New-York tribune., 1896-09-27

the most part Il Is not any such definite ana
formal affair as league Championship. ,ehin c,dn
PLAYS with the other clubs OF It's own age wthin
easy reach and when It has beaten them all IL
counts Itself the champion among them !. ahy ny
of the others care to question ts supremacy r"a
question can readily be settled by game or n
series OF games There Is however % ohs Usage
Each club has to furnish = ball Tor each gahe'
Both may be used or only one but In either case
al the end the winning club Keeps botn palis
It s scarcely necessary TO say, except that tne
fact is now and then lost sight OF, that SUCH a
game ms baseball really belongs to boys ana not 10
mon Men are bigger and stronger ana older tnan
boys. and so. II they care to play the game tnsk
will naturally excel the boys in IT, ana they VIII
establish the records and the championships ana
make the laws: but the game belongs 10 the ooys
These BOYS clubs arc the legitimate Successors Of
those that played the game years and years ago.
long before there any thought OF National
Icapne The strongest clubs grew I'm strength and
their renown spread abroad. I'LL there was desire
10 test the powers Of the one cuD OF Iame agaihs,
the other. and at last the notion OF Nal,onal sI
champonshp arose. The records OF some OF the
old clubs will be found by any one who runs
file of "Oliver Optics Magazine the
scores of the games then were truly behutltui ana
wonderful a hundred runs I'm Il game for the
winning side were not uncommon. and there were
some much larger than that
SOME OF THE SIMPLER GAMES.
But there were always a good many boys, and
are now who could not get into clubs. Perhaps
they did not have even the slight means that were
needed for the simplest banding together Of play
ers: perhaps although Interested I'm the game. they
were not strong enough expert enough players
to be Of value to a team; or perhaps there was no
team i'm their neighborhood composed OF boys OF
their age For these the notifications of the
National game. simplihed so as not 10 require TWO
sides Of nine players each. were devised Three
bows can play a form Of baseball which was popu-
lar i'm the youth of the writer and he trusts, Is
so still. called zone old cat The three players
are a batsman. n catcher and pitcher There are
no bases OF course: strike Is out, and when the
batsman is out he becomes pitcher, the pitcher be-
comes catcher and the catcher batsman. II a
fourth player Is added he Is sent out into the field
also and then the game becomes two old cat II
more players come i'm, base is likely 10 DC USED
and then the game is rotation" which may pc
played by any number till all the places IN tne
field are full and there are enough men ready TO
bat so that the position of batsman cannot be left
empty by the filling Of the bases But all this may
be changed now though IL probably IS not entirely.
and the customs in different parts Of the country
doubtless vary.
Some of the boys whom the writer remembers,
who were of a pathological turn Of mind used 10 be
much exercised over the name zone old cat and
what it could mean. II was said by some that the
true form of II was 'one o cat Ihe obvious
trouble with this explanation was that 1t was harder
understand than the form which 1t aimed TO ex-
plain. And IL with great triumph That one
of the boys discovered from some old book OF
games that there had once been game called
called ''one hole catch" Nobody cared what the
game was. The name of II was the obvious pro-
genitor of the name OF One old cat" and that was
all that wanted.
Finally those who regard the perpethity of the
gam Of baseball as Il thing greatly TO be desired
find their best assurance in the boys teams. Boys
are better preserVers Of tradition than and IL
baseball for many generations yet. Having played
the game I'm their boyhood and youth. they will
game at all when they men, and If any Ma
tiona game is to receive public support. it will
be that one The child being trained up in the way
of baseball, the men will not depart from it.