Players

“ The game is played with spirit and enthusiasm, and is an exciting spectacle. The members of each phratry, from their opposite stations, watch the game with eagerness, and cheer their respective players at every successful turn of the game. ”

“ We have one set of people advocating the employment of only eleven, or at most twenty, players on a side, and another maintaining that a hundred or so on a side matters little. We have one school playing the game against a brick wall, another using boundaries of canvas, another dashing the ball about in narrow cloisters, and another marshalling a little army of players, with regularly organized back and forward players, reserve forces, vanguard, scouts, runners, all of whom have their direct influence on the fate and fortunes of the game. ”

“ Talking about the old Players' Union, it reminds me that at one meeting we had, a player stated that if a club had a horse they wanted to part with, some one would have to find the horse in fodder until the negotiations were finished. A player is during that time between the devil and the deep blue sea, and has to entirely support himself during that period, and I have known many excellent players give up the game for this reason. ”

“ The players are called "old [35] gamesters"—why, I can't tell you,—and their object is simply to break one another's heads: for the moment that blood runs an inch anywhere above the eyebrow the old gamester to whom it belongs is beaten, and has to stop. ”

“ Each and every game that has been played has been an improvement on the style of game that preceded it and each and every style of game has had its own special votaries, some players excelling at one style of billiards and some at another, the players who excelled at all being few and far between. ”

“ There are, however, some general rules which must be carried out strictly if the game is to be conducted in a spirit of true sport They are so obvious that it might appear superfluous in a work of this character to give them any prominence. Yet they are in the case of even experienced players, who ought to set a better example, very often overlooked, or, in the excitement of the moment, forgotten. ”

“ How true it is that in one play, or in a practice game, or in a contest against an opposing college, a player has found himself. Do you players of football remember the day you made the team, the day your chance came and you took [Pg 36] advantage of it? At such a time a player shows great possibilities. He is told by the captain to report at the training house for the Varsity signals. ”

“ Now in addition to the players just referred to—and they form the great majority—there are those who can devote considerable time and attention to the game, who can play the spot stroke in the sense of knowing how each position should be treated, and can usually make from five to ten spots, besides having a fair general notion of the game. Such persons represent the better class of club play, and from among them at rare intervals a few appear whose form approaches that of the professional. ”

“ It in fact shows more skill to play a good game upon a poor ground than upon a perfect one.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE GAME.
Two players being designated captains or chiefs, one for each side, sides are chosen in the usual manner. The privilege of first choice of players is very conveniently decided between [19] the chiefs by each placing his ball under the first bridge and striking for the starting post; the one who thus drives his ball nearest the post gaining the first choice. ”

“ The players stand in groups of two lines each, but these groups are composed of two different teams, the alternate players of one rank and the alternate players of the opposite rank forming one team, and the intervening players of the two ranks another. ”

“ So much time is required to master the science of the game, to merit the name of expert, that circumstances have excluded from it the ruder, undesirable element, and it shall remain our royal game, because, in the clearness, the conciseness of its rules, in the scientific points of its play, in the social standing and the "bon hommie" of its players, it has yet to find an equal. ”

“ FOLLOW OUR LEADER The leader walks before a line of players and performs ridiculous acts which all must imitate. If any player fails to do this, he or she is out of the game. The leader may make the players perform feats like jumping over high places, turning somersaults, climbing, etc., if the players are boys. If among the players there are girls, the feats, of necessity, must not be too hard. ”

“ Another great piece of luck is for a ball-player to rub a colored kid’s head. I’ve walked along the street with ball-players and seen them stop a young negro and take off his hat and run their hands through his kinky hair. Then I’ve seen the same ball-player go out and get two or three hits that afternoon and play the game of his life. ”

“ The players stand in two rows or groups facing each other. Each group has a leader, who stands in the center and represents a king leading his army.
The game or play is a simple one of imitation, in which the players perform in unison some action first indicated by one of the leaders. ”

“ A good captain will select his players for the playing qualities needed in the particular game to be played. These qualities will vary in different games, and different players may be chosen for excellence in one particular direction, such as swift running, agile dodging, boldness in giving dares and taking risks; in ball games, skill in catching or throwing, or other forms of play; and in all games, the ability to "play fair," and to coöperate generously and with good temper. A player may be unskillful, and yet very valuable as a general helper if he possesses the qualities for coöperation. ”

“ Take eleven corking men, each one a master of his position, and get them so that they play together like a well-oiled machine, and then run them up against a team of ordinary players without much team-work or anything else except a great, big, overwhelming desire to win, and what happens three times out of four? ”

“ Although now stowed away in the corner of a large chest, side by side with jerseys, caps, knickerbockers, and other football requisites, as a remnant of the glorious game, my master sometimes visits me to think over the past, and I often hear him say that, although he does not play now, he still goes to see some of the leading contests, and at them picks up many queer stories of the modern players. ”

“ It is well that the work of each evening be systematized. The great benefit to be derived from what is advised in this chapter is that the players themselves are required to do much of the thinking. In thinking over the game with the idea of criticising it, the men will be much impressed and better prepared for the future. ”

“ And glad to learn that the contest passed without injury to any of the players of either side and without regrettable incidents of any sort. The game of football, as you all know, is being much criticised these days and I wish to remind you that it is only by fair and gentlemanly methods of play that you can—ah—appease such criticism. ”

“ Some one has truthfully said, that ball players, like poets and cooks, are born, not made, though once born, their development, like that of their fellow-artists, may be greatly aided by judicious coaching. ”

“ It is credibly reported that all four players in a four-ball match—scratch men, every one—once arrived upon the Crater green, ball in hand, each having given up the struggle under the despairing impression that no opponent could possibly have played more strokes than himself. ”

“ In those early days of Base Ball, when the game was in its formulative period, it was quite customary for bright players to study out new schemes of play that would show up defects in the playing rules, and, by applying these technicalities in a regular match, attract the attention of rule-makers and effect the desired change. ”

“ For though gamesters say that the cards beat all the players, though they were never so skilful, yet in the contest we are now considering, the players are also the game, and share the power of the cards. ”

“ For though the most be players, some must be spectators. ”

“ And men and women merely players.”
The profession of the player is one of the oldest recognized and in its growth and achievement stands foremost of all the arts.
In its crudest form little is known, but as a profession it may properly date from the Chinese and Grecian periods, when players were chosen from among the infant slaves and trained to the art by masters, not unlike the painter and the bard. ”

“ If we remember that in the majority of the matches won by the Gentlemen, they were either playing extra men, or had one or two players given them, it will be easily seen that the best of our amateur talent was very far behind the best of our professional. ”

“ Behind the two players are onlookers, equally intent. One player is resting his chin upon his hand, the other holds a piece apparently making a move. The artist has arbitrarily placed the men and board close to the eye of the player making the move. ”

“ For several years new clubs had been coming rapidly into existence. Thoughtful players of every team had views for the improvement of the game. It had long been apparent that some of the rules were inconsistent and prejudicial to the best development of the sport. ”

“ The ball games requiring team play have been described according to an analytic scheme not before used for the class of games given in the present volume, which makes it possible to locate at a glance information about the laying out of the ground, the number, assignment, and duties of players, the object of the game, rules and points of play, fouls, and score. ”

“ Find fifty men from all these sports who have outgrown them and reached real importance in the world! You can't. I could name a hundred Base Ball players—yes, two hundred, and then more—who have become important, worthy, and respected men in later years. ”

“ That this early tournament playing, accustoming young men to watch their strokes and play carefully, must aid in remedying this evil among the rising players hardly needs to be pointed out, while the new opportunity of meeting equal or better players must also promote skill and brilliancy in play. ”

“ Player.—This is not strictly a technical term, but the tyro should note that the persons seated at the table are not necessarily all players. One or more may retire from the game, and on doing so forfeit all their interest, and cease to be players in that game. ”

“ In any case there is no question that nine boys who are accustomed to play together and who understand each other’s methods of play and signals will have a better chance of winning a close game than nine other players who may have a shade the better of it in individual work but who do not play together. ”

“ It also develops the young players along the correct lines and moulds the play of the schoolboys in ways which not only benefit the player, but develop him for the more important contests that will come when he reaches his chosen school of higher learning. ”

“ And, besides this, play having become an affair of exact science, of interest, and generally of perfect honesty, the forces of the players are generally so equally matched that one can allow himself the excitement of a stake of twelve or fifteen hundred louis, because it is well known that at the end of a bad season the losses and gains are about equal. ”

“ Players of all ages will take a pleasure in reading these suggestive and well-written pages.'—Scotsman.
'Whatever else devotees of the national game may decide to leave unbought, they really would be ill-advised were they to close their pockets against this capital little book. A volume for which we are grateful, and we hope hundreds and hundreds of players will be of the same mind as ourselves.'—Literary World.
'Young players will find here hints of the utmost value. There is not a dull page in the book, nor one from which useful information may not be derived.'—Sporting Life. ”

“ “I confess I seldom listen to the players: one has so much to do, in looking about and finding out one’s acquaintance, that, really, one has no time to mind the stage. ”

“ In most of these we have practically the same thing—the sides have opposite homes, and the leader, though individual at first, becomes merged in the group when the line is formed, and the game ends by all the players being on one side. ”

“ It is like a flattened ball with a tail to it. With a club or stick you strike the tail so that the ball springs up in the air and [Pg 146] then before it falls you strike it with your club toward your enemy's goal line. The players are divided into sides who try to defend their goal lines and to send back the ball to the other side. Make your own rules as experience teaches you is fair. ”

“ The four medicine men, with the ball in their custody, seat themselves as before, midway between the goals, while the players arrange themselves for the attack and defence. At a given signal, the ball is flung high in the air, and as it falls, the two opposing sets of players converge upon it. As there are often several hundred players on each side, it may be imagined that the scene is a most animated one. ”

“ For the common advice of the genius-players who are so often set to teach the game is little likely to make cricketers. “Play in a natural way,” they say. This advice must be exposed, though it is insisted upon by some of the leading authorities. ”

“ Any number of people can play, from two upwards. The players stand in a ring facing each other. One of them sends the ball into the air, and the person nearest to it, when it descends, must send it up again. ”

“ Once these skills are developed, an athlete must then learn to coordinate his or her game with the other four players on a squad. This combination of individual achievement and teamwork is what makes the game of basketball both fascinating and rewarding. ”

“ For this game several players are required, who form themselves into one or more parties according to numbers. A player, preferably a woman, is selected as leader, and should possess nerve, coolness, and an authoritative voice. ”