Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-08-19
How Sales Record Won
Girls League Championship
BY Fannie Livingston. Captain

There was a great deal of rejoicing
among the employees of the du Pont
COMPANY when II was learned that they
were TO have a country club, and they
were still more pleased when doc
Souires conceived the idea of having a
Girls Baseball League. 1t Is remarkable
how the girls took TO this sport. In a
short time there were over 200 girls trying
for places on the teams representing the
different divisions of the company.
In order 20 appreciate what it means to
train a girls baseball team, and partIcu-
larry TO train a winning team, imagine any
one acquainted with baseball getting to-
ecther a score or more of young men who
have never had a bat or ball in their
hands until they were Is or 20 years of age,
then substitute girls for boys and the
difficulties OF the proposition Will be recog-
nized.
IL is well understood that girl cannot
hit the side OF the proverbial barn with a
stone. Contrast this with trying TO teach
a girl TO throw a ball over the home plate
between the shoulder and the knee and
no farther than II inches from the body OF
the batter. And again try TO imagine the
effort IL took to show these girls how TO
handle bat, TO hit the ball and then your
troubles have Just commenced. Base
running seemed 10 be almost impossible
10 accomplish. 1t is said in the Bible that
Lots wife turned to look back and was
turned into a pillar of salt, and from that
day, never girl starts TO run that she
doesn't look back. and this inherited de-
feet had 10 be corrected as when indulged
in il invariably resulted in the runner
being put out.
Well, we managed TO finally get ten
regular players and four substitutes ac-
quainted with the rudiments Of the game
and we were extremely fortunate In hav-
ing a few players who had played ball
with their big brothers and knew some
thing about throwing; this helped. Then
commenced the training OF the team in
the fine points of the game, such as picking
up ground balls cleanly, Judging flies, and
when the ball was In their hands to know
where TO throw it--i. e., to the proper
base-which could only be accomplished
by impressing on them the necessity for
always making survey of the bases be-
fore they reached for the ball. And last,
but not least, TO know when to run, to
take chances an running, and when the
situation was desperate to even slide.
Think OF II, teaching a girl at full speed to
throw herself on the ground and to slide
into a'base headhrst. But we did it. not.
however, until every member of the team
had been thoroughly aroused to the pros
pect of winning and was bubbling over
with enthusiasm.
Such training as outlined, however,
might win games ordinarily, but would
never win championship. The latter
could only be accomplished by teaching
them what is known as Inside baseball
and this was slow and tedious work They
had to be shown that mere mechanical
work in throwing and batting and run
ming would not win games in am emergen-
cy. They had to do some original thinking
based on standardized experience in base
bal, playing Of high order. The weak
points OF the opposing teams had to be
watched as well as the strong points
Just one instance viii show what is
meant by this One of our opposing teams
had on it two remarkably fast base run
ncrs. We were aware of this as well as of
other matters OF interest in connection
with the peculiarities of the players on