Minor league baseball

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ By the organization of the National Association of Base Ball clubs the minor leagues, for the first time in their history, placed themselves in a position where they could demand proper enforcement of regulations for the government of the sport, and by their alliance with the major league clubs, under the articles of the National Agreement, a general working basis was effected whereby compliance with rules could be insisted upon. ”

“ It is true that prosperity in the cities means a certain amount of Base Ball interest in all the territory which is within the metropolitan influence, but it is also true that there has been a very wonderful and general growth of interest in sections which are remote from the major league circuits, and which are dependent for their professional Base Ball upon the so-called minor league organizations. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is safe in the hands of true and tried men, who are devoting their lives to its success. It is dominated and controlled by that grand old organization, the National League, which for twenty years has been the great exponent of the game, and has done more to advance the game than any other factor. The League has, during its life, stood on one platform, "honesty and purity in base ball," and has always retained the confidence and respect of the people. It has elevated the game until to-day base ball stands on a firm foundation of popular approval unequaled by any other athletic sport. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Dubuque won the premiership with a roster of players which included Ted Sullivan, Tom Loftus, Charley Comiskey, then a pitcher, and Charley Radbourne, that marvel of twirling skill.
By 1880 the National League had earned its place as the premier baseball organization in the country. Its policy had become settled, and changes in its circuit were less frequent. In that year Worcester replaced Syracuse. The pennant went to Chicago. In the National Association Washington finished first.
Cincinnati retired from the league in 1881, Detroit being admitted. Chicago again won the championship. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then the seven clubs start aiming at this flaw, and oftentimes the result is that a promising young pitcher, because he has some one definite weakness, [Pg 76] goes back to the minors. A crack in the temperament is the worst. Mechanical defects can usually be remedied when discovered.
Few baseball fans know that the Giants drove a man back to the minor leagues who once pitched them out of a pennant. The club was tipped off to a certain, unfortunate circumstance in the twirler’s early life which left a lasting impression on his mind. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ By this agreement, no team was to have on its list more than three salaried players, or professionals. In order to make the games fast and attract spectators who would not be satisfied with ordinary amateur baseball, the by-laws of the league permitted each manager to engage three professionals. For the most part the teams had secured expert pitchers and catchers.
The early part of the season had proved discouraging for Elkton, as her weak local men were unable to bat effectively against the fine pitching of the clever “slab artists” of the other clubs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A left-handed thrower will seldom make a success as a ball player except as pitcher or on first base. Left-handed batsmen, however, are a distinct advantage to a team, as nothing will so disconcert a green pitcher as to have batsmen standing first on one side of the plate and then on the other.
Every boy who plays baseball must know the rules thoroughly to be a success. It is in this way that advantage of every fair opportunity can be taken. Nothing is so disheartening to a team as to lose a closely contested game on a technicality of rules. ”

“ Kansas City could not score. In their half the Denver team made one run by clean hitting.
Then the closely fought advantage see-sawed from one team to the other. It was not a pitchers' battle, though both men worked to the limit of skill and endurance. They were hit hard. Dazzling plays kept the score down and the innings short. Over the fields hung the portent of something to come, every player, every spectator felt the subtle baseball chance; each inning seemed to lead closer and more thrillingly up to the climax. ”

“ Well, it’s the Tonoka Lake League. You see, our college, Boxer Hall and Fairview Institute have a triangular league for the championship. But we haven’t won it in so long that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, as the legal documents have it. Last year we had a good chance to be second, but Langridge got a glass arm in the final game and we were dumped. That’s why I say we need a new pitcher, and I’m glad you’re going to try for it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To professional base ball, as governed by the existing National League, is mainly due the great popularity our national game has achieved within the past twenty years. Of course the amateur class of the fraternity greatly outnumber the professionals; but the game could never have reached its present point of excellence in field work but for the time and attention the professional clubs were enabled to devote to its thorough development from the year of Harry Wright's famous "Red Stocking" nine of Cincinnati, in 1869, to the existing period of model professional ball playing. ”

“ When it is remembered that there are upward of thirty-five other leagues working under the National Agreement, as well as many independent organizations, and that the figures given are for the major leagues alone, it will be seen that baseball in America is a tremendous institution. ”

“ 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. ”

“ No one is in a better position to know all about inside baseball then a man like I who have been a pitcher in the big league because it is the pitchers that has to do most of the thinking and pull off the smart plays that is what wins ball games. For inst. I will write down about a little incidents that come off one time 2 yrs. ago when the Boston club was playing against the Chicago White Sox where I was one of the stars when the U. S. went into the war and then I dropped baseball and signed up a contract with Uncle Sam to play for my country in the big game against the Kaiser of Germany. ”

“ It’s a good thing it is so, too, because we have to keep hustling all the time or see somebody else step into our shoes. The result is that when the team is finally licked into shape by the coaches, it represents the very best the college can turn out. It’s a fighting machine that never knows when it is whipped and never quits trying until the last man is out in the ninth inning.”
“Yes,” broke in Tom, “and that’s what makes college baseball so much more pleasing than the regular professional game. The fellows go at it in such deadly earnest. ”

“ The boys of the three High Schools of the city—East, West and Central—were rivals in baseball, football, rowing, and track athletics; and on this particular Saturday the first baseball game of the season was to be played between East and West High School nines. Central High, which Laura Belding and Bobby Hargrew attended, had a good team, too, and the girls—loyal to their boy friends—would have “rooted” for the home team had the Central club been playing. ”