Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-11
FIRST CURVE
ACCIDENTAL
ARTHUR CUMMINGS FIRST TO
DISCOVER 1T
UMPIRE NEARLY MoBBED FOR
HIS DECISIONS
Batsmen Could Not Tell Where Ball
Crossed Plate, and Declared
That Those Called Were
Wild

"In these days of spit balls and the
other names applied to the various curves
that slab artists dish up to the opposing
teams, it is little known that curve
pitching was accidentally discovered by a
pitcher while officiating in a game he was
pitching on the White Lot" was the old
fans remark as he squared himself at the
sporting editors desk last night. 'tAnd II
might be well to remark right here that
the umpire, Mr.. Mills of the Union club
of New York, came near being mobbed
in that game, as, being a catcher of note.
he was close up and called the batsman
out on strikes on balls they declared were
wild and wide of the plate"
In the year 1866 the famous Excelsior
club of New York visited Philadelphia to
play a game with the Nationals, and with
them were a number of other New
Workers, who were also ball tossers, but
who came along for the pleasure of the
trip. While enjoying the hospitality Of
the Nationals a proposal was made by the
National Juniors to play picked team
from the visitors, and the challenge was
quickly accepted.
The game was played in the morning
of the day set for the contest with the
senior teams, and the visitors put in the
field a very strong aggregation, made up
of players from the AtlanticS, Stars and
ECKIOTQS, many OF WHO1n III SedSOHS ldter
became stars in the teams of Gotham.
Discovery of the Curve
The gentlemen of New York sent into
the pitchers box young man named
Arthur Cummings, who was slated as a
substitute for the Excelsiors, and he dis
covered in the contest that it was possible
to curve the ball. At the outset of the
contest he started in to shoot them over,
but finding that the Junior boys of the
Nationals were batting him freely he
changed his delivery to slow, tantaliz-
ing one, and it was while he was dishing
up these "slow baiters'' he discovered that
the ball curved after leaving him.
The discovery was startling and that
night, while seated at dinner in Will
lard's hotel, he impaired his theory of
it to Asa Brainerd, who was then the
pitcher of the Excelsiors; but Brainerd
laughed to scorn any such feat as an
impossibilit..
On returning to New York he made
public his discovery, but little credence
was given it, and it is a matter of his
tory that his first public exhibition was
a rank failure. On this occasion he in
vited number of scientific gentlemen,
prominent newspaper men and host
| of ball players to see the trial, but the
| failure was so abject that all turned the
| laugh on Cummings. He claimed that he
| was anxious, to DO TOO mucn ana tnat
| he pitched too swift a ball to demon
| strate the curve Then he went to work
cautiously to demonstrate the theory.
| Taking his catcher into his confidence,
Cummings began to practice quietly, and
after several months of outdoor and in
door work came out in 1869 with deliv-
cry which astonished the baseball and
scientific world. He had Joined the
Stars of Brooklyn and it was his mas
terly work in the box that lifted this
young team up the rounds of the cham
pionship ladder and brought it fame and
hnor all over the country.
At first Cummings mastered only the
"out shoot but before the first season
was over he had begun work on the
elmer shoot" During his career as
pitcher he struck out more of his OPP
porepts than any pitcher that ever filled
the position, and he lived to see his dis
covery adopted wherever the game was
played.