The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-08-23
FIRST CURVE BALL
ASTON|SHED SPORT
Arthur Cummings First Pitcher
To Use This Style of
Delivery.
DISCOVERY ACCIDENTAL.
DISCOVERY ACCIDENTAL.
WHILE PITCHING SLOW BALL HE
SAW THE SPHERE CURVE AND
AT ONCE BEGAN TO REVOLT.
rIONIZE GAME.

In these days of spit balls and the
other names applied to the various
curves that our slab artists dish up to
the opposing teams. it is little known
that curve pitching was accidentally
discovered by pitcher while officiat-
ing In game he was pitching on the
White lot, says the Washington Post.
And 1t might be we'll to remark right
here that the umpire, MI. 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 batsmen out on strikes ON
balls they declared were wild and
wide of the plate. In the year 1866
the famous Excelsior cub, of New
York, visited Washington to play a
game with the Nationals, and with
them were number OF other New
Workers, who also were ball tossers.
but who anne along for the pleasure
of the trip. While enjoying the hos
pitality of the Nationals proposal
was made by the National juniors to
play a picked team from the visitors
and the challenge was accepted.
The game was played in the morn
ing of the day set for the contest be-
tween the senior teams, and the visit
ors put in the field a sCrong aggrega-
ton, made up from players from the
Atlantics, Stars and Eckfords, many
Of whom in later years became stars
in the teams of Gotham. The men of
inf nit
O. young man named Arthur Cummings
who was slated as a substitute for the
Excelsiors, and he discovered in this
contest that it was possible to curve
the ball. At the outset of the con-
test he started in to shoot them over
but, finding that tho junior boys OF
the Nationals were batting them free
~, he changed his delivery to a slow
tantalizing one, and it was while he
was dishing up these SLOW baiters'
he discovered that the ball curved at
ter leaving him.
The discovery was startling, and
that night while seated at dinner in
| Wizards hotel. he impaired his theory
of it to Asa Brainerd, who YVES the
VI the tut U
| laughed to scorn any such feat rs II
| impossibility. On returning to New
| York he made public his discovery
| but little credence was given ii, and
| it is a matter of history that his first
public exhibition was a rank failure
! On this occasion he invited a number
of scientific men, prominent newspa-
| per men and host of ball players tc
see the trial. but the failure was SC
AFFECT that all turned the laugh or
| Cummings. He claimed that he was
anxious to do too much and that he
| pitched too swift ball to demonstrate
| the curve Then he went to work
cautiously to demonstrate the new the
CRY. Taking his catcher into his con
fidence, Cummings began to practice
quietly. and after several months oil
outdoor and indoor work came out IL
| 1869 with a delivery which astonishet
| the baseball and scientific world. Ht
| had Joined the Stars OF Brooklyn a1C
| it was his masterful work in the boz
that lifted this young team up tbs
rounds of the championship ladder
and brought it fame and honor ii
over the country.
At first Cummings mastered onlJ
the "out-shoot." but before the frs