The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-03
THE CURVED BALL.
How 1t Was Introduced Into the
National Game.
From the Chicago Chronicle.

In these days when the pitching feature
of the national game has been reduced to
a science ii is difficult for the younger ele-
ment of Cans" to realize that it is only d
little more than twenty years ago that the
art of curving a ball was first discovered
and made practical use of in base bali. Up
to 1877 the pitcher was allowed but one
style Of delivery. The ball was pitched not
thrown; the arm was held straight with
The body and the BAH had to leave the
hand below the hip. In the latter COS and
early los the rule was for delivery below
the knee.
Il is easily within the memory of base
ball players and enthusiasts of middle age
when the sporting world was electrified by
the announcement that the ball could be
made to change its course in flight This
discovery reVoluuonized the game The
pitcher became the principal factor and the
sport was cast on new lines. Gradually the
pitcher triumphed over the batter and one
by one new restrictions were placed ON the
men OF subtle curves. The distance from
the pitchers box to the home plate was
heightened. Where in the early days the
pitcher would send In as many balls as he
pleased, or until the batter hit It safely or
WH' RNN W. AAt mum was llattNI ut nine
balls, then seven. then six, and finally
four, as now. Foul bounds were eliminated.
lligh and low bah became IA thing of the
past. The batSman received every adVant-
age consistent with fair playing, and yet
the scores became so close and were In
such small figures a few years after the
Introduction of the new and puzzling de-
livery that even more radical changes were
proposed in 1880 and thereabouts than
would be possible to put in vogue now.
The discoVerer of the science of curve
pitching, as applies In professional circles.
was undoubtedly Arthur Cummings, who,
in 1876, was with the Mutuals of New York.
The honor has been variously claimed for
Bobby Matthews, Tom Bond Nichols. Get
tlein, Devlin and other twirlers, but men
active IN the base bali world in the east at
the time say that to Cummings was at
least given credit for the innovation when
1t first dawned on the diamond.
An old college player who was at New
Haven in 1876 and the few years follow
ing, remembers Cummings first announce
ment of the discovery and its application
the incredulity with which his claims were
received In base ball circles and among
scientific men as well. College professors
and others were positive in their assertions
that 1t was impossible to apply any force
to a base bah that would alter it flight on
a horizontal plane. Even when the curve
had actually become a fixture in the game
In 1877 and 1878 certain professors MAIN
tanned their stand In the matter. II was
only when actual experiments were made
by dexterous pitchers In the presence OF
these learned men and under conditions
that afforded ocular and exact proof or
the claims of the base ball men that the
doubters of the scientific world accepted
the truth Then 1t was an easy matter
to explain how 1t all happened and why.
no ~ q ba halI mo Of ha
simplest laws of mechanics.
I'm 1876" said the old timer. 1T was at
a military academy in Connecticut and
had become base ball enthusiast for
several years, although in my teens Ar
thur Cummings was with the Mutuals
that season, If remember correctly and
from time to time brief notes appeared
in the then limited sporting departments
of the newspapers that he had perfected
a new style of pitching. Vague hints
were thrown out about curves and there
was more or less speculation and incredul-
ity regarding the matter About this time
Bob Avery, one of the greatest pitchers
ever known to the college world was in
the box for the Yale team, and 1t was no
ticed that many of the balls delivered by
him DETECTED in their flight. Cummings
was using the same peculiar delivery for
some time prior to Averys use of It, but
neither called 1t curving. In the late sum-
mer of 1876 Cummings gave an exhibition
of his new delivery outside of a game.
This was in Hartford and was witnessed
by a number OF base ball players, owners
and newspaper men. Groups gathered be-
hind Cummings and his catcher and
watched with amazement the flight of the
ball. He had necessarily to abandon the
straight-arm pitch, and instead adopted
the un1erhand throw, which in after years
was modified for the overland delivery.
"There was no denying the ocular proof
offered TO the skeptics. Cummings held
the ball with the thumb and two fore
fingers of his right hand and sent 1t swift
ly from below the hip with the same mo-
ton that is now used by a majority of
pitchers to produce the outcurve. The re-
suit was wide sweep that was too APP
parent to be denied. There was much ado
about the matter but 1t was confined to
limited circles, as base ball had not then
been taken up by the newspapers to any
great extent. The following season the
rules were modified so as to allow the un-
derhand throw, and Immediately the
curve became a fixture In the game.
Matthews took up its use. Bond was
soon an expert, Goldsmith and Calvin
mastered the knack and others celebrated
in their day adopted Its use.
1.-THE possibility of curving the ball IN
midair was doubted by many even dur
Ing that season, when so many twirlers
were able to accomplish 1t. Wise colleg-
fans declared It was an impossibility and
learned articles were published in the pa
pers declaring 1t a physical impossbility.
That the ball might take a slight shoot
to one side, owing to a rapid twist given
al. the time of delivery. was admitted, but
that 1t actually described a curve was de-
clared to be out of the bounds of scien-
thhc reason. Although college pitchers
gave amateurish exhibitions Of the new
ly discovered feature of the game, many
Of the professors and a greater portion of
the public was skeptlcal.
"I think It was In 1877 or In the early
season of 1873 that practical test was
made in New Haven before number
of Yale College professors and other scien-
tlhc men, some Of them from colleges in
adjoining cities. If my memory plays me
right Cummings and Bond were the two
pitchers selected to prove to the savants
that there were things in base bali that
even their philosophy had never dream
ed Of fence was built of light Stats
about six feet high. The positions of the
two pitchers were fixed so that q straight
line drawn from the point Of actual de-
livery, when the right arm Of one man