The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-12-01
WHAT FOLKS ASK
SPORTING EDITORS;
CURIOUS QUERIES
Many Fans Pop Unusual Questions
Regarding National Sport
ing Events.
PLAY WITHOUT KNOWING RULES
ny I. Z. sANBoRs.


Baseball II usually learned by word
Of mouth instead OF from books 1t Is
handed down from generation to gem
Grafton. just as they say folk lore and
other ancient literature used 10 be be-
fore the Invention Of the alphabet That
Ia the conclusien forced upon me after
many years OF attempting TO answer
any and all questions. TO solve any
problem In baseball fired IT q great
newspaper by the great army Of base
ball fans from Nome, Alaska, to Rome.
Italy.
Some Of the ideas entertained about the
way the game Is played can be ex-
planned in no other. way than that the
people. usually youngsters. who are Curl
Gus TO know. never saw the inside OF a
rule book. Young America starts 10
play baseball before It can read. any
way. and by the time It has learned to
understand words Of two syIlables IL
usually thinks It has learned. out on the
village green's and city parks, AL there
Is to know about baseball.
That Is why We receive many queries
which provoke smiles and OF which a
few samples are shown herewith. Most
Of the freaks come from the smaller
cities or towns, but some from the heart
of big cities.
A fan In olnsy, NJ. apparently old
batting. A hits a fair ball, but in doing
so breaks his bat squarely of Il he
entitled TO first base IL fielded out7''
Some day, when this Olney fan was a
kid, playing on the lots. q bat was
broken. and one Of the other lads--ths
kind that constitutes itself a local au-
thortty on the game-laid down the Law
to the effect that there Is a rule Cs0
which so specifies 1t does not apply
when the foul Is caught. but the rule
does not say 50 plainly enough for every
kids mind to grasp Il. and here again
overruIed the written law. But
the kid still was curious and asked about
IL
Rules Haay.
Where any one derived the following
idea puzzled me for a time: rs the
batter credited with a hit when he hits
the ball into right field, but Is thrown
out at first?" It came down from Mich
igan City, Ind, and from q man OF
sufficient age and experience to dictate
a letter to his stenographer. One OF the
cardinal principles OF baseball as We
learn II on the lots. Is that a batter must
at least get to first base 10 be entitled
to a base hit. and Il did not seem pos
sibie that any tradition to the contrary
could have originated anywhere.
But this man In Michigan City appar-
lots. He learned IL from the book Right
under all our noses, in section OF rule
IS. Is his false guide-post: "A base hit
shall be scored when the ball
from the bat strikes out OF reach OF the
ielders." There IL nothing about wheth-
n or not the man reaches first base in
such case Further along in the rule re-
atIng TO the scoring OF base hits It ap-
oears that the runner must reach first
base, but Il appears by inference only.
In the framing Of the rules and all the
through which they have gone
t never occurred to the trainers or the
-evisers that IL was necessary to specify
hat a man did not get base hit US
ess he got base on 1t Tradition was
70 strong In their minds that they forgot
bout the man who might never have
Deen a boy, but might try In later life to
Ibsorb the national pastime from the rule
Dook.
Sometimes the kid hands US a puzzler
Ike this one: Batter has two strikes
{. This next ball pitched 10 ball, but
he batter does not go to first. The next
me pitched is a strike, and he Is called
ut. Is he out?''
Perhaps you think this could happen
My in a kid game and would be impos-
ible in a big league, where there are all
he modern appliances-an umpire's in
Keep OK Iu6 DdLAlb anu
trikes. a coacher on each corner TO count
hem. too. and an electric scoreboard
light in line with the batsman's> vision
o tell him IL he forgets. But IL almost
Iappened on Comiskey Park one, day
asst year.
Martin Berghammer, a second base re-
ruit, was being tried out by the White
OK, and narrowly missed pulling just
hat bone play. He was down to
three and two" and the next one was
allied a ball Little Marty stuck to his
ost at the plate. and the pitcher was
ctually IN the act OF winding UP to
itch again before Manager Duffy finally
Toke up the recruit and shooed him TO
rst base. After the inning Duffy asked
i'm: Don't they take bases on balls
! your Lacquer
Berghammer was not struck out. 90
he play did not exactly parallel the
1ery. At first thought. one would say
lie hatsman was out, because he ought
be out for being a ''bonehead." But
is rule says that after four balls have
sen called the batsman Is entitled TO
rst base without liability OF being put
1t" That seems to nullity the Third
ri<e.