Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1894-07-21
BASEBALL ENGLISH.
sorae Expressions which Might Have Pun
zled Shakespeare.

h0kn9 Expressions WhAch AAtkh 10fo = -
zled Shakespeare.
Baseball English as she is wrote for |
the edifcation of the public is luridly |
picturesque. The writer used to go to |
baseball games Later he became so |
busy that he could not go, but he read
accounts of the games with 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. It was a
prettily played game and he enjoyed 1t.
With his interest still keen he glanced
over a published account of the same
game and found that his impressions OF
it, formed on the grounds, were entire
ly wrong. In the first place, players
who we're supposed TO have family
names hadn't any such useless things
In the paper one was Midget An
other was "Spud" There was Pat
ty," with skeleton to keep him com
pany, etc. Family names, like pedi-
grees, it seems do not make baseball
players.
The first man who came to the bat
did not make base hit. He 'walloped
out single" The next did not do any
thing so tame and antique as to send
fly to center field or fly out He got
real demoniac and ''fungoed to center"
The centerheldsy wasn't bit terrified
either, for he Rugged the musty fly"
What the innocent lover of baseball
had taken for three-base hit was
aothing of the kind. Such conven-
tional things are not allowed on the
grounds. 1t was worse than crying
twins. It was ''whistling triplet."
| A fielder did not catch high fly He
CONNECTED with balloon fly and
the young man who was rash enough
to follow up this phenomenon was not
! put out at first base. He arranged his
own funeral and died an easy death
at first. Catching has gone out OF
fashion entirely. When player catches
y ball he is aned by the umpire for in
sulting the intelligence of the specta-
tors. He ''clasps high one" or 'hauls
In fly" or pulls throw down
1t seems that at this game, according
to the published report, an active
player had wings on his heels and
tabasco sauce In his arms" Yet he was
perfectly tame and traetable when not
''larruping scrapers, or shaping out
dandy singles or facing an easy one"
or sslashing out peach. There was
I a nice appearing young man on one OF
the teams who did not look as If he
i, would harm fly, but he was really
! fiend incarnate, for he deliberately and
IN cold blood unclaimed cyclone with
! his willow and tore out the ground
back of center field"
It isn't safe to judge by appearances,
One player seemed to jog along to first
base when the umpire gave him his
base ON balls. But the baseball Shakes
Psare denies this malicious charge. He
says that he "ambled to the bag" This
same man did not steal second base.
He ..pilfered it." Altogether he was a
pretty disreputable fellow for he also
'robbed the visitors of third. His ca
reer of crime was checked however,
for when he tried to 'sembezzle the
| plate, he was Nailed though to
what is not en record.
The players all had peculiar gaits.
Some of them ganoped, some of them
romped, some of them eantered, some
of them seampered, some of them
"piked to second" some of them
"trotted a heat" One man even got
so mixed up in his seasons that, though
1t was as hot as Tophet, he ''tobog-
gained to third" But not soul of them
ever walked or ran. One man, evident
ly Jealous of the forms of locomotion
possessed by his brothers in deformity
"kanQarooed to second.
A batsman can do lots of things that
the unsophisticated person would never
dream Of On this day one man, who
had three strikes called on him, .'cut
the plate with three called balls An
other flied softly" and Denny froze
it sweetlyn So in spite of the stabbing
and cutting and slashing, there is some
times rural gentleness. man who
was excited sent a sizzling grounder
rafting through the legs of somebody,
and another, who was politeness itself,
tanned the warm air" One player
sent biffer past second, and rival
popped mushy one abaft first" Moth
ing happened, though, to the lee soup
pers. Speaking of batsmen none of
them used bat. Only buffers so far
forget themselves as TO play baseball
with bat and ball These men ..wield-
ed the ash and willow handles" and
''toyed with the sphere.
Players never get put ont in these
days. The methods of disposing of them
vary. Some are put to sleep. some are
allowed to languish in solitude and
some are tortured to death. In this
game, so wildly described, one man
"gropsd vainly for the elusive" and
played dead on the bench = One was
''coppered at first and another was
''cinched at the plate" Still another
expired in anguish" at first and an
unoffending but unpopular youth was
'smothered to death at second"
There is a suspicion on the part of
tender-hearted people that football is a
rough game. AS for baseball. the play
ers only wallop, cut, larrup, haste. hug.
squeeze, nip, freeze, slap, pike, lace.
cineh, slash, biff punch, pound, serape,
toboggan, smother, choke and strangle.
At least this is baseball as set down
by the historian!--N. Y. Tribune.
Frozen Peaches