Base-Ball: How to Become a Player

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Base-Ball, by John M. Ward

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Title: Base-Ball How to Become a Player
Author: John M. Ward
Release Date: November 30, 2006 [EBook #19975]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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Produced by Jerry Kuntz as part of the Lawson's Progress project, http://www.lawsonsprogress.com

Base-Ball: How to Become a Player
With the Origin, History and Explanation of the Game
By John Montgomery Ward of the New York Base-Ball Club
PREFACE.
The author ventures to present this book to the public, because he believes there are many points in the game of base-ball which can be told only by a player. He has given some space to a consideration of the origin and early history of the game, because they are subjects deserving of more attention than is generally accorded them.
His principal aim, however, has been to produce a hand-book of the game, a picture of the play as seen by a player. In many of its branches, base-ball is still in its infancy; even in the actual play there are yet many unsettled points, and the opinions of experts differ upon important questions. The author has been as accurate as the nature of the subject would permit, and, though claiming no especial consideration for his own opinions, he thinks they will coincide in substance with those of the more experienced and intelligent players.
To Messrs. A. H. Wright, Henry Chadwick, Harry Wright, and James Whyte Davis, for materials of reference, and to Goodwin & Co., the Scientific American, and A. J. Reach, for engravings and cuts, acknowledgments are gratefully made.
JOHN M. WARD.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION. AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF BASE-BALL, WITH A BRIEF SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY
CHAPTER I.
THEORY OF THE GAME--A CHAPTER FOR THE LADIES.
CHAPTER II.
TRAINING
CHAPTER III.
THE PITCHER
CHAPTER IV.
THE CATCHER
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST BASEMAN
CHAPTER VI.
THE SECOND BASEMAN
CHAPTER VII.
THE THIRD BASEMAN
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SHORT-STOP
CHAPTER IX.
THE LEFT-FIELDER
CHAPTER X.
THE CENTRE-FIELDER
CHAPTER XI.
THE RIGHT-FIELDER
CHAPTER XII.
THE BATTER
CHAPTER XIII.
THE BASE-RUNNER
CHAPTER XIV.
CURVE PITCHING
INTRODUCTION. AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF BASE-BALL, WITH A BRIEF SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY.
It may or it may not be a serious reflection upon the accuracy of history that the circumstances of the invention of the first ball are enveloped in some doubt. Herodotus attributes it to the Lydians, but several other writers unite in conceding to a certain beautiful lady of Corcyra, Anagalla by name, the credit of first having made a ball for the purpose of pastime. Several passages in Homer rather sustain this latter view, and, therefore, with the weight of evidence, and to the glory of woman, we, too, shall adopt this theory. Anagalla did not apply for letters patent, but, whether from goodness of heart or inability to keep a secret, she lost no time in making known her invention and explaining its uses. Homer, then, relates how:
"O'er the green mead the sporting virgins play, Their shining veils unbound; along the skies, Tost and retost, the ball incessant flies."
And this is the first ball game on record, though it is perhaps unnecessary to say that it was not yet base-ball.
No other single accident has ever been so productive of games as that invention. From the day when the Phaeacian maidens started the ball rolling down to the present time, it has been continuously in motion, and as long as children love play and adults feel the need of exercise and recreation, it will continue to roll. It has been known in all lands, and at one time or another been popular with all peoples. The Greeks and the Romans were great devotees of ball-play; China was noted for her players; in the courts of Italy and France, we are told, it was in especial favor, and Fitz-Stephen, writing in the 13th century, speaks of the London schoolboys playing at "the celebrated game of ball."
For many centuries no bat was known, but in those games requiring the ball to be struck, the hand alone was used. In France there was early played a species of hand-ball. To protect the hands thongs were sometimes bound about them, and this eventually furnished the idea of the racquet. Strutt thinks a bat was first used in golf, cambuc, or bandy ball. This was similar to the boys' game of "shinny," or, as it is now more elegantly known, "polo," and the bat used was bent at the end, just as now. The first straight bats were used in the old English game called club ball. This was simply "fungo hitting," in which one player tossed the ball in the air and hit it, as it fell, to others who caught it,