Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1910-04-06
LOCAL BASEBALL "REMINISCENCES.

The following letter was received
by A. F. McDougal of Barton from G..
F. Mathewson, now a prominent
lawyer of New York city. Mr..
Mathewson is a Barton boy and was
born where r. M. Gilmour now lives
and played ball in Barton few years
back. Mr.. McDougal says he had
been laughed at enough since he
wrote something about the old 'Sel-
DOM Barton nine in which he said
that the catcher used no mitt or glove
and the balls were pitched just as
swiftly as now. Every fan will be
interested in this letter:
A. F McDougall, ESQ.,,
Barton. Vermont.
Dear Archie =
In reference to baseball in our day,
you say that many have said to you
that | never caught the ball bare
handed with the speed they use now
and that the ball was not so hard; to
which you add, 81 guess if they had
been behind the bat and caught some
of them they would have found some
thing was coming, for | think | had
as much speed as some have seen. "
| think | can speak with some au-
thority on this subject as began to
play ball with the Omaha nine in 1873
and continued to play quite regularly
until after 1890, and played occasion
ally thereafter in the summers up
to 1900 or after. The old Seldoms of
Barton on which you pitched and
played behind the bat, were in busi-
ness from 1876 to 1873. and never lost
a game; my college CO olrse, in which
| | PLAYED on the Dartmouth Varsity
team, largely behind the bat, COW
cred from 1878 to 1882; while in New
York studying law, / caught on the
| Columbia University nine In 1884
| and 1885; and thereafter from time
to time l played regularly on the
Berkeley Athletic club nine and else
where. The ball which the Seldoms
used, and which was used by the
VARSITY at Dartmouth and at Colum
bia University and by other mines
upon which l played was the same
ball which is being used now; that is
to say, the regular Spalding Profes
sional League ball. If your friends
have any doubt about it let them ex
anime the balls in the trophy room al
Dartmouth which the Varsity won al
that time from Harvard AMI other
teams and they will see that they are
precisely the same thing which is il
use now. About 1870, and even {
little later. there was in use by some
amateur teams what as known as {
'1ively" ball; but that had gone ou
of use in first class matches before
the Seldoms began to play, and it wa:
harder on the hands than the deadel
ball which followed it.
As to gloves and chest pads, We
never used them in the Seldom days
We were not educated up to them
The first chest pad that know O.
was invented by me and made to M
order by George Wright of Boston ant
worn by me under my baseball bel
and shirt, so that it was not visible
l still have it. This was about 1877!
or 1880; and soon various other col
lege catchers began to get them ant
subsequently the professional catcher
evolved and began to wear the out
side chest ads which are now in use
Before that we endured all the knock
that we got from the ball withou
paying much attention to them. Ant
in this connection it may be notet
that the wire mask was not invented
by Thayer, of Harvard, until 1877
and | as catcher of the Seldoms, ant
/ Ud
with no protection to the face what
ever, saving our faces from fou
hits by throwing our heads from on
side or the other when the ball wa
pitched, so as to keep it one side O
the other of the line/ of the ball
Even when | went to college in 1877
not all catchers wore masks, and
remember my associate catcher o
| 20 no ov.fYp Nor i+xy
a nasty rap in the mouth in 1878 O
1879, which induced him to wear
mask thereafter.
Gloves, as have intimated. wer
not worn. by any of the members O
the Seldoms even by me behind tn
bat. ! caught with my bare hands
Shortly after entering college i
1878, / got pair of ordinary buck
skin gloves. the fingers and thumb O
which cut off short and which / use
when catching behind the bat in co
, lege and thereafter until the end Q
: my baseball career; and this on
thickness of buckskin was all that
had on either hand. No one on tn
Dartmouth Varsity team except tb
= catcher, wore even so much; eve
the first baseman, Partridge land on
of the finest ball players that eve
lived), always playing with bar
) hands; and it will be understood, {
course, balls to the first basema
were always thrown overland g
r much as they no" are. and just 6
j hard.
: l do not mean to suggest that a
= catchers used as little protection fc
the hands as did; on the contcar.
= all other college catchers, and other
r with whom / later came in contsc
8 were wearing padded gloves (the pa
: CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO