The mirror., 1921-01-20
baseball, as advanced by Mr.. Spalding,

is an interesting one. He says:
"However historians may differ as to
the origin of the American National
Game, all must agree that the sport had
as its foundation ball. Without that as
its base, the superstructure of the grandest
pastime ever devised by man would never
have been erected.
"In order to realize on the ball it is
necessary to have some one put it in
motion. Placing the ball in the hands
of the first lad who happens along, we
may be assured he will do the rest. And
he does.
"T'll tell you what we will do says
Tom. T'll throw the ball against the
barn. You get that old axe handle over
there and strike it as it comes back. If
you miss the ball and catch it, you're
out; but if you hit the ball and can run
and touch the barn before I can get the
ball and hit you with it, you count one.
If I hit you with the ball before you get
back to your place, you're out
"They try it, find it works well, and the
third stage of the game has developed
into Barn Ball, with two boys, bat and
a ball.
"Again it happens that it is not some
times altogether convenient to play Barn
Ball. Tom and Dick are coming from
school with Harry. They tell him about
their game of ball and the fun there is in it.
"T'll tell you what we can do,' says
Tom. You and I, Dick, will throw and
catch, just as we did the other day, and
Harry can stand between us with the
club and try to hit the ball. If he misses
and either of us catches the ball before it
hits the ground, or on the first bound, he
is out and the fellow that catches the ball
takes the club.
"Tf he hits the ball far enough to get
to that rock over there and back again
before one of us gets the ball, he counts
one tally, but if one of us hits him with
the ball, he is out
"Thus the game of One Old Cat was
born, and the fourth step has been evolved,
with three boys, bat, ball and base."
The final step in the evolution of the
game in 1889, as has before been stated,
when Abner Doubleday adopted the dia-
mond-shaped field, and the other points
of play, which were also adopted by the
Knickerbocker Baseball Club in New
York, upon its organization in 1S45.
"Then it was" Mr.. Spalding says, chat
the number of players participating in the
game was limited to eighteen-nine on a
side; pitcher, catcher, short-stop,
first, second and third basement, right,
center and left felders, four bases, bat
and ball, and was the game of baseball
substantially as played today.
"The organizationof the Knickerbocker
Baseball Club was the beginning of a
most important era in the history of the
game, for it was the first recorded move
ment of that kind. For more than thirty
years the Knickerbocker Club maintained
an amateur organization and, as such, was
a model in every respect.
"In 1916 party of players styling them
selves The New York Nine issued
challenge to the Knickerbocker to play a
match for dinner, of course. The event
came off in Hoboken on June 10. The
contest was very one-sided affair. The
challengers won by score of % to 1,
only four innings being necessary to score
the % runs.
ut was FIVE years before the Knicker-
booker Club engaged in another baseball
match. In June, 1881, the Washingtons
challenged the Knickerbockers who, hav-
ing profted by their defeat by the New
York Nine, had greatly improved their
game. They apeared upon the ground
in new uniforms, composed of blue trous-
ers, white shirts and straw hats, creating
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