Base Ball

Base Ball. This game corresponds in the United States to cricket in England. Every village, every school, every university in the country has its one or more clubs, and no paper is considered complete unless a base ball editor is on its staff. The game resembles cricket in that both require about the same area of level ground; both are played with a rather hard ball; both involve swift and accurate tossing and catching of the ball; both call for energetic fielding, and both are played with enthusiasm by young and old, rich and poor.

The game is an evolution, and is the only national sport in America that has not its counterpart in the mother country.

Amateur base ball is cultivated most successfully at the seats of learning, the matches between their clubs being watched with great interest, a position on a base ball "nine" being regarded in college as a distinction ranking with a seat in the "eight." Professional base ball, on the other hand, has been developed so far that it is a source of income to many clubs, who travel the country giving exhibitions of their skill in matches with rival organisations.

Nine persons compose a side. In the centre of the field is a square with sides 90 feet long. This is called the diamond. The corners are known as home base, first base, second base, and third base. The side that is "out" takes position in the field; the catcher just behind the home base; the pitcher at a distance of 50 feet from the home base in line with the second base. Three basemen guard respectively the first, second, and third bases. A short stop is posted between second and third; and three fielders, known as right, centre, and left, take position at distances convenient for stopping balls sent beyond the diamond.

The nine men are now posted with the object of stopping any ball sent from the bat, and sending it to one of the bases before the batter himself can get there.

The pitcher (bowler) at sends the ball over the home plate to the catcher. He does this with the greatest possible velocity, and with one of half-a-dozen "curves" that frequently deceives the batsman as to the distance the ball will be from him when passing. He is often tempted to strike at a ball that appears convenient, when in fact it is deflected so as to go above or below or beyond him by a twist of the pitcher's wrist, difficult to acquire, and still more difficult to understand. So many catchers have ruined their noses, teeth and fingers by the swiftness and unexpected movements of "twisted "balls, that they now generally wear steel masks, and leather protectors on their hands. When a ball merely "ticks" the bat it is frequently deflected with such force and rapidity that human activity cannot anticipate its movement. Many catchers stand close up under the bat of the opponent on the home plate in order to be nearer the basemen. This involves some risk, as many a bat has fetched the catcher's head a blow that was intended for the ball as well.

The player at the bat, who is one of the "in" side, tries to strike the balls sent by the pitcher. If he knocks it into the air and it is caught, he is "out," and the next of his side takes the bat. Should, however, the batsman send a ball back of the lines defined by home-first base or home-third base, to the catcher's side of the diamond, it does not count, unless caught before striking the ground. Such a ball is called foul. If the batsman strikes, and the ball goes fair, and he is not "caught out," he runs to the first base, and is safe there, provided the fielders do not get the ball and pass it to the first baseman before the striker can get there. Supposing the first base is secured, the next man has gone to the bat, and as the balls are now passing between pitcher and catcher, the man "running his bases" tries to get to the second base, to the third base, and finally to the home base, thereby scoring a "run" for his side. If in running the "bases" he is touched by the ball in the hands of the "out side," while he is off the base, he is "put out," and his whole side is "out" when three men of it are "out." Thereupon sides are changed, and the party that has been in the field now comes to the bat for its "innings." Nine innings make a game, and the side that makes most runs in their innings has won.

The height of excitement is reached when the bases are all occupied by men running their bases, when two are already put "out;" when, therefore, the fate of four men hangs upon the success of the batsman's stroke; when, perhaps, it is the last innings, and the fate of the game depends upon getting not only the batsman's run, but the runs of the other three on bases. A brilliant "bat" between the lines of "fielders," or far beyond their anticipations, has at times redeemed disasters in the early part of the game, and made of a batsman the hero of the hour.

The bat is a straight round club of massive wood, tapering from the handle to the extremity, and about as long as a cricket bat. Its weight and dimensions vary with the strength and taste of the player.