Evening star., 1902-05-31
0LD-TIME BASE BALL

Last Saturday. said the man of large
girth and remfniscential habit, II saw a
gang OF small boys, a couple of my own
among them, playing ball on the big vacant
lot across the way from where live. 1t
was pretty hot stuff. that game of ball, and
1t moved right along according to Hoyle
from the jump, SOS that you'd ha thought
you were looking at bunch of profess
sionals playing the game. The kids had the
whole works in the way of properties.
Every last one of EN- had those big catch
ing gloves, and plenty of them had catch
ing masks, and breast pads and that sort o.
gear Each nine-ah, yes, they played the
regular game nine on a side-had its own
eoliection of bats, and the tads played with
the regular league ball. There was an 'em-
pre- TO keep track of the game and bull
doze all hands, and when the kids wanted
to protest his decision they slammed their
catching mitts onto the ground in the regu-
lar professional way.
Wen, while L sat in my window and
watched that game 1 couldn't help but
compare 1t with the brand o. ball us kids
used to play when l was only knee high to
a potato bug, myself, so to speak
In the first place, our accessories Were
Whoie lot on the improvsed and i'm
promptu order, you can bet on that The
ball was generally one of those lumpy
rock-haru affairs of the homemade variety
that. after one wetting in the old pond
would forever after remain about as sprngy
ana light as a round piece of pig-lead sewed
up in one thickness of mosuuito netting
There never was any such a thing as a
common or communal proprietorship in that
pail either. The ball was invariably the
exclusive property of the exceedingly rich
boy of the gang. and the way he would
tyrann1ze over the rest of the gang in return
Tor permitting EN- to play with his ball
was something awful. He'd make all the
rest of us just grovel before him before he'd
consent to permit his ball to be used and
then hed want to boss the game from the
beginning just because it was his ball that
was being played with. If things didn't go
just to suit him-if for instance he wasn't
permitted to stay "a the bat pretty nearly
all of the time-he'd pick up his ball and
sulK and decline to play any more, and then
of .iie game ud be all off for the remainder
OF that day The boy that owned the ball
Tor sure thing had horrible edge on the
situation when ! was a tad.
lhe bat was generally a fence picket
Whlttled down at the sharp end TO make a
half round handle. These were all the
tools.
We didn't play any nine-to-a side. like
the Kids do nowadays, of course. There'd be
9 ABOUT nse or SIX, or eight or ten, of US,
ana wed so through a solemn little cere-
mony known as 'battinses' in order to
choose sides; that is to say, the two biggest
boys, or one big boy and the kid that owned
u tne pan would go through this ceremony.
one of EN- 'ud throw the fence-picket bat
to the other, who would catch it around the
middle. Then they'd each put a hand over
the others hand until the end of the bat
was reached. The boy that clutched the
last remaining handful had to throw the
pat backward over his shoulder ten paces
II ne successfully accomplished this he
I had the privilege of picking out the kids
mat he wanted to play on his side If he
dldn t make good in throwing the bat back
ward, the other boy had the first pick of
the poys. Ihis. of course. made up some
pretty lop-sided scratch teams but that
az rod Nf
the better
There was only one base-frst base-and
that wasn't covered by any first baseman
ne only two official players on the out
! siae were the pitcher and catcher The
other outs didn't amount to ANYTHING aud
1t was their business to- field the ball when
the batter would paste it on the nose with
the Ience-plcket bat If l had dollar for
every thousand miles I've chased after halls
this way, without ever getting a chance to
bat the ball myself, I'd be on Easy street
today
The batter would be given the regulation
tnree strikes. and when a boy with any
KIND o gumpton went to the bat with that
1ence-plcket swatter he generally stayed
there swatting the sphere. until the exer-
else tlred him out 1t was like hitting at
Daiioon with a bass fiddle, welding that
tence-plcket bat, and the kid at bat had
an KINDS of fun making the fieders work
II. however. he failed to connect with the
balloon on the third strike he was put ont
this way: He'd start on a lone for first
pase, and then the catcher would throw the
pig,iead gle ball at him with all his might.
Inc batters only chance of not being
out consisted in his chance of NOT beina
hit by the ball as thrown at him by the
catcher. But the catcher generally winged
MN nine times out of ten, and / might
ada, ne generally raised a lump on him
when he did hit him. If however the
catcher failed in his craftsmanship, an
the batter had to do would be to lone ha cIS
TO the nome plate, while one of the unfor-
tnnate neiders poked around the lot to find
the BALL on. it was a great game. that
I've started in a-playing it early on Sat
urday morning, being elected as one of the
no-account fielders, and I've hot-footed af-
o1l, eer the pan right along until dark with
out ever getting whack at the sphere
with the bat. The big boys and the kid
owning the ball monopoiized the batting
junction from dawn until dusk. unless. as
l say, the whole thing broke up in n row
before that owing to the sulkiness of the
lad who had the proprietary right to the
ball in play.
AS often as not the game 'ud be broken
up by the arrival on the scene of some
big individual OF advanced age-some man
1ully fourteen or fifteen years of age
who'd ask us if wanted him to bat MS
Few flies. OF course. we'd feel flattered
over the attention and patronage of n per
son so large and elderly as that, and we'd
adjourn the game and takes our places
way out in the lot and let him whack
away at the ball. while we cheerfully
groped around the lot and waded through
the pond and took chance on being eaten
up by ferocious dogs in yards, a-hunting
the ball from his bat
"The way the kids play it now's all right
of course. but somehow or another. from
the solemn and business-like and profes-
slonal kind o way they go at it, / can't
make myself believe that they have any-
thing like SO much fun out of it as ms kids
used to way back in the days of copper
toed boots with red tops to 'em and other
memorable juvenile delights -
An Enormous Gun.