Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1905-04-02
THE ORIGIN OF BASEBALL
BY a. G. S fauIdH ing.

desperate issued q public challenge
il. behalf of cur Chicago and AL
American base ball teams te. play a
match game Of Rounders with any
Foundpr club in Great Britain if there
really was such a club or such d
game.
This challenge WAS accepted and q
game of FOUNDERS was arranged and
played in Liverpool n March 1889,
between the champion RGunder club
OF England and a picked team Of our
Am@r;c IL Base Baler2. as they call
Cd us. ! was the feeder for our
team of eleven men.
A cne-inniae Rounder match Gwc
innings constitute 4 full eame1. to be
played under regular Rannder ru,os.
vas arranged On condition that after
ward We would play them five-innina
base bah match, under regular base
! ball rules.
Rcunder rules permit fwhat W.
would call1 the base runner to be puf
out by soaking him with the ball
while running between the four
boundary poles ca posts. and this at
tractive feature was about the only
rule Of the game cur players seemed
to take any special interest in.
The game opened with the Amer
can eleven in the field and as feed
err was handed ball about the size
of a golf ball covered with leather
and omparatively soft, and the long
looked-for game of Ronnders vas all
ready to ccnN1enee.
The first p Ser batsman tock his
position Wit nsad1s-. ra' : sf mini4rj5 ..
cricket bat n.asher ! erel: 81
,'.' Tween his left hand b@2aamq b@a
!, .'ol'e.. light gr4sping fhis
.st,1lct :, e.art Of . 10
called Rag s'ss,.o>. - Hohn
Hnncocks1gningethe-R ReclaratiaaAef-In
dependence attitude. and the referee
announced that the game was on. AS
shoulder-high ball came over the
plate he stuck out his fattened Dat
OF paddle with about the same effort
you would hand a friend a cigar, and
the ball glanced off his bat over the
catcher's head out of the eronds We
insisted il was foul. out the refrea
said it was a good hit. and the bats
man ran around the four boundary
posts which were about three feet
high and the diameter OF a broom han
die. with a tiny blue flag on the top
of each, and when he had completed
the circuit the scorer announced that
he had made -four runs--a run being
counted as each post was passed =
and the audience applauded Tho next
hatsman did the same thing and the
En2lishmen had scored eight runs
catcher. and we decided that low balls
close tG the body might tend to m2'.,
these dainty but effective over.the-
fence hits less frequent.
II Worked we'll, for after that they
:. ,,n1y/ made three runs, and that was
caused by cne of our American play
ers trying to soak a Rounder bass
runner, but missed his target. Their
eleven players We're all put out, nd
that closed their first inning. Then
! the Americans took tncir innings and
| tried to hit the ball out as we would
b.se ball. but as il was permissible
| TO use only one hand it was found in.
possible to hit the ball any distance,
but We finally succeeded in making
eight runs before our eleven men
we're all put cut We were very desir-
Gus Of playing a full game of two in
HlnSs, tor we We're just getting the
lang of il, but the EngIShmen oh.
jected and insisted that the five IN.
hlnS game or oaSP bali be played as
previously arranged
The English Rounder players We're
quite as green. if not more so, al our
game than We had been NJ theirs
fcl they made no runs in tho first in
rines of base hall; in fact ali their
men struck out, and the Americans
made thirty.tivc runs. with nobody
out, and the match was called Of
on account of physical exhaustion al
around, and the first inning OF base
ball WIS never finished.
Having read from boyhood princi-