Savannah morning news., 1886-06-29
WOMEN AND BASE BALL.
Showing tho Great, Necessity Of Early
Education.
Iron. me Kansas Citp Tim,


From tie Kansas City Times.
My first serious mistake lay in taking
party of ladies' to the ball park. ] asked them
if they understood the game. They replied
that they did in a general way. 1 never knew
before what dense ignorance is covered up by
that vague and unsatisfactory expression.
We arrived at the park without lncldent,
save The temporary excitement OF leaving
bill of large denomination at the gaze. 1
purchased score cards all around, and ex-
planned briefly and courteouslY the lntents
and purposes thereof, The ladies sald 'Oh,"
and for about ten seconds were deeply lnteI-
ested. Then they fell to looking around TO
see who were there and what they had on.
Every few seconds score card would snde
out of a lady's lap. This kept me busy ana
served TO relieve the monotony OF waiting.
The Detrots were practcing in the field, and
Hanlon was knocking flies into the SUBURBS.
Presently he hit a terrific ball over the centre
field fence Singuiarly enough, one OF the
ladies saw him perform the feat.
"Why doesn't he rum" che cried excitedly.
"Why doesn't who rum" asked, in aston
ishment.
THAT little fellow with the club" i" she said.
l explained that it was probably because
the club Overweighted him. This seemed 10
satisfy her, and she resumed her inspection OF
the spectators. / discovered that the ladies
were much interested in the uniforms, ana L
observed with alarm a tendency TO get the
clubs mixed. 1t took some minutes TO
straighten this matter satisfactorily, and
then the umpire called time.
The umpire is pretty buey man, but he
absolutely rcveled in idleness that day as
com pared with NY labors. The second ball
pitched was a foul, which whizzed into the
grand stand and came near diminishing my
responsibilities by one. This necessltated a
change Of base, and we moved around In an
agile manner, my perturbation being in
creased by Volley Of suggestions from the
rear of down in 'front.' Again fairly seated
one of the ladies discovered thatehe had for
gotten her parasol, so back Travelled, secured
It, returned, picked up score caro- or TWO
and sank into my seat ia a profuse persplra-
tion. Then the questions began.
"Why do they keep taking on and putting
on those masks?''
(which is the pitcher2"
What makes them slide along on their
faces?"
(Which side is at the bat?"
"What Is foul?''
"Isn't over the fence out?"
These questions answered with becoming
fortitude and patience, but when the youngest
and daintlest lady said ii was perfect shame
TO dirty their uniform by rolling along the
groundI gave her up as a bad job.
At the end of the first inning took the score
cards with some apprehension. which proved
to be well based. / found that three of the
ladies had kept the Kansas City score on the
Detroit eide, and one of them had credited
the home club with four runs and some six
teen base hits. / Strengthened out the score
the rewark of the owner of the most comph-
Gated system of scoring that she ''wouldn't
have missed seeing the game for anything"
That was where we differed, but then make
it point to be always open to reasonable
propositions.