It’s the Same Old Baseball
By: John Thorn
Tags: Baseball, Sid Farrar, Vanity Fair, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner

It’s the Same Old Baseball

Sid Farrar, ca. 1887

This essay is by Sidney Farrar, captain, in the 1880s, of the Philadelphia Phillies. From Vanity Fair, September 1914.

If you and I were at the Polo Grounds this afternoon, and the Giants were playing Chicago, and Matty was having one of his best days, I know what you would say to me.

You would say, “Mr. Farrar, are these players as good as the men who played baseball 25 years ago?”

I suppose I have heard that question a thousand times. Generally it comes in the second inning, and never later than the fourth. I am used to it — and I know what you younger men expect me to say.

You expect me to light a cigar, and look wise, and tell you that Mathewson can’t hold a candle to Radbourne; that Billy Sunday was a faster man on the bases than Cobb; that Mike Kelly had more baseball brains under his cap than Eddie Collins or Tris Speaker.

If I say this, you are sure to look pleased and nod your head and make me feel I have done just what we old-time players are expected to do.

But today I am going to give you a surprise. I am going to tell you what no retired player ever told you before. I am going to say that the players of today are better than they used to be.

Take Christy Mathewson — the best of them all, especially when you remember that he has been a star for fourteen years. There is nobody among the old-timers whom I would put in Mathewson’s class. However, it would be a pity to forget [Charlie] Ferguson, who was on the old Philadelphia team with me for five years, and who not only pitched as well as any man ever did, but was a fine batter and runner. For these reasons I would put Ferguson ahead of even Walter Johnson, and only second to Mathewson himself.

Baseball is much faster than it used to be. The gloves have done that. How would a catcher look to you who stood right up under the bat, without mask, pads or glove, and took the swiftest pitched balls barehanded? All catchers did that on the third strike, in the old days; but on the first two strikes the catcher laid back. Gloves have helped the fielding, too. They make it possible for a smart infield to cut off many balls that would have gone for hits in the old days. In the outfield, however, the best players of today are not at all surer on fly balls than the men of my time used to be.

You hear a great deal about “inside baseball” — generally from some fan who has been reading the newspapers, and thinks the game is full of new plays invented by wise managers. He sees Jennings, Griffith or Chance out in the coaching box. Pretty soon the hit-and-run play, or the double steal, is tried.

“Aha!” says the fan. “Did you get that signal? That play was inside baseball — you wouldn’t have seen it, back in the old days.”

When I hear this, I wish Tim Keefe, or Buck Ewing could come back in uniform and take a seat on the bench. Do you think Keefe didn’t know about the “squeeze” play, and didn’t have [a] change of pace? Or do you think Ewing wasn’t just as good at breaking up the hit and run as the catchers of today? Ask any man who has seen Denny, Williamson, Comiskey, Kelly and stars of that order — ask how they compared in “inside” ability with the players of today.

Honus Wagner (top, third from left) with Paterson, 1896

I read the other day that Wagner, the Pittsburg “old man,” has just made his 3,000th base hit in the major league. Remembering as I do when Wagner first broke into baseball (and it does not seem so long ago, though it is 18 years), I can’t help being reminded of the flight of time. Here is a man regarded by everyone as a wonderful veteran — a grandfather playing with the boys — and yet Wagner was playing catch in the back lots when I went to bat for the last time, nearly 25 years ago. But, as I have said, baseball is still baseball — the same old game, with the same pleasure for the spectators, and the same zest and satisfaction for the man who is lucky enough to follow it as a profession.

Harry Wright

Perhaps baseball would not be a profession today — perhaps it might never have developed from rounders and cricket, had it not been for Harry Wright. The son of an Englishman, Mr. Wright played baseball in the early ’60s, and organized the Cincinnati Red Stockings which he managed, alternately pitching and playing center field. When the men put on their uniforms, the Cincinnati folk were tepid for a time, but the club won every game it played in 1868, [1869] arousing great enthusiasm. Ladies went to the game (Mr. Wright having invented the idea of a Ladies’ Day each week). Songs were written about the Red Stockings, One of them starts:

“As to the Park we go / The Ladies want to know / Who are those lovely men / With the scarlet stockings on?”

About 1874 Mr. Wright took a team to England, and played several games of cricket before large crowds — beating the English at their own game. After that he went to Philadelphia, first managing the Boston and Providence ball teams. He died in 1895.

Harry Wright, certainly the “Father of Professional Baseball”

In the West Laurel Hill Cemetery there is a fine bronze figure of Harry Wright. He is shown, as he watched many a game, anxious to win yet self-possessed, never belittling the opposing team and always giving the other club credit for good play. He knew how to lose as well as how to win.

In every city which his clubs visited Harry Wright was liked and respected by everyone, from the fan in the bleachers to the Senator from Washington who had played with him in Cincinnati, and who said to him, “I am proud to call myself one of your boys!” He well deserves his title, “The Father of Baseball.”

It was undoubtedly due to him and to his changing and modifying the game of rounders that baseball is what it is today.

After a man’s baseball days are over, what? Well, there is John K. Tener, who stepped from the ball field into politics, advanced to the Governor’s chair in Pennsylvania, and has now gone back again to baseball as President of the National League.

There is John M. Ward, always a brilliant player and a great star on the Providence and New York teams. He is a successful lawyer, and he has also gone back to baseball in his later years — this time as one of the men who planned the new Federal League and are now establishing it in public favor. The process will take time, of course, but if the Federals room [text missing] for them, and every lover of the national game will wish them success.

Billy Sunday with Cap Anson

Then there is Billy Sunday. You know all about him and the wonderful success he has had in his calling. There is Dave Fultz, who was one of the best players twenty years ago, and is now prominently identified with baseball as President of the Players’ Fraternity.

I suppose, take it all in all, that a man never forgets his first love. Those of the old time players who can, in some way, keep on with baseball seem always to do so. The path may lead to the ownership of some club or to the presidency of a league. But, wherever it leads, there are always plenty of old players anxious to follow; and if we cannot take part in an active way, at least we never let our interest die.

Down in the box seats at all the games you will see white-haired men who follow the game quietly, yet never miss a play. Maybe you will wonder whether these fat and elderly brokers and lawyers and business men really understand and appreciate the game. Sometimes, when you have said something about the plays or the players, one of these old fellows will smile a little in his sleeve. Don’t be offended — he is probably one of the old-fashioned players who were lining out the ball when you were in your crib. Treat his opinions with respect, because there is always the chance that he is one of the people who made baseball what it is today.