| Baseball Rules (33) Baseball Poems (34) Baseball Guide (17) Baseball Stories (30) |
Baseball News and Scores. Baseball history and baseball basics. |
Baseball Rules
|
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 ...
|
Theory Op The Game A Chapter For The Ladies
On account of the associations by which a professional game of base-ball
was supposed to be surrounded, it was for a long time thought...
|
Definitions
A batsman, batter, or striker is the player who is taking his turn at
bat.
A base-runner is what the batter becomes instantly after...
|
Training
Some one has truthfully said, that ball players, like poets and cooks,
are born, not made, though once born, their development, like t...
|
The Pitcher
Of all the players on a base-ball nine, the pitcher is the one to whom
attaches the greatest importance. He is the attacking force of ...
|
Signaling
But first as to the question of signs. Every battery, by which is
meant a pitcher and catcher, must have a perfectly understood privat...
|
Strategy
A strategic pitcher is one who depends for success not simply on speed
and curves, but who outwits the batsman by skill, who deceives ...
|
Fielding The Position
Some pitchers seem to harbor the impression that nothing else is
expected of them but to pitch the ball, and the effect of this opinio...
|
The Catcher
Next after the pitcher, in regular order, comes the catcher. Though the
negative pole of the battery, his support of the pitcher will ...
|
Signaling
Under the heading of The Pitcher I have spoken of the necessity of a
private code of signals between pitcher and catcher, and I also s...
|
The First Baseman
From the fact that the first baseman has more chances to his credit
than any other player, it might seem to the casual observer that h...
|
The Second Baseman
Second base is the prettiest position to play of the entire in-field. In
the number of chances offered it is next to first base, and i...
|
The Third Baseman
In the early days of the game, when the pitching was slower and fair-
foul hits were allowed, the third base position was the busiest ...
|
The Short-stop
Originally, it is said, the short-stop's chief function was as tender to
the pitcher, though this soon became an unimportant feature o...
|
The Left-fielder
The simplest of the three out-field positions is the left-field, and one
evidence of this is seen by the fact that a left-fielder almo...
|
The Centre Fielder
Much of what has been said with reference to the left fielder is
applicable also to the occupant of the centre field. As a fielder onl...
|
The Right Fielder
The right field, when properly played, is the most difficult of the out-
field positions. A ball hit in that direction by a right-hand...
|
The Batter
The most unsatisfactory feature in base-ball to the player himself, is
batting. In theory it is so simple, yet in practice so difficul...
|
The Base-runner
Of the four departments of play, batting, base-running, fielding, and
battery work, the most interesting is base-running. It is the mo...
|
Curve Pitching
Curve pitching is a scientific fact, the practice of which preceded the
discovery of its principle. For a long time after its existenc...
|
The Most Dangerous Batters I Have Met
How "Joe" Tinker Changed Overnight from a Weakling at the Plate to
the Worst Batter I Had to Face--"Fred" Clarke of Pittsbur...
|
Take Him Out
Many a Pitcher's Heart has been Broken by the Cry from the Stands,
"Take Him Out"--Russell Ford of the New York Yankees was ...
|
Pitching In A Pinch
Many Pitchers Are Effective in a Big League Ball Game until that
Heart-Breaking Moment Arrives Known as the "Pinch"--It Is t...
|
Big League Pitchers And Their Peculiarities
Nearly Every Pitcher in the Big Leagues Has Some Temperamental or
Mechanical Flaw which he is Constantly Trying to Hide, and...
|
Playing The Game From The Bench
Behind Every Big League Ball Game there Is a Master Mind which
Directs the Moves of the Players--How McGraw Won Two Pennants...
|
Coaching Good And Bad
Coaching is Divided into Three Parts: Offensive, Defensive, and the
Use of Crowds to Rattle Players--Why McGraw Developed Sc...
|
Honest And Dishonest Sign Stealing
Everything Fair in Baseball except the Dishonest Stealing of
Signals--The National Game More a Contest of the Wits than Most...
|
Umpires And Close Decisions
Ball-players and Umpires are Regarded by the Fans as Natural
Enemies, and the Fans Are about Right--Types of Arbiters and ho...
|
The Game That Cost A Pennant
The Championship of the National League was Decided in 1908 in One
Game between the Giants and Cubs--Few Fans Know that it W...
|
When The Teams Are In Spring Training
The Hardships of the Preliminary Practice in Limbering up Muscles
and Reducing Weight for the Big Campaign--How a Ball Club ...
|
Jinxes And What They Mean To A Ball-player
A Load of Empty Barrels, Hired by John McGraw, once Pulled the
Giants out of a Losing Streak--The Child of Superstition Appe...
|
Base Runners And How They Help A Pitcher To Win
The Secret of Successful Base Running is Getting the Start--A Club
Composed of Good Base Runners Is Likely to do More to Hel...
|
Notable Instances Where The Inside Game Has Failed
The "Inside" Game is of Little Avail when a Batter Knocks a Home Run
with the Bases Full--Many Times the Strategies of Manag...
|
Baseball Poems
|
John Bourbon Pitcher
They tell me that Matty can pitch like a fiend,
But many long years before Matty was weaned
I was pitching to players, and go...
|
Sunday Baseball
The East Side Slashers were playing the Terrors,
Piling up hits, assists and errors;
Far from their stuffy tenement homes
...
|
The Big League
You want to play in the Big League, boy?
I guess that you will some day,
For you've shown the speed the managers need
An...
|
The Ballad Of The Minor Leaguer
He came here in the early Spring with all the tryout mob,
Striving to bat like Wagner and to slide (spikes first) like Cobb.
...
|
Ballade Of A Substitute
I've been here nearly a season now,
Watching the regulars, day after day;
I wish some wizard would tell me how
To brea...
|
Casey On A Bat
It looked extremely rocky for the Boston team that day,
The score was one to nothing, with one inning left to play.
Casey, wh...
|
The Pitcher's Soliloquy
A pitcher known in the days gone by
As a star of the first degree
Was making the dirt and gravel fly
In the shade of a...
|
Blessed Be Baseball
The game was on! The cheers and roars
Rang Eastward to Long Island's shores;
"Come on, you Matty--show your class!"
"Oh, y...
|
Raymond's Ride
Listen, dear rooters, and you shall hear
Of the ride of a modern Paul Revere.
The Paul Revere of "seventy-five"
Rode like ...
|
Four Conversations
"I used to have 'em buffaloed when I was with Duluth,
Out in that dinky pine tree league, and here's the honest truth:
This M...
|
Inside Baseball
(The warden of one of the State penitentiaries has begun a system of
Saturday half holidays for the convicts, a baseball game on the p...
|
The Difference
"It's just this way," said Danny O'Shay,
As he whittled a stick and the hours away,
"A player can booze for a year or two,
...
|
Cricket And Baseball
The cricket game was over and the sun was sinking low,
The players in their blazers plodded homeward in a row.
They stopped w...
|
The League Of Long Ago
They've got me sitting on the bench--I knew it had to come--
Kid Casey subbed for me at third the day I broke my thumb;
My th...
|
The Longest Hit On Record
I've heard of hits by Wagner, hits that scaled the left field fence,
I've read about full many a clout tremendous and immense;
...
|
The Umpire's Home
Where does an umpire live? You ask me that?
Come, I will take you to an umpire's flat.
Ah! Here we are! 'Tis five flights up,...
|
Yellow
He wasn't a strong looking fellow,
And roughnecks played ball in those days;
The ballgamers christened him "Yellow"
Be...
|
The Umpire
He was tall and rugged and coated with tan,
He asked no odds and he feared no man.
When he shouted "Strike!" or yelped "Ball ...
|
Choosing Sides
Baseball, they say, has changed a heap; I guess it has, in spots,
And yet I liked it better when we played it on the lots.
Th...
|
Ode To A Georgia Gent
A shudder ran around Forbes Field
When Tyrus Cobb stole home.
The brain of Honus Wagner reeled
When Tyrus Cobb stole h...
|
Life And Baseball
Winter howled around the corners of the old-time grocery store,
Where the baseball star was sitting, giving out his baseball lor...
|
What Happened To Hilo
Horatio Hilo was a bird,
He used to romp from first to third
On any kind of single.
He played the sun-field like a maste...
|
I Was With Clarke
"I was with Clarke," the pitcher said
To the Pittsburg millionaire.
The rich man bowed his silvery head
To the pitcher...
|
Home Folks
"Stranger, give me a chaw of terbaccer,"
Came from the lanky Georgia "cracker."
"Know Ty Cobb? Wal, you bet we do!
Despera...
|
The Outfielder's Dream
Wild was the night, yet a wilder night
Hung 'round the fielder's pillow,
For he dreamt that night of his wondrous might
...
|
The Law Of Averages
The Winter League is here again, and in his native town
The hero of a thousand games has quietly settled down.
...
|
A Converted Rooter
Say, on the level, fellows, just a year ago to-day
I wouldn't give a nickel for to watch them Yankees play;
The Joints was go...
|
To The Lady Bugs
Lady Bug, Lady Bug, don't you fly home--
Stay till the ninth ere deciding to roam;
Don't you despair when the outlook seems b...
|
Polo In Arizona
"How are you, pal?" said Phoenix Phil, when he saw me late last night;
"I'm back from the polo game," said I, "let's go and get ...
|
The Laddies' League
The Grown-up Fan, a wealthy man, sat in his grandstand seat,
Gray hair and worry for his head, gout for his puffy feet.
Watch...
|
The $11000 Beauty
Of course, McGraw is always wrong--he never picks a winner.
That's why the Giant's backers never have the price for dinner.
H...
|
The Lay Of The New York Fan
Yes, the baseball season's over and the geese are flying South;
Giants count their winnings gaily, Yanks are frothing at the mou...
|
The Old Rooter
I saw them open yesterday, the Giants and their foemen,
I saw them field and hit and run, the fast men and the slow men;
The ...
|
If
(Wireless Apologies to Rudyard Kipling)
If John McGraw can hold his health and cunning,
If Matty's whip retains its fibre f...
|
Baseball Guide
|
Introduction
The decade of the nineties in League history bids fair to surpass, in
exciting events, that of every preceding series of years known i...
|
The League Manifesto Of 1894
The finale to the annual meeting of 1894 was the issuing of a manifesto
by the National League, which was called forth by an effort at...
|
The Base Ball Season Of 1894
To professional base ball, as governed by the existing National League,
is mainly due the great popularity our national game has achie...
|
The League Championship Campaign Of 1894
The struggle for the League's championship pennant in 1894 was the most
noteworthy one on record in one particular respect, and that w...
|
The Contests For The Pennant In 1894
Not since 1890 has a new candidate for League championship been
successful in winning the pennant, but in 1894 another club was added ...
|
The Three Leading Clubs In The Pennant Race Of 1894
It is about time that the record of the championship campaigns of each
year should be divided up, in order that the leading minority...
|
The Campaigns Of The Three Leaders And Of The First Division Clubs For 1894
An interesting statistical chapter of the GUIDE of 1895 includes the
comparative tables of the three leaders in the pennant race of 18...
|
The New Champions Of 1894
The Baltimore Club's Career.
We have the pleasure of greeting a new champion club in the League arena
in the GUIDE of 1895, viz.,...
|
The Campaigns Of The Other Nine Clubs Of 1894
THE PHILADELPHIA CLUB'S CAMPAIGN.
At the end of the first day's contests, on April 19th, four clubs were
tied for first place as ...
|
The Second Division Clubs
THE PITTSBURGH CLUB'S CAMPAIGN.
The Pittsburgh club opened the April campaign in the ranks of the second
division, the end of the...
|
The Base Running Of 1894
The base running records of the past three years, under the rules of the
great major league, present a very interesting set of tables,...
|
Eastern League Schedule
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Clubs. At Toronto. At Buffalo. At Rochester.
...
|
The Eastern League
The cities composing the Eastern League circuit are Toronto, Canada;
Buffalo, N.Y.; Rochester, N.Y.; Syracuse, N.Y.; Providence, R.I.;...
|
The Eastern League Averages
THE RECORDS MADE BY EACH PLAYER IN BATTING AND FIELDING ACCORDING TO
OFFICIAL FIGURES--THE AVERAGES OF THE CLUBS.
Sheehan of Spri...
|
The Presidents Of The National League
This is the twentieth year of the existence of the National League, and
in all that time but four members of the League have occupied ...
|
Rules Appendix
We have very little to comment upon this year in regard to the
amendments made to the playing rules of the game, alike by the special
...
|
A Compliment To The Editor Of The Guide
At the annual meeting of the National League, held at the Fifth Avenue
Hotel, New York, on Nov. 15, 1894, on a motion made by C.H. Byr...
|
Baseball Stories
|
A Dangerous Plunge
"I'm going to tie you up in knots, old man," said Jim Barclay, with a
smile, as he picked up the ball and stepped into the box in ba...
|
A Surprise
The water was icy and deep, and at this point the current was swift.
The force with which the luckless occupants of the car had been...
|
Reggie Turns Up
If Joe had counted upon producing a surprise, his success surpassed his
wildest expectations.
At first there was a second of para...
|
The Anonymous Letter
All rose to their feet in hearty welcome. It was not the first time
Reggie had visited the Matson home, and all were fond of him. Jo...
|
Play Ball!
Just then Mabel came in with her hands full of flowers that she meant
to arrange for the table. She stopped short in consternation a...
|
Getting The Jump
Neale, the heavy hitting center fielder of the Bostons, who led off in
the batting order, came to the plate, swinging three bats. He...
|
Stealing Home
Willis was first to the bat, and he strode to the plate with blood in
his eye. He was still smarting from the sharp words of the m...
|
A Baseball Idol
"Put her there, Matson!" cried Hughson, his face beaming with pleasure.
"I never saw better pitching than you showed us to-day."
...
|
An Old Enemy
Baseball Joe started as he looked at the man more closely.
"Bugs Hartley!" he ejaculated. "I thought we'd seen the last of that
f...
|
Three In A Row
The first jump of the team was to Cincinnati, and there they found
their work cut out for them. The Reds had just lost three out of ...
|
Right From The Shoulder
The Smoky City was all agog over the games. It had won championships
before, but that was in the days of Fred Clarke and Honus Wagne...
|
Jim's Winning Ways
"Good boy, Jim!" cried Joe, as his chum came in to the bench. "You put
the Indian sign on that fellow all right. Just hold them down...
|
A Break In The Luck
It was a highly elated crowd of Giants that chattered away excitedly in
the clubhouse after the finish of the game. Jim and Joe came...
|
A Delightful Surprise
"Well, we wound up the trip in a blaze of glory, anyway," remarked Jim
to Baseball Joe, as they sat in the Pullman coach that was ca...
|
An Evening Ride
There was a hubbub of delighted and incoherent exclamations as the
young people greeted each other with all their heart in their eye...
|
The Attack On The Road
In an instant Baseball Joe brought the car to a stop.
But in that instant his brain worked like lightning.
Neither he nor Jim w...
|
Falling Behind
"Braxton's the more likely one of the two to use violence--or have it
used," said Jim. "Not but what either one of them would be mea...
|
In The Throes Of A Slump
Robson's round face had lost its usual smile. McRae's was like a
thundercloud, and the players evaded him as much as they could. Eve...
|
A Close Call
The people in the grandstand had not fully grasped the significance of
the cowardly attack, as the attention of most of them was cen...
|
Speeding Up
St. Louis was in good form on the following day, and a perfect deluge
of hits came from their bats. The Giants, too, had a good hitt...
|
The Winning Streak
The Giants were in for a winning streak, and New York City promptly
went baseball mad!
Now there was no question of filling the g...
|
Striving For Mastery
It was Jim's turn to go on the mound in the first game with the
Pittsburghs, and in the practice work before the game he showed that...
|
Holding Them Down
Baseball circles had rarely been more deeply stirred than by the issue
of the game, by winning which the Giants had tied their recor...
|
A Crushing Blow
The play had been so swift that the eye could scarcely follow the ball,
and it was a few seconds before the majority of the spectato...
|
Lining Them Out
The pain in his injured hand was intense that night, and Joe paced
the floor for hours before he was able to get to sleep. By mornin...
|
The Tireless Foe
The Giants opened at Chicago, and the results were none too good.
The Cubs, who just then were in the midst of a spurt, clawed and b...
|
Champions Of The League
"There are three more of the bellboys doing various errands about the
hotel," replied the clerk. "If you gentlemen will wait around ...
|
The World Series
It was a happy team of Giants that left Pittsburgh that night on the
sleeper for New York. The season's strain was over. The coveted...
|
The Game Of His Life
For the ninth and deciding game, McRae had selected Joe to pitch.
"I don't need to tell you, Joe, how much depends on this game," ...
|
Champions Of The World
Wheeler went out on a fly to Milton, Willis fanned, and Larry closed
the inning with a pop up to second. But the Giants had scored f...
|
|
