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IN THE OLDEN TIME.baseball as playedEARLY DAYS.INEtHS*«*•UHow It DcTfloped from Roumlw,*' “Old Cat” and “Town Half — The Gallant I*iont*er» of 1770—Humor of riugglng the Runner**.=known. They did of our great sportHE story of baseball goes back beyond the re volution to the times of the good QueenAnne, to the mer-rie England that Eliza be tii m a d eand then downthrough all the dead ages to a year and a country un-uot (all the genesis “baseball,” nor did it much resemble our play of to-day; yet it held the vital spark of the game that has won America’s heart. Not much is known of the earlier games except that they existed. It is only of the immediate ancestors of baseball, “rounders” and “town ball,” that definite history exists. Even where and how they split from the ancestral game and their cousins, cricket and football, is not known. For the past century or more, however, the present game of baseball has held strong resemblance to its form of to-day.It was queer baseball that our knick-erbockered great-grandfathers played in the old colonial days. They would sport in the meadows beside the towns, playing with unhandy halls of yarn that some good wife had stitched over with cloth. The surroundings were queerer; if they lived in the western reserve of Ohio, or in the Lake Champlain country they might, keep their matchlocks piled in a corner of the fence, ready for an instant change from gayety to deadly fight against murderous redskins. Hut all the men of 17.10 and 1700 took their pleasure with gay hearts and free minds, glad to relax from the steady drudgery offarming.Later, when the youth and \ er of the land lived upon the commons and the muskets were piled in the little town hails of rough brick, the men of ’70 still sought diversion from theanxietv of a threatening situation in• % 1the old game of “roundels.” They played it as English children, and even English princes of d ales played it on the commons. Most often in the orderly New England villages of that day the market-place and forum filled the gap between the spick and span white meeting-house, with its invariable high gre^n blinds and sharp-spik -ed steeple of slate, and the town hall.the bases to the home. After this brief period of excitement the life of a player in “rounders” was one of gentleness and peace. He might toss for a while in the progressive promotion of the game, and he might chase through the field, starring daisies after the rolling ball. The spectacular fly catch was not known, because the fly Itself could not be flown; the home run had not been heard of, since there were no fences that the melons they miscalled balls could climb. Even the pleasure of breaking the windows of amean man’s house and then scooting for safety was denied the youth who played “rounders.”As the revolution wore on and the whole vigor of the land was put into it the games and sports of the green slowly died away, and even in the fighting ranks none had time or thought, for much of play. So it was that, when the redcoats had left New York, much cheered by the overjoyed populace as they marched from their barracks on William and Ann streets down Broadway and across the bowling green the resort of the first New Yorkers for their great game of tenpins—the old game of “rounders” was revived in somewhat new guise.“Town hall’ they dubbed it then, and for fifty or sixty years thereafter New York was its center. Through the wars of ’12 and ’46 and the panics of ’18 and ’20, and the gold excitement of '48 New York held fast and true to town hall. Its hoys played the game on the meadows above town, as they gradually slid farther and farther north, from Houston street to Harlem, and tlirough all the periods when other sections of the country let sport go the New York vouths retained their on-thusiasm and devotion to “town hall.”It is likelv that, the new rules that*came after the revolution and which gave the game a new interest, helpedR*Goldcross'used and ' “8 Kny fail, andMed: tion, porniiree.at4;not they no elt;turnOinoTJthetionrevcInmotposttaklt;bralcelea pientpict•treu in (“]youherdayKeireplneeenait hinglau:and1tIn the straggling farmer villagesotheKai san m a Ing110*Tlt;netiBacsiretelt;*lt;ste3SOIbeecrcGmeNew York and Pennsylvania the mild shorthorn cattle, with great flinging of heels, tied from their grazing at the invasion of the players of “rounders.”Forther to '.lit1 south. where the lifewas more of the plantation and less tif the town, the games of the period did not obtain much of a hold.It was in Now England and the middle colonies that “rounders” was in greatest favor. Thor-1 was little exactitude about the game. \ tree or1ofMAT.alivegameforus. Ao ailedAT THEiita:« r.ally to keep it 1'r**nch schoolboy s'“l cheque.” which in^ans something like our “out.” had been introduced iuHuguenot refugees of a . and it had an inipor-rccasting the rules ofbig stone served as a base; theremight he five, there might be six of them. A pitcher stood our in the field and tossed balls toward the batsmen, who wielded hits of scantling, broomsticks or wha; not. Out. beyond thebases, playing fancy ‘free, were three or four fielders, who did what they could to get hands on the balls as tin4 sticks whacked them, slewing them out there in odd curves. Altogether it was such an irregular game as one may see the six-year-olds play in the alley ’round the corner any day.The ball was a hank of yarn, and even the smith’s apprentices, with their pre-eminent Whops, could not swipe the mushy spheroid more than a few dozen paces, (’ateliers there were none, and so it was with basemen. The whole gathered crowd took turns atthe clubbing, and by rotation the men *mt on the green got chances to dodgetrt-iONE OVER THE PLATE.from tree to big stone and from hi stone to house corner in the round of the bases. That was all there was of fun or excitement in “rounders”--thebase running. Once a man was on the base the whole crowd, fielders, pitcher and onlookers combined to put him out.What was necessary to this accomplishment was merely that the ball should touch him when he was off the base. It might be thrown from a distance, although this, with the changeable handfuls then used as balls, was a matter of high speculation. The man might be touched in a scrimmage to which half the field would be a party, and he might, if the various elements against him were sufficiently un-cohesive. scoot around the gauntlet ofNew York bycenturv befon •tarn effect in the game.It was now played with sides, and a heavy ball of rubber took the place of the yarn lump. A catcln r was added to the team, and the diamond was evolved as a base diagram. This brought, too, the abandonment of the old house corners and trees as bases, and the exclusive use of stones or boards. The national game of to-day was in its chrysalis form. Some years had passed before these changes were fully accepted throughout the country, and bythat time interest in the game had visibly quickened. The retiring of a side by putting all of its members out brought the field teams in to bat at more or less regular intervals, and neighborhoods began to form teams to play Sunday afternoons for the enjoyment of their members and the honor of their districts, in New Yo»W. Bow-erv bovs were accustomed at times to* ♦go to the city limits at times to fightthe Maiden Lane boys, and after a timethe wards of the cities had teams that.ran on year after year. Expert knowledge grew and improvements were slowly grafted on the simple game. The principle of a fair hi: was the first important innovation. When adopted it made any hall that llew from the bat outside the lines to the first and third bases noncounting. When this was well established changes began to follow swiftly. Mm were put on the bases to capture and to pu: out the runners. Mast1 running became vastly more exciting than before, especially in view of the fact that “plugging'’ was the favorite method of putting out runners.“Plugging.” which is now unknown to baseball fans, consisted in standing at a more or less remote distance from the runner and throwing the hall, full force, at him. 'This was to put him out. The rubber might strike him on the ear and nip off a little skin; it might catch his bicep muscle and paralyze It; it might hit his wind and send him doubled up in agony to the ground it might do injury to the man in half a dozen ways. Men were known to lose eyes through it. to suffer long spells of unconsciousness, and two or three cases of cancer developed from it.CUslt;Bill!gel“5in ! and I toanlt;thi iM:-eaWiiSpleimerli'BJX'curiv»t (raltsiiaitLayeelwittiltdftjI.«tUN(shhawiiniwiiyelt;inNID8lIn111k Ignorance.Young Mother * He is somewhat cross today. He is teething.” Old Bachelor tin great awe of the mite of humanity) — “And when do you expect him to commence- -er commence hairing?”- Tit -Hits.chlt;Wwirlt;TlTilt* MohI Protestant Country,Sweden is the most Protestant country in the world. Of the population of G,000,000, there are only 2 000 or 3,0 0 Roman Catholics—the remainder of the people belonging almost entirely to the Lutheran church.0I
Newspaper Details
Oak Park Vindicator
Oak Park, Illinois, US
Fri, May 06, 1898
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Harvard U.
MA, USA 05 Oct 2019
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