| A Brief Outline of the Origins and History of the Game Although various bat and ball games have existed for many centuries (Townball, Rounders, Cricket, Old Cat, etc.), the version of the game we now know as baseball is generally credited to Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr. who is believed to have composed a set of by-laws for his club, the New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club in 1845. Fourteen of those by-laws made up the rules of the game and included the diamond shaped field, three strikes and three outs rules, fair and foul territory and elimination of the practice of ‘soaking’, or throwing the ball at a runner to put him out. This version, known at the time as the New York Game quickly became popular and began to spread across the northeast. In 1849, Cartwright left New York for California, and it is said that he took with him balls and bats, teaching the new game to pioneers, settlers and even Indians along the way. However, when he got to California he contracted dysentery and so caught a ship for China to join his brother in business there But due to violent sea sickness, he disembarked in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). After sending for his family, he spent the rest of his life there where he organized the public library system and fire department in Honolulu, served as financial advisor to the Royal family and organized baseball teams among the islanders. Meanwhile, the game was evolving back in the States. Cartwright’s original rules called for a game to end at the end of the inning when one team scored twenty one runs, and his method of measuring the base path distances (forty two paces between home and second and forty two between first and third) led to distances closer to seventy five feet. In 1857, one of Cartwright’s successors, Daniel ‘Doc’ Adams oversaw changes calling for the base paths to be set at ninety feet and he then called for the game to end after nine equal innings (except for a tie). The early rules agreed upon by the National Association of Base Ball Players (established in 1857) continued to hold to the Knickerbockers’ rules saying that baseballs caught either on the fly or after one bound were to be declared outs, but the rules allowing the one bound fly were on the way out by the late 1860s. Early fielders played without gloves, though these became common by the 1880s when the ball diameter was reduced by about a half inch and faster overhand pitching was allowed. In the early days, there were no called strikes or balls, and pitches were simply intended to put the ball into play. But by the 1870s, rules were written stating that strikes would be called when the umpire felt the ball was pitched where it might have been struck, and batters were allowed to advance to first base if enough balls that could not be hit were thrown. When balls started being called, the number needed to award first base varied for a few years, but settled at four by 1889. For almost the first twenty years of the sport, playing for any compensation was prohibited, but by 1869, pressure to create teams with highly skilled professional players led the Cincinnati Red Stockings to openly pay its members a salary, followed shortly afterwards by other clubs paying their players. Baseball had its first celebrity sports reporter with Henry Chadwick. His colorful newspaper descriptions of the games probably did more to increase the popularity of the young sport than anything else. He also devoted much of his time working with the various baseball associations clarifying rules and suggesting changes to improve the game, while laboring tirelessly to keep gambling out of the sport and to encourage gentlemanly and sportsmanlike conduct on and off the ball field. Ironically, it was an article written by Chadwick in 1903 stating that baseball had evolved from Cricket and other English ball games that led the publisher of his magazine, Albert Spaulding to launch a national search to prove than an American had actually ‘invented’ the game. This resulted in a letter from 80 year old Abner Graves stating that he saw the late, former Union General, Abner Doubleday teaching the game to schoolboys almost sixty five years earlier in Cooperstown, New York. This story was shortly proven to be untrue for a number of reasons, but only after it had been published and found its way into sports legend and inspired a Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame being built near where the mythical first game had been held. But even though he credited the wrong American, Spaulding had been right in his feelings about one thing: Baseball really was an American sport. |
Vintage Base Ball in Texas
