Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-08
LINZ 90 OF THE GAME
Base Ball English as It Has Been De-
teloped.
The Growth OF nm Odd VernacuIar
That Delights the Patrons of
the Dleachers.

Base ball English as she Is wrote for the
edifcation of the public is luridly pictur-
esque. A writer in the New York Tribune
used to go to base ball games Later he
could not go. but he read accounts of the
games with a certain amount of pleasure
and instruction. Finally he ceased to read
about the green diamond sport" The
other day, however, he went up to the Polo
grounds to court his old love. 1t was a
prettily play | game and he enjoyed it.
With his interest still keen he glanced over
published account of the same game and
found that his impressions of it, formed on
the grounds. were entirely wrong. In the
first place players who were supposed to
have family names hadn't any such useless
things. In the paper one was Midget"
Another was ''Spud.'' There was a Fatty"
with Skeleton" to keep him company, etc.
Family names like pedigrees, it seems, do
not make base ball players +-
The first man who came to the bat did
not make a base hit He '.walloped out a.
single" The next did not do anything so
tame and antique to send fly to center
field or to fly out. He got real demoniac
and "fungoed to center" The center field
err wasn't bit terrified either, for he hug
Sed the musty fly. What the innocent
lover of base ball had taken for a three
base hit was nothing of the kind Such
conventional things are not allowed on the
grounds. 1t was worse than crying twins
1t was ''whistling triplet."
A fielder did not catch high fiy He
connected with balloon fly" and the
young man who was lash enough to fol-
low up this phenomenon was not put out at
hrst base He arranged his own funeral
and died an easy death at first" Catching
has gone out of fashion entirely. When a
player catches ball he is fined by the UNI
pire for insulting the intelligence of the
spectators. He "clasps high one" or
hauls in a fly" or pulls a throw down.
The Batsmen.
1t seems that at this game, according to
the published report. an active player had
wings on his heels ard "tabasco sauce
in his arms Yet he was perfectly tame
and tractable when out ''larruping SCRAP
ers,' or Shaping out dandy singles" OF
facing an easy one" or 'slashing out a
peach" There was Incorporating young
man on one of the teams who did not look
as if he would harm fly, but he was real
~ HeRd incarnate, for he deliberately and
IN cold bic Cd unclaimed u cyclone with his
willow and tore out the ground back of
center field go
1t isn't safe to judge by appearances
One player seemed to jog along to first
balls But the base nall Shakespeare denies
this malicious charge. he says that he
''ambled to the bag. This same man did
not steal second base. He ''pilfered it,"
fellow, for he alsos'tfobbed the visitors Of
third" His career OF crime was checked
however, for when Ne tried TO ".n5ez2le
the plate" he was mailed" though to what
The players all had peculiar gaits. Some
of them galloped some of them rouiped,
some of them cantered. some of them
scampered, some Of them ''pikci TO second
some of them "trotted heat" One man
even got so mixed UP in his seasons that,
though IT was as hot as Tophet. he ''tobog-
gained to third" But not a soul of them
ever walked or RAM One man, evidently
by his brothers in dsformity, 'kangarooed
to second" NIL. ..-
variety of Hits.
A batsman can do lots Of things that the
unsophisticated person would never dream
Of On this day enc man, who had three
strikes called on him, ''cut the plate with
three called balls" Another flied softly"
and Denny froze it sweetly." SO, in spite
of the stabbing and cutting and siashing,
there is sometimes rural gentleness. man
who was excited sent Sizzling grounder
Iattling through the legs of somebody, and
another, who was politeness Itself, Tanned
the warm air" One player sent biffer
one abaft first Nothing happened, though,
to the lee scuppers Speaking OF batsrnen,
none of them used a bat. Only buffers
SO far forgot themselves as to play base
tall with bat and ball. These men
welded the ash and willow handles and
"toyei with the sphere"
Players never get put out in these days.
The method of disposing of them varies.
Some are put to sleep, some are allowed to
languish in solitude, and some are tortured
to death. In this game, so wildly de-
scribed, one man ''groped yainly for the
elusive and played dead on the bench"
One was "coppered at first" and another
was "cinched at the plate" StiH another
expired in anguish at first, and an I'M
offending but unpopular youth was "smoth-
cred to death at second.
There is suspicion on the part of tender
hearted people that foot ball is a rough
game. AS for base ball, the players only
wallop, cut, larrup, basic, hug, squeeZs,
nip, freeze, slap, pike, lace. cinch, slash.
bim, punch, pound, scrape, tobogSan,
smother, choke and strange.
At least this is base ball, as set down by
tha hStorlant