Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-07-15
BALL As PLAYED
BY The ANCIENTS
Professional Game Found to
Have Been Popular Long
Ago in Yucatan.

=
new an expression of popular impa-
thence to have some one start some
thing" as some people may think.
Neither is playing ball for a living a
strictly modern invention. In fact,
thousands of years ago, way down in
Yucatan, impatient crowds sat around
in ball parks, yelled themselves hoarse,
beat one another in the back, and
threw their feather head-gear Into the
arena in the enthusiasm of the mo-
ment, just as we are doing today. Also
there doubtless were Ty Cobbs whose
skill in batting and fielding" was
such that they could afford to hold up
the management occasionally for a
few moro hundred jaguar skins a year
by threats to quit professional ball
and go to farming.
Oh course, the game was not exactly
baseball. But the point is that it was
ball game, that there were regular
ball parks-or courts and that there
were professionals who played the
game for what there was in it" to
them. Mayhap the medium of eX-
change took the form of jaguar skins,
pounds of cacao, fancy feathers, or
what not, but it was money all the
same, and they could buy with it at
the club, or in the market place, as the
case might be. They had their pecu-
liar systems of slang" too, at least in
some parts of the Americas, which,
translated into English, means about
as much to us as ours would TO them;
all of which is brought out by Frank
lin Adams in his story, indigenous
Games in Latin America in the July
number of the Monthly Bulletin of the
Pan-American Union, Washington, D.
C. That the ball game is an ancient
institution in the Americas may be
gathered from the following:
THE ball game is indigenous to the
Americas. Perhaps the first simian
inhabitants found true sport in catch
ing the cocoanuts tossed from the tall
palms-certain it is that several thous-
and years ago the ball game had
reached a high state of development
in the 20 cities scattered throughout
Yucatan. On clearing away the mat
ted forests enveloping these marvel
GUS ruins, ball courts were disclosed
near the most sacred temples, and,
from the elaborate hceroglyphics and
photographs ornamenting the walls,
much was learned of the complicated
character of the sport. Centuries after
the passing of these ancient Mayans,
came the first Spanish explorers who
found that younger race in contigu-
Gus territory, the AZtecs, had revived
the old pastime into a national game
with a stone God of Sport beaming
on every court.
THE popularity of these early
games was that the ball, when in play,
was not thrown with the hand, but
struck by the hip, around which the
player wore a protecting pad of leath-
er. At each end of the court was a
great stone disk with a hole in the
center. and through this orifice the
ball was driven before a point was
scored. Very naturally, a lively ball
was used, since rubber trees dominated
the forests.
"Old chroniclers marvel a. the skill
and endurance of the players, for a
game was seldom won under four
hours of constant play. Such exhaust
ing contests. with dozen participants
in almost constant action, were not for
amateurs, but professionals. Thus,
from the Aztec word 'olli,' signifying
ball." came he word 'molloqui,' one
who plays ball for living
Another form of ball game is PLAYED
by the Indian tribes of the Cuduiary
river region in the wilds OF Brazil. A
carefully leveled field lies in front of
the malokas. or large communal
houses, and daily, at o'clock. the men,
returning from the days fishing or