New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-03-12
SLANG
TRACED TO IT'S
ORIGINAL FOUNT
Charlie Dryden Held To
Be Responsible for the
Present Day JargOn.

Back in the days when George Ad-
and Harry Weldon were writing base
ball il was found that the diamond had
language Of its own. Since their time
the baseball jargon has been greatly
cmbellished. Now, it might be said
there are a large number Of American
citizens VINO would greatly enjoy the
/ chronicle Of game If they could get
the English translation Of Il.
Charlie DRYDEN is the father OF base
ball slang Dryden was the first news
paper writer who saw IN Dase0all
game more than the box score. Mucn
Of the acceptable literature OF modern
training camps stories OF badger
haircuts. badger pullings, red flannel
undershirts. sword swallowers, etc.
dripped in lifting humor from Charlie
Dryden's fountain pen. In those days
ne never USED type"rl'ei' eN0ep' ~
look at.
Dryden made the Great Zim house
hold phrase: he likened Ham Hyatt 20
a disappearing gun from the fact that
he strutted out from the bench 70 hit
in a pinch and then, after firing. was
obscured from view again IN the re-
cesses of the dugout; he named
/ Schultz "Wildfre and he immortal
+ ized Frank Chance as the =. J.. Peer
less LEADER. There wasn't much that
/ he didn't do.
The DRYDEN school Of baseball Jour
nalsm was incorporated with bylaws
and a constitution As accepted by the
young baseball writers from Kalamazoo
to Kansas CITY there was one funda-
mental object Of the organization
} - L. rfn'a az cd
penaltv o. unceremonious ostracism.
/ That was TO call ANYTHING in baseball
by It's recognized name.
4 baseball NIGH he Tho ho--oh''o
tho pill. the old apple. the onion. the
pellet. the spheroid. the circumilnear
leather. or the egg But plain base
ball? Never.
Likewise. a bat mght be club.
war stick. bludPeon. crutch. a
shillelagh. a willow, the ash. or hickory.
BIT plain bat? Never
Baseball slang boiled out like ba'
loon taking gas. II has crow 70 s""'
prodigious size that il much surely
burst.
We laugh at the English newsnauer
reports Of cricket games. Their beef
ness and stolidity seem almost as ner-
D'eXing as they are unconsciously hu-
morous. But can you imagine an Eng
lishman trying 10 make sense out Of
the average story of a baseball game
He might more easily read GrrA'
than understand such passage as this:
1.-TWO Indians were dead in their
tracks when Pccknpaug grabbed
Graney's torrid homer by the handle.
did a maXiXe toward second and OK
pressed the nil over tho sir line route
TO Pip for the double murder"
The Fnrishman might. with some
reason. inquire why they didn't call
policeman.
And it is not at ali certain that the
cryptic conversation Of the professional
slanGist wouldn't puzzle a few old
fashioned souls on this side Of the
/ Atlantic
neutral ground in the matter Of base
/ ball reviewing. Either slang and
B humor run riot down the column or
history is enriched by several sticks
! Of tyne relating the story Of the game
in plain four-cylinder English that
holds aloof from slang phrase and lido
matte diamond chatter
The writers who have cast their
praver rugs before the shrine OF Pure
F English regard "A baseball game witt
tho same intense seriousness that An
ordinary mortal might bring 10 play
upon an operation for appendicitis
his own,
There is no particular local color IN
baseball 20 these historians. and few
characters. The dignity Of the writing
game has been preserved. and the duty
TO the diamond done when il is said:
"Bv strong batting rally in The
eighth inning Of Yesterdays game a.
the Polo Grounds the Giants succeeded
in overcoming an apparently insuDera-
bic lead Of The st. Louis Cardinals and
defeating the Mound City aggregation
by the score Of II to g."
That is all right too. Il has its adj
yantages. il can be read.
In n Western city some time ago a
newspaper invited its readers TO tx
press their opinion as 10 whether they
would prefer 10 have the story OF the
game told in the vernacular or in Eng
lish. A. the writer recalls the issue
b it ended in 4 tic. or slanc followers
won by slight margin. The margin.
70 doubt. would have been greater II
/ the editor had been able to read some
Of tho letters written by the disciples
or Billy Baxter.
So there you are,