, 1888-10-26
FIRST BALL GAME.
1t Was Played in Hoboken,
N. J., in 1916.
SHORT HISTORY OF BASEBALL.

NAbJ. 4hSIo was bueu IL vogue Il Sport called
town ball" In that game there were bases,
or corners" rs they were called, around
which the striker of a fair ball was required
to run, but there were no basemen to guard
them, and the runner was put out by being
hit with the ball thrown directly at him by
the helders, the ball used being wholly of
soft gum. There is not the slightest proof
whatever that this sport was n modification,
as has been claimed, of the English school
game of FOUNDERS. On the contrary there is
abundant proof that it was a purely original
American diversion.
In the year above mentioned some of the
most enthusiastic admirers of town ball held
a meeting to devise ways and means by which
it might be improved. A committee was APP
pointed for that purpose, and at a subsequent
meeting a series of playing rules was reported
and adopted, as was also a suggestion that the
game should thenceforward be known as base
ball, and the gentlemen present then and
There formally organized the first baseball
club ever formed, calling 1t the Knicker-
booker. These events occurred forty-three
years & on the SD of September, which
day should be annually celebrated by all adj
mirers of baseball as the birthday of our ma
tional game.
The most important change made in trans
forming the old game of ''town balln was in
~ bAh AsoSAAs ll5bta1l OF DBluE composed
wholly Of gum, the new rules directed that it
should be made up of yarn wound about a
small piece Of gum and covered with leather.
1t was allowed a circumference Of l04
inches and a weight of 81 ounces, just an
inch in size and an ounce in weight beyond
the present limit. The length of the bat was
wholly unrestricted. As it would have been
dangerous 20 hit n runner with the new style
OF ball, men were placed in the field to guard
ihe corners or bases, as they were now called,
md to put the runner out by catching the ball
and touching him with 10. The catching of u
ball, whether foul or fair, on the first bounce
put the striker out-a rule retained from the
old game OF town bali. Another OF the rules
Of thcncw game was that in matches the club
first making twenty-one runs should be de-
clared the victor.
With such crude rules rs these the Ameri-
can game of baseball was iuaugurated by
the knicLCrbocGer Baseball club of New
York, and houriShed to such an extent that
in a short time there wcrc several similar
organizations in that city. The first match
game that ever occurred tool place on June
~, 1916, between tie Knickcrbocker and
New Ior,. clubs. Under the rule above
mentioned, that twenty-one runs should con
stitute n match, only four innings were re-
CURED to decide it.
Though n four inning game would be OF
very short duration at the present day., the
one in question occupied several hours. The
rules did not then provide for the calling Of
either balls or strikes, and hence, if a bats
man reached his first base in safety, his sue.
cessor would o:@.-l idly at the home plate
watching Tie pitcher and catcher as they
tossed the ball back and forth, and whiting
for the latter to let a ball go past him and
thus enable the base runner to reach second
and then third, and then home. He never
made any attempt to strike the ball until the
run had been scored.
The first match occurred in Hoboken.
n. j., and so great was the general curiosity
to see the new sport of baseball that a very
large crowd assembled to witness it. Mem
bers of town ball clubs from ~neighborine
cities were present in force, and there was q
large delegation from the old Olympic cluh
of Philadelphia, which had been organized
IN 1888, and which, despite the instantaneous
popularity Of baseball, continued to play
town ball until 1860, when it adopted the
former sport instead.
There was no important change in the play.
ing rules until 1868. Then a new one was
adopted requiring the pitcher to stand within
a space 6 feet by 3. In that same year there
was also made the important rule of calling
balls on the pitcher and giving the batsman
his base when three had been called. 1t was
afterward followed by another allowing the
umpire to call strikes on the batsman when
he made no attempt to hit well pitched balls.
These two rules were intended to do away
with the waiting game already described,
in which the batsman would wait for a base
runner to get home before attempting to
make a hit. But they were at first very lax,
as they did not require the umpire to cali
hnllg and gtpfl.a1 H,Y ,,nrn1,, -.-. Iii -
power to do 50 if he felt disposed to exercise
it. The majority of umpires were SO .lenient
that the rules accomplished little in the way
of shortening and Frightening the game until
they were SO altered some years afterward as
70 make the calling of strikes and balls obi
gatory, and to require every ball pitched to
be either n called ball, a strike or an actual
hit. The catching of a batted ball-whether
foul or fair-on the first bounce, continued
10 put the striker out until Dec. IA, 1864. or
which date the National Association of
Baseball Players,n which had meanwhile
been formed, did away with the bound catch
Tor FAIR balls and declared that thereafter
they must be caught on the fly. The first
bound catch for foul balls continued in vogue
for many years afterward. This National
Association of Baseball Players was very
different from the League and the Amer
lean Association" of today. Every club in
Tie United states was considered u member
OF 1t and could send delegates to its annual
meetings.
Inul lSGS the rules of the game prohib-
tied, in the most positive manner, the em-
ployment OF paid players. The National as
ISOLATION declared baseball to be strictly n
g~entleman,S game, and enacted n rule that
any club employing a paid player should be
expelled from the ASSOCIATION and tabooed bv
al other c!uas, aud that any one playing
baseball for money, position or other emolu-
ment should be forever debarred from par.
ticipating in any match game between re-
spectacle clubs. For several years before
their abroSation, however, these rules were
practically a dead letter. They were eyaded
IN a variety of ways, and many of tie larger
cities had clubs composed wholly OF PROBES
sional players. 1t was therefore deemed hest
to abolish these rules and to substitute new,
one, recognizing baseball players Us two dis.
tinct classes-professionals and amateurt