ”

“ The grip of the ball for the drop is very similar to the out-curve, but in delivery the hand is brought almost directly over the shoulder. In all curves the pitcher must have extremely sensitive fingers and be able to control them with almost as much skill as one requires in playing a piano. We must keep in mind which way we desire the ball to spin to produce the required curve and then to give it just as much of this spin as we can without interfering with our accuracy. ”