University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1912-04-16

Tim Murname and you could never
guess that the was the first baseball
player to discover" the bunt, it
doesn't tax your Imagination to
figure just how nearly correct the
foregoing statement is. But baseball
did not come with the flag. For
seventy-five years the young men of
this country didn't know anything
about the coming national game.
But they were learning, blazing
way, as it were.
AS early as the Colonial period,
the boys of this country were play
ing a crude game of baseball. 1t
was descended from the English
game of FOUNDERS" and was known
as .round-ball.' When it was
played, at the time of town meet
ings, it was called ''tOwn-ball."
About 1880 they began calling it, in
certain localities, baseball" In
others they named if after the town
in which it was played, as Boston
Ball. and New York Ball."
1t took from six to twenty players
on each side to make game. The
regulation number on field in the
game was played on a field in the
shape of a polygon. The ball was
made of soft substance, usually rub
ber. There were no fair or foul
balls; all that left the bat were
hits" The runner was hit with
the ball when he was off the base
and thereby put out. That was the
reason for the soft ball. The pitcher
was called the "giver." A ball
caught on the first bound was an
out. This game lasted for a num-
Der of years even after real baseball
came.
But the real baseball" a crude
form of the great game of today,
sprang into existence first in New
York City. 1t was first played on
the present site of Madison Square
Garden. The first New York boys
to work out the plan for the game
in somewhat similar form to the way
it is played now We're organized into
the Knickerbocker Club. The exact
date of the beginning of the national
game in New York is not known. IL
was possibly about 1S43 according
to a majority of the writers on the
subject. Alex. ]. Cartwright of New
York is given credit by many as the
real discoverer of the new game.
The first set of rules of the game
was published by the knickerbocker
Club in 1S45. There were fourteen
of them to govern the way the game
should be played. Only three of the
original rules have been changed.
The Gotham Club was the first rival
of the Knickerbocker Club.
The game was quickly launched
| by the various clubs that sprang up
and before ten years it was the pop
ular sport of Manhattan. But it had
a competitor for attention in many
of the Eastern towns. That was
the English game of cricket. In
1856 the newspapers of the country
treated baseball and cricket equally
in the sports columns.
By the late fifties many baseball
clubs had started. There was the
Tri-Mountains of Boston, and clubs
at Portland, Buffalo, Rochester and
Chicago. In 1858 Milwaukee organ
lied a baseball club and it played
annual games with the Chicago club.
In 1859, the Eagles Club was organ
lied at San Francisco by several New
Workers. The National Association
of Baseball Players was organized in
1859 and the first baseball commits
sion was held. Many minor changes
in the game We're instituted at this
first convention of the ball players.
When the Civil War came many of
the clubs were broken up when the
members left the bat for the gun.
From 1860 to 1863 the number of
clubs in and near New York dwindled
from sixty-two to twenty-eight.
But the interest in the American
game did not dwindle perceptibly.
There were always odd moments
when the soldiers in camp had time
to play ball. Many of them became
skillful with the practice thus OBJ
tanned. A knowledge of the game
spread further over the country as
soldiers from the North and South
met.
When the war was over the whole
country was playing baseball.
Many more clubs sprang up.
In 1856 when the association issued
. oo1l Gov n convention nf Tho hoco