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Ancient liall-l'Iayiiig. tieGreek writers mention live modes of playing ball; one, where the ball was thrown high into the air, and the persons who played tried to catch it before it touched the ground. Here we have one of the features of the game of base ball of the present day, excepting that we use a bat to send the ball upward, instead of throwing it. Another game is mentioned, where the ball, instead of being thrown up, is thrown a long distance near the ground, which will answer to throwing to the bases in the game as now played. A third game, described as being popular, consisted in one of the players, when pretending tothrow it to a certain individual, turning suddenly, and throwing it to another player. This also is a common mode of practice with base ball players of the present day. Hand ball, where the player threw the ball to the ground with such force as to cause it to rebound, which was continued many times, being struck down by the palm of the hand, is still played by the schoolgirls of the age. Foot-ball and tennis are also mentioned.Writers of Roman history speak of two kinds of ball,—oila, which refers to games played with a small ball like our present base ball, and j'ollis, or foot-ball. The former was the favorite; and the prevailing mode was where three persons stood in the form of a triangle, and the ball was passed back and forth between them. Here again we have one of the precise features of base ball, thefirst, second, and third bases formingthe triangle. The most skilful prided themselves upon catching and throwing the ball with their left hand. What can come nearer to our national game than all this V First, we have the first, second, and third basemen, who take pride in their skill; then we have the players, engaged in catching the hot-thrown balls; and again the fielders, who are taking them “ on the fly ” after the most approved fashion. Nothing is lacking except the bat, which seems to be a modern invention.— Oliver Optic's Magazine.W€relt;hein;ta!knit,uiwlt;asfashofofliiintimiufcj°y*actlt;tlt;tisi8]aadl.FtsrFr£1i1
Newspaper Details
Warren Mail
Warren, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, Mar 11, 1871
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Shawn M.
PA, USA 16 Sep 2017
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