Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1911-05-26

store on Chestnut Street, Philadelphia,
for the sale of sporting goods in gener-
al and base ball goods in particular
BY this time clubs had sprung up in all
the principal eastern cities, but the
game was not as yet well known, in
fact it would have been difficult to fiud
score of players in any city of ten
thousand inhabitants. The country
was too much engrossed in the strug-
gle between the North and the South
to think about sports, but when Grant
had struck out Lee and retired his side,
aud the guns had ceased their thunder
ing, baseball came into it's own. The
publication in 1866 of the Haney edi-
ton OF baseball rules, followed a few
years later by the dewitt edition, gave
the public good understanding of the
game, which resulted in the formation
of many amateur clubs through the
country.
But still the interest and enthusiasm
was lukewarm, and it was by no means
uncommon for the captains of two
minor clubs to agree in advance on six
innings. and if, in the middle of the
game, a player quit with the casual re-
mark that he was ''tired of playing"
substitute took his place without
comment. In an old illustrated week
ly picture picture of one of these
games shows US several hundred spec
tators, and with the exception of few
ladies and gentlemen seated in car
riages, the only person sitting down in
the entire assemblage is the umpire,
and as if to show his absolute ind f.
ference to the game he leans gracefully
back in a huge canopied chair with his
legs crossed. The basemen instead of
playing off" are standing each with
one foot on base and base runner is
glued to third" although the pitcher
is about to deliver a ball. The position
of the players generally is enough 10
send a modern baseball caption into
violent commissions. These early play
ers wore no uniforms except occasion
ally the old-fashioned baseball cap
with it's huge visor, the possession of
which instantly elevated the country
baseballist to position of great dig
nifty among his fellows, while a man
who could sport" belt In place of
the humble suspenders was also looked
upon with envy. The few baseball
shoes in evidence were of the home
spun variety, with spikes made by the
village blacksmith, and set crudely in
the soles of ordinary shoes by the local
cobbler. The aid of the latter indi-
vidual was also enlisted to cover with
calf-skin the balls used for practice
games, the orthodox white ball be-
ing reserved for match games-often
the same ball for two or three matches,
for they were expensive luxuries.
II can remember, in the fifties," says
Mr.. Reach, about 1855 or 1856, when
a boy, would club in with several
chums in our neighborhood-W
burg, New York, and would go down
to Houston Street Ferry, GROSS over to
New York City, and make for John Van
Horns shoe store on Second Avenue,
where, in addition to making boots and
shoes, he made baSeballs as side issue.
They were somewhat larger than the
present official American League Ball
made by our firm, also livelier, having
a wound strand rubber center, weigh
ing about two ounces, then wrapped
with worsted yarn and covered with
horse hide, sewed and scanned, some
what like the present ball except that
the two fgure-eight cover pieces were
each cut across where the two lObes of
the eight joined, making "a tour-piece
cover. Another later ball had a four
piece cover all equal and pointed, the
points meeting. They would vary in
weight from about 81 to 81 ounces,
and cost Us each Then little later
Harvey hOSS Oh DFOOhlyn Ii, d SILL ND heT,
made the Ross Ball, which competed
successfully with the Van Horn for
some years, although it sold for 81 90
apiece.
There was a wide latitude also in
the size and material of the bat,
hardwood specimen being rarely or
never seen. The regulation stick was
long, thick, and with pudding STIR
rer" shape, made of spruce, bass, chest
nut and other lighter woods, and it is
recorded that a shrewd up-country
team of Connecticut in the early sixties
did not miss the mark when it bored
out a set of huge Eastwood bats and
filled them with corks.
The gloves, steel masks, and padded
body protectors of the modern baseball
man was also unknown in 1860. James
Creighton, of the Excelsiors, changed
the delivery from the pitch to the dis
guised underhand throw, and in 1866
Arthur Cummings, of the Excelsior