Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-09-30
COLOR SCHEME IN BASE BALL
How n Bucket of Paint Enabled q
Club to Win the Pennant for
Two Seasons.

One Of the oldest things that ever hap
pened on a ball field took place on the
west side in Chicago in game against
New York. Anson's men were playing the
Giants and the victory hung In the balance
until, in the ninth inning, with the score
even, Bill LANCE faced Jouett Meekin and
rampsed a certain double to center. There
were two out and the crowd rose with a
yeIp of delight when Lange smote the ball
which rolled past Van Haltren.
That ball rolled on and finally disap-
peared. Van Haltren was on top of 1t.
but instead of picking 1t up, he suddenly
threw himself fiat on the ground, rammed
his right arm into the earth and commenced
reaching. LANCE, meantime. kept on. He
turned second raced on to third, gave a
look outward, and then sprinted for home,
scoring the winning run.
The ball had rolled into a hole in the
ground from which a post had been pulled
that morning and Van Haltren had been
able only to reach 1t with the tips Of his
fingers. The next day the hole was
filled in. .r Ri
Upon what small things the results OF
base ball depend can be guessed when 1t is
known that a As cent bucket of paint won
the National league pennant for Balti-
more two years in succession. The men
who composed the three times champion
Orioles an admit the fact that the bucket
Of paint had more to do with their pennant
winning than anything else.
The facts are these: The Orioles were
not hitting. They could not find out why
until one day Willie Keller remarked that
the ball when pitched from the pitcher s
box was the same color as the center field
fence and that the ball was lost to them
against the dark background. The players
set themselves down to figure 1t out, and
in the end they figured that the reason
they were not hitting was because there
was a lack of relief in the color scheme of
the grounds. The bat boy was sent in a
hurry for 8 pot of white paint and patch
Of the fence in center field, exactly on a
line with the pitchers box and the plate,
was daubed white. The paint made a
difference of nearly 40 points per man in
their batting averages that season, and
they won the pennant.
After that the space in center on most
OF the big league ball grounds was kept
clear, or painted In some color that would
assist the team In its hitting.
The color scheme in baseball is more I'M
portant than the casual observer would
suppose. For instance. the Polo grounds
/
for an outfieider. Back of the grandstand
rises huge bluff-"Coogan's blun'-and
the stand is built partly on the side Of the
hill. Naturally the shadow Of the stand
and the blum lies heavy over the field, as
far out as second base in the late after
noon. and the outhelders have great diff
Guilty in seeing the ball until It rises out
of the shadow and above the sky line.
The players learn to Judge balls by the
way they sound against the bat, but visit
ing players at the Polo ground have a
hard time judging line drives.
For years the New York players have
had the advantage because or the coloI
scheme OF their grounds. In center field Is
panel OF color to relieve the batter's eye
and show the ball in relief against II, while
10 mitigate the effects Of the shadow sec
tons of the front OF the stand and even the
powders on the hillside have been painted
Those mechanical aids for batting are
great things. Almost every home team ha,
its grounds arranged for relief in color, Sc
that they can, by looking at a certain spot
be certain to see the ball 1t is not neces
sary for the ball to rise against the RELIEF
background, but It is necessary for tn,
players eye 70 be filled with the color. 50
that when. he looks at the ball 1t standi
| out in relief against the color which still
is imprinted on the retina OF his eye
Experimenting one time with Bill Hutchi
son. the Yale star. and later one Of Ansoni
best pitchers I tried to see what effec
color had on the eye OF the batter. I tool
only three colors, green, red and white
and. secured pieces of cardboard OF thes,
colors. My theory was that the player
II he looked steadily at the cards befor,
batting, would retain that color schem
on the retina and either lose the ball en-
tirely or see II more wildly. HutchisoI
agreed to try the experiment in practice
and we went 70 work.
Bill would sat and gaze steadily at tn,
white card and then go to bat. Then h,
would try the green, then the red. After
week we came 20 the conclusion that greer
was the only thing to use. Bill. who nat
uraIly was bad hitter. would look at tn
green card for a minute ana then swat tn
ball all over the lot. Red improved hi
batting somewhat. but after he had locke,
at white for for time he could not 81
the ball at all
Everybody knows that green Is restfuI q