The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-29
WHAT! THAT LIKE BASEBALL2
A COMMITTEE OF FANS INSPECTS
THE GAME OF FOUNDERS.
The Board Of SimplIned Tanning Makes \
Report Of Progress-DihIeultieS or
the ~Inqulry-The High Commission
NegIeetinE Its ROrk--Fieid Laboratory

NegIeetlnE Its WOrk--Field Laboratory
The rooters are roofing, the fans arr
tanning, there's an eye and a half at every
knot hole and the men buds are beginning
to swell with pride on every tree overlooking
Washington Park, and yet no word has been
received from that high commission ap-
pointed o whole year ago to determine
whether baseball wa Of, English or Ameri-
oen origin. James E. Sullivan, secretary of
tho commission, has fed from the country
to the Olympic games without leaving any
Of the data he was instructed to collect:
the Hon. Arthur Pue German, also Of the
commission, admits that he has fTttered
away his time in the Senate; Senator
Bulkeley Of Connecticut has no better OK.
cuse, and A. @. Mills of this city, another
member Of the commission, rather than
admit that he knew nothing about 1t, said
yesterday that the matter was too delicate
for him to talk about individually and that
the commission wal not ready to report.
He did say, however, that the commission
had never met.
But the games need not be postponed
for the season, because another body has
taken the matter up n a decision may
be reached in the fall of 1909, or at the
latest in time for the opening Of the season
OF 1910. The new commission, the board
OF simpliied tanning, has cut right to the
roots OF the matter by taking up the main
question: LIS baseball a development Of the
English game Of FOUNDERS or OF either OF
the early American games Town ball or
one-old-cat?
Circulars are being distributed at all
the games and in front Of tho Park row
bulletin boards asking everybody to con-
tribute what data he may have. Agents
OF the simplihed board are also going about
getting opinions. On Tuesday ons OF them,
with a note book and an encyclopedia
OF ancient and modern games, appeared
on Park row.
-Now FOUNDERS he began, was played
In a pentagon--
ATo the woods with yer! Can't yer see
the bags Is full?"
Just a moment, sir I represent the
board OF -
Bridegroom Mikes soaked wild and
the Iron Mans dead on a soft one
49, played in a p%entagon and not more
than thirty boys and girls may participate
at"
Push him in front of a carl Soak
The man with the chalk put down a run
lOl tDC bil olla thC tSRA Nhob eOhb Up
| shook the statues in the Hall OF Records
at one time
"Grass burner from Mild Bill"
THE game of FOUNDERS isthen started by
gently tossing the
bo @Wso is that guy buttins in with the
aHe must be scorer for the Trolley
Dodgers"
Tossing the ball to and"
wow, WOW, WOW. he's in on a squeeze
the ball to and fro as In base.
Then the final inning came in and the
agent was left TO lie tossed to and fro by the
traffic squad and the trolley cara;
But the board of simpliied tanning Ia
not depending altogether on what its agents
may learn from the rooters. They have
taken to the books.
The American advocates Of the one-old-oat
theory began their researches in the Ameri-
can annual encyclopaedia, hoping thereby to
strengthen their case at the start, but 1t was
a disappointment. They went all through
the BIS but didn't find much besides Baptistsj
Zedekiah 8. Barstow, James Boyle, Bolivia
word about baseball or highbal.
TIL International came a little closer.
and after reading through, Base, a radical
in chemistry, the Commissioner discovered
that baseball came from FOUNDERS; but just
as they were getting valuable date about
town ball in Philadelphia in 1888 the evil
dence switched to @Basedow's disease
Johnson's, all the way from A to CAL
culus, is good enough to say that baseball
but the bulk Of the testimony on this page
is irrelevant, immaterial and incompetent
having to do principally with Johann Bern
hard Basedow, an educational reformer
and the head Of the Philanthropiu.
Britannica, Of course, is ~prejudiced, and
declares positively for FOUNDERS and then
deposes that Americans do not play cricket
because they cannot appreciate the patience
OF Englishmen.
case on Bartlett's Dictionary Of American
isms,' which says: "Base-A game of ball
much played in America; 80 called from the
three stations or bases used In it,. A
| country game mentioned in Moor's 'Suf-
folk Words Yet it is asserted by the Eng
lish cricket players that the game was
wholly unknown in England until intro
as baseball
The committee on terms OF the board Of
simplifed tanning has submitted q pre-
liminary report as follows:
Your committee has found but few terms
pertaining in common to the ancient game of
FOUNDERS and to the game OF baseball. Our
findings can perhaps best be shown in typical
descriptions OF the two games. which we have
found with other historical documents in an
evacuated house:
HOUNDEUS.
Ho. for the %pentagon. IL was a rosy checked
lad who had shouted thus az he led q merry
troop OF lads and lassies down the road to play
at FOUNDERS, They were all full OF health and
spirits, and carried large soft balls and Eat
bats to make a holiday with. Blue flags
waved esyly on the boundary posts, and
the thirty boys and girls went at their
sport right heartily, tossing the ball to and
fro, batting II about with the bat and running
from post to post with the speed Of hares.
But their game for that day was to end prema-
turely. for one hapless player fell and scraped
his hand cruelty In the dirt as he was about 10
lob the ball by an easy toss.
BASEBALL.
The rooters were all 70 the mustard at the
gate when one guy had his block knocked in
for getting ouL Of line at the stile, and when
the ambulance came IL couldn't get away be-
cause go many plkers climbed on to the roof
Of the nutty wagon to swlpe a look In over the
fence. 1t was Charley Hoss with q glass arm
from the go of for the Trolley Dodgers. and
the Mahout had 'em going on damp fings for
two innings till a humid watt was turned into
a grass burner. and the next man up juggled
the lick for an ozone denting hunt and two