The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-27
BASEBALL ENGLISH.
Some Expressions Which Might Puz-
zle Shakespeare.
Nrom the New York Tribune.

Baseball English, "as she is wrote" for
the edifcation of the public, is luridly
picturesque. The writer used te go to
base bali games. Later he became so
busy that he could not go, but he read ac-
counts 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 TO the Polo grounds to
court his old love. II was a prettily
played game and he enjoyed it. With his
interest still keen he glanced over a pub
hshed 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 sup
posed to have family names, hadn't any
such useless things. In the paper one
was Midget" Another was "Spud"
There was FATTY" with skeleton" to
keep him company, etc. Family names,
like psdigrees, 1t seems, do not make base
ball players.
The first man who came to the bat did
not make base hit. He ''walloped out a
single" The next did not do anything so
tame and antique as to send a fly TO cen
ter field or fly out. He got real demoniac
and ''fungoed to center" The center
fielder wasn't a bit terrified either. for he
"hugged the musty fiy" What the in
three-base hit was nothing of the kind.
Such conventional things are not al
lowed on the grounds. II was worse than
crying twins. IL was a "whistling trip
let"
A fielder did not catch high fly He
connected with balloon fly" and the
! young mao who was rash enough to follow
up his phenomenon was not put out al first
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
\ umpire for insulting the Intelligence of
the spectators He ''clasps a high one. !"
or hauls in 1y' or pulls throw down d"
1t seems that at this game, according to
/ the published report, an active player
! had wings on his heels and tobacco
sauce in his arms" Yet he was perfectly
| tame and tractable when not "larruping
scrapers," or shaping out dandy sin
gles,n or "lacing an easy one, !" or slash
ing out peach. y There was a nice-ap-
/ pearing young man on one of the teams
| who did not look as if he would harm a
/ fly, but he was really a tiend incarna tie,
/ for he deliberately and in cold blood, "un-
| chained a cyclone with his willow and
\ tore out the ground back of the center
/ field"
1t isn't safe to Judge by appearances.
One player seemed to Jog along to first
1 base when the umpire gave him his base
on balls. But the base ball Shakespeare
| denies this malicious charge. He says
that lie ''ambled to the bag" This same
man did not steal second base. He pill
fered it Altogether he was pretty dis
| reputable fellow, for he also "robbed the
| visitors of third His career of crime
was checked however for when he tried
| TO ZEN bezzle the plate,' he was mailed, -
though, to what is not on record.
oil h I'd faRs gniA 70,
Someof them galloped, some of them
romped, some of them cantered, some of
them scampered, some of them "pited to
second, - some of them "trotted a heat"
One man even got so mixed up in his sea-
sous that, though it was as hot as Tophet,
he "tobogganed to third. But not soul
of them eyer walked or ran. One man,
evidently jealous of the forms of locomo-
tion possessed by his brothers in deform-
ity, Tkangarooed to second"
A Datsman 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
I plate with three called balls" Another
''fiied softly and Denny froze II
| sweetly.n So in spite of the stabbinl
and cutting and slashing there is some
times rural gentleness. A man who was
excited sent sizzling grounder rattline
| through the legs of somebody, and an.
! other, who was polfteness itself, TANNED
the warm air." One player sent a biffei
| past second and a rival popped a
mushy one abaft first" Nothing hap
pened though to the lee scuppers. Speak
ing of batsmen, none of them used bat
/ Only buffers" so far forget themselves
as to play baseball with n bat and ball
These men welded the ash and willow
| handles and ''toyed with the sphere. "
Players never get out 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 tor.
I tured to death. In this game, so WILDLY
| described, one man ''groped 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 unofending bu. unpopular
youth was "smothered to death at
| second"
There is a 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, haste, hug,
squeeze, nip, freeze, slap, pike, lace cinch,
SLASH, biff, punch, pound, scrape, tobog-
gan, smother. choke and strangle.
4 At least this is base ball as set down by