The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-06-12

And ropes Of pearls and fancy things to
And then there are the papers-think OF
what
They'll say when have caught my mil
Chicago Record-Herald.
The Disputed Origin of Baseball.
Real baseball is over. sixty-one years
game" is more in dispute than the
etymology of the term fan The
veteran journalist, Henry Chadwick,
popularity known as the father of
baseball" who is English born, con-
tends that baseball, while an Amer
lean sport, had its origin in the game
called FOUNDERS" .sThe basic prin-
ciple of both games" Mr.. Chadwick
argues, lis the use of a bat, a ball,
soft ball, and the player, on hitting the
ball, endeavors to make a circuit-a
round-of all the bases-in our
vocabulary, home run. AS a clencher,
Mr.. Chadwick says that, when debat-
ing the question with Albert G. Spald-
ing. there entered the room a devotee
of sport. Andrew Peck, whose name,
coupled with that of his partner
Snyder, was known to most American
boys of twenty years ago in connec-
ton with the popular style of ice
skates.
when did you begin to play base
ball ?" inquired Mr.. Spalding.
I'm the latter part of the forties,"
replied Mr.. Peck, about 1847 or
1S48."
What was the game called then ?"
why, FOUNDERS" said Mr.. Peck.
But to this day, Mr.. Spalding, proud
Yankee to the core, is unconvinced.
Undoubtedly the foreign faint in base
ball bothered him not a little for
time, but he disposed of it to his sat
isfaction in the spring of 1889, when
he visited Liverpool, after a tour of
the British colonies, with the Chicago
and All-American baseball teams.
Throughout the trip English subjects
had chided him with the antecedent
Of the American national game, so he
issued a challenge to the champion
rounder club of Great Britain, which
was promptly accepted. BY the terms
of the agreement, the British cham
pions were to play a one-inning
rounder match (two innings make a
full game) with a team of eleven men
picked from the American baseball
ers," as the Englishmen called them,
and then there was to a f1ve-inning
er) for his eleven" Mr.. Spalding
was given a leather-covered sphere
about the size of golf ball and rath-
er soft. The rounder batsman faced
him with miniature cricket bat-"a
cross between a potato-masher and
penholder." A high ball was ''fouled"
as the Yankees called it-but the
referee declared it a fair hit, and as
the batter made a circuit of the four
boundary posts before the ball was re-
covered, he scored four runs. The
next batsman repeated the trick, and
there was a total of eight runs to the
credit of the Englishmen. + Then
feeder Spalding resorted to low balls
close to the batsman's body, and only
three more runs were made before the
eleven British champions were put
out, and the inning was over. These
last runs resulted from the failure of
an American to hit one of the cham
pions with the ball, as the rules per-
NIT.
In their half of the inning, the
Yankees were inclined at first to try
to Zine OUT the ball. and the results
were disastrous. But soon they got
the hang of batting with one hand.
and scored eight runs before the
eleven men were retired. This left
them three runs behind.
The baseball game was an entirely
struck out, and then the Americans
went to bat. Thirty-five men crossed
the plate. and still the eide had not
been retired, Because of physical ex-
haustion both teams We're content that
the match be declared off. Thus the
first inning in the baseball game was
never finished; yet the score stood 35
to in favor of the Americans
Henry Beach Needham in Success