Professional baseball player

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They may say baseball is the same in the minor leagues that it is in the big leagues, but any old ball player or manager knows better. Where the difference comes in, however, is in the greater excellence and unity of the major players, a speed, a daring, a finish that can be acquired only in competition with one another.
I thought of this when I led my party into Morrisey's private box in the grand stand of the Chicago American League grounds. We had come to see the Rube's break into fast company. ”

“ Pitching is extremely hard on the arm and practice should be very light at first until the muscles become hardened. Even the best professional pitchers are not worked as a rule oftener than two or three games a week.
A good baseball captain always tries to develop several pitchers from his team. It is of course very desirable to have a “star pitcher” who can be depended on, but if the star should happen to be ill or to injure his fingers on a hot liner or for some reason cannot play, unless there is a substitute, the effect of his absence on his team will be to demoralize it. ”

“ In modern baseball a team that plays together frequently has a prearranged code of signals that are understood by each member of the team. It is very important for every player on a side to know whether the pitcher intends to deliver a high or a low ball or one that may either be batted well into the out-field or probably be a grounder that will be taken care of by some one on the in-field. ”

“ It was seldom one heard a pitcher say he was feeling bad then, or had a kink in the arm. He had to get out and work or lose his job.
“They can talk all they want to about baseball’s improving. But I fail to see it that way. We could teach the present-day players a lot about the game, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.
“Hard work never hurt any ball player. You see what it did for the Boston Braves! ”

“ In no profession in life are good habits more essential to success than in baseball. It is the first thing concerning which the wise manager inquires, and if the player's record in this respect is found good it is the most hopeful indication of his future success. Keep away from saloons.
The amount of work necessary to keep a player in the proper form must be determined in each particular case by the individual himself. If he is inclined to be thin a very little will be enough, and he should not begin too early in the spring ”

“ In fact, competent managers and captains of teams have learned in recent years, by costly experiment, that one of the most potent factors in winning pennants is the method of handling the ash known as good team-work at the bat the very essence of which is devoting all the batsmen's efforts to forwarding runners by base hits, and not by each player's going to the bat simply to build up a high record of base hits without regard to forwarding runners on bases. Suppose the first baseman in a game to take his position at the bat makes a two or three-bagger at the outset. ”

“ He should always try to be fair, and having once made a decision be sure enough of himself to hold to it even if the whole opposing team may try by “kicking” to cause him to change. Much of the rowdyism in baseball can be attributed to this cause. A good ball player is first of all a boy or man who shows himself to be a gentleman under, all circumstances.
In baseball, like many games where winning is sometimes the important thing rather than fair play, the real benefits of the game are lost sight of in the desire to have a higher score than one’s opponents. ”

“ Professional baseball is not more rigorously disciplined and driven than our 'amateur' teams. Add the crew and the track. Play, the fun of the thing itself, doesn't exist; and why? Because we have made a business out of it all, and the college is scoured for material, just as drummers are sent out to bring in business. ”

“ The pitcher may not have good control of the ball or pitch wild, the catcher may make a bad “muff” and let the ball get by him, or what we expect to be a bunted ball may be a home run, but all of this is part of the sport and helps to make baseball one of the most interesting and exciting of games. ”

“ The Yeggmen beat the Grafters, but the Grafters made them fight.
McGee, the Grafters’ pitcher, had to hide his head in shame—
He tried to bribe the warden, who was umpiring the game.
If Saturday’s a pleasant day for outside games like ball
The Con Men play the Lifers, and we’ll be there, one and all.
For 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 big team here is so professional, and they depend so much on the pitcher, that it’s no fun watching them play sometimes.”
“That’s right,” agreed Mr. Fillmore. “Some day you and I will go and see these small chaps play an old-fashioned game of ball, without much regard for the rules—the same kind of a game you and I played when we were youngsters.”
“Oh, but the game is different now,” said the hardware man. “You’ll find that these small chaps know almost as much about the rules as their bigger brothers. But that Tommy Tiptop has certainly started things moving around here. ”

“ Baseball is affectionately known as the "national pastime" because of its popularity as both a participant and spectator sport. Some 19 million children, youths, and adults play amateur baseball in the United States; and many millions more attend amateur contests as spectators each year. ”

“ I don’t know, Bat. Baseball isn’t what it used to be, and ball players aren’t like what they were once. Not that I’m knocking the old-timers, either. I come pretty near being one myself. But there’s a pretty fine, self-respecting lot of men [317] playing professional ball these days. ”

“ The players bat in turn and attempt to reach the various bases without being put out by their opponents. Each year the rules are changed in some slight particulars, consequently a beginner in baseball must be thoroughly familiar with the rules of the game before attempting to play. The pitcher attempts to pitch the ball over the home plate to the catcher and the batsman endeavours to hit it. If the ball after being hit is caught by one of the opposing players, or if it is thrown to the base to which the batsman is running before he reaches the base, he is “out.” ”

“ The rules of baseball govern the game. After a player finishes his turn, he takes position at the farther end of his side, and the next in line takes his turn, thus preserving the batting order. When three players have been declared out, that side is retired and the other side takes its inning. ”

“ To him baseball meant more than to the average player. From the time when he had seen his first game, as a little chap, our hero had fairly lived, eaten and slept in an atmosphere of the diamond. He had organized a team of lads when he was scarcely nine years old, and played those little chaps in a sort of improvised circuit. ”

“ There couldn’t of been more if a circus lion would of bust loose in the big top. Riverview is connected with Rosedale by an inter-urban trolley, and our burg just simply moved over there. The rest of the clubs canceled their remaining games, and—well, it was small-time baseball done to a frazzle, which is the only baseball in the world worth while, to my way of thinking!
We spent the night before the opening game in Rosedale, and at odd times every man-jack on the team hiked down to see Dollye and get encouragement from her. The series opened with Tommy twirling, and we won, three to two. ”

“ It is a college story about baseball. The hero is a fine young fellow whom many fans will at once think they recognize as a popular player. He enters a big Eastern University from the far West, gets on the Varsity after many trying experiences, as extra pitcher, but by accident one day it develops his natural position is as fielder and he becomes a star and wins a scholarship, which insures his education. ”

“ Baseball meets my hearty approval, although a clean, healthy sport like that may be carried to excess, and even amateur players should be properly trained and hardened so that no evil effects may follow the exertions of the game, which call for sharp runs, straining, jumping, and so forth. In baseball it occasionally happens that a player is severely or seriously injured, but the timid lad who avoids the game because of this is pretty sure to lack courage to fight the battle of life to a successful consummation. ”

“ The coach divided his players into two nines and had them practise batting first, then fielding, and finally started them in a game, with each candidate playing the position he hoped to make on the varsity.
It was a weird game. The majority of the twenty candidates displayed little knowledge of baseball. School-boys on the commons could have beaten them. They were hooted and hissed by the students, and before half the innings were played the bleachers and stands were empty. That was what old Wayne's students thought of Arthurs' candidates. ”

“ Without a doubt the most practical book ever written which illustrates and tells distinctly how any one can become an expert ball player.
Especially adapted for College Players, Amateurs and Semi-professionals. It describes the proper way to field, hints to batteries, how to become a good catcher, how to play first base, second base, and third base, also a special chapter for fielders. The articles in relation to batting, both individual and team, are the best ever written. ”

“ The rudimentary character of the game in its infancy can, moreover, be seen from the fact that under the first code of rules the pitcher could deliver the ball as wildly as he chose, for there was no penalty for poor pitching. The batsman, on the other hand, could offer at the ball when he felt so disposed.
In 1845 baseball had become a recognized sport. It had passed the period when it was looked upon merely as a schoolboy's game, for in September of that year the Knickerbocker Club, of New York, was formed. ”

“ I’m a pitcher, not a batter.”
“Not a batter, eh?” remarked Larry, in feigned surprise. “How surprised Dawley and Hooper and the other Pittsburgh pitchers will be to hear that. They seemed to think you could pickle the pill all right.”
The players found the baseball circles of New York in a ferment of interest and excitement over the team. ”

“ The only thing now lacking to forever establish base-ball as our national sport is a more liberal encouragement of the amateur element. Professional base-ball may have its ups and downs according as its directors may be wise or the contrary, but the foundation upon which it all is built, its hold upon the future, is in the amateur enthusiasm for the game. The professional game must always be confined to the larger towns, but every hamlet may have its amateur team, and let us see to it that their games are encouraged. ”

“ Luce, "it is the plan to make the next season the banner one in baseball in all our school's history. This will call for some real work, for constantly sustained effort. Every man who goes into the baseball training squad will be expected to do his full share of general gymnastic work here, and to improve every favorable chance for such cross-country running and other outdoor sports as may be ordered. ”

“ Base Ball is a man maker.
"Of course the professional Base Ball player is the one known to the non-playing public; he attracts attention through his superior talent, just as a great actor or a great singer does; but a great actor or great singer may start late, while a Base Ball player cannot. I do not believe there is a single player in the major leagues who had not demonstrated a peculiar fitness for the game, and made a reputation as a skillful player among boy associates, before he was fourteen. ”

“ A club of base runners will do more to help a pitcher win than a batting order of hard hitters, I believe. Speed is the great thing in the baseball of to-day. By speed I do not mean that good men must be sprinters alone. They must be fast starters, fast runners and fast thinkers. Remember that last one—fast thinkers.
Harry McCormick, formerly the left-fielder on the Giants, when he joined the club before his legs began to go bad, was a sprinter, one of the fastest men who ever broke into the League. Before he took up baseball as a profession, he had been a runner in college. ”

“ Baseball is the national game. It is not only the most popular sport in the United States, but it is national in the sense that it expresses the ingenuity, the energy and the agility of the typical American. Viewed in this light, baseball possesses a dignity of its own and an entertaining and informing piece of literary work about it cannot be trivial. ”