Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

The True Story of Baseball’ By GRANTLAND RICE Dean of Sports Writers B ASEBALL is known as our national game. But how many know anything about the real story of baseball, including its origin? Very few among the millions who follow it today. So l am bringing to you one of baseball’s greatest historians, Will Irwin—who also happens to be one of the best writers and one of the top reporters this country has ever known. To me, this is the true story of baseball: “Dear Grant: This year is the hundredth anniversary of New York’s Knickerbocker Baseball club, and I understand that there is to be some kind of celebration this summer. But judging from prelimi nary notices, we seem likely to cele brate the right event in the wrong way. The Knickerbocker was not the Henry Chadwick devised the first bozscore and compiled the first of ficial baseball rules book, which was printed in 1857. His efforts did much to promote uniformity of play throughout the 'country. Some writ ers call Chadwick “The Father of Baseball’’ on this account. first baseball club in the United States, but it was nevertheless the founder of the modern game. And Alexander Cartwright, its first president, may have been the young genius who by one simple improve ment transformed a venerable Eng- ish game, now called ‘rounders,’ from a children’s sport to a game for hardy young athletes and a na tional institution. As for Gen. Abner Doubleday, the notices seem to en dorse the carefully fostered myth that he invented the game at Cooperstown, N. Y., in 1839; where as he has no valid claim whatever either as inventor or improver of baseball. Old Game Called ‘Rounders.’ “About 1912, and while many play ers who went back to baseball’s early days were still alive, I in vestigated the origins of the game for a national weekly and pub lished the conclusions stated above. At that time, Abner Doubleday passed only as a hero of Gettys burg—the myth of Cooperstown had not yet gained its adherents. Then in 1939, Robert W. Henderson, of the New York Public library, after painstaking research in the old books of that great collection, pub lished a pamphlet which knocked the Doubleday legend higher than one of Babe Ruth’s pop fouls. By document evidence, he proved that a game called baseball was played in England in the days of Abner Doubleday’s great - grandfathers, that it was known in America be fore the Revolution, that it was iden tical with what the English have for the last century called ‘rounders’ and that with a number of minor changes and one major one, it was the game which our big leagues are playing today. I will begin with his data, supplemented by my own. “One of the earliest known refer ences occurs in the lively letters of Mary Lepell, Lady Hervey. Under date of November 18, 1748, she takes a fling at the frivolous habits of the Prince of Wales and his court, who waste whole days playing ‘base ball, a play all who are, or have been, schoolboys, are acquainted with.’ Then comes Jane Austen. In the first chapter of ‘Northanger Abbey,’ composed in 1798 but not published until 1818, she wrote: *lt was not very wonderful that Cath erine . . . should prefer cricket, base ball, riding on horseback, and run ning about the country at the age of 14, to books.’ Used Soft Ball. “But the clincher is ‘The Boy’s Own Book,’ which was published in London in 1828 and ran through sev en British editions by 1849, a de scription of ‘Rounders’ appears in the second edition, probably issued in 1829. The text notes that this is the name of the game in western England, but that Londoners call it ‘feeder,’ and goes on to describe it— a feeder or pitcher, two catchers, the second to chase what the first had missed, four bases arranged diamond-form, the home base and the plate beside which the batsman stands being identical, ‘three strikes and out,’ ‘a ball caught on the fly is out,’ ‘a point scored whenever a man safely circles the bases.’ “But—here comes the all-impor tant point — when a batsman hit a fair grounder or a runner was caught between bases, the fielder put him out by HITTING HIM WITH A THROWN BALL. A missUe like our modern baseball would have caused the players to commit may hem or involuntary homicide at ev ery game. So they had to use a ball of yarn, not wound too tight, or, later, the standard hollow, air-in flated rubber ball. “Following the cheerfully unmoral practice of the time, a Boston pub lisher pirated that book, verbatim, in the early 1830s. In 1835, a pirate of Providence, R. I., republished it as ‘The Boys’ and Girls’ Book of Sports.’ He had probably played the game here, for he revised the rules slightly and changed the chap ter-heading from ‘Rounders’ to ‘Base, or Goal Ball.’ That was four years before Doubleday’s alleged stroke of genius at Cooperstown. “Both Lady Hervey and Jane Austen spent most of their lives in southern England. And the greater part of our English immigrants came in Colonial times from that district. It seems probable that the boys of Sussex and Hampshire and Dorset called it ‘baseball,’ as those of west England called it ‘round ers’ and of London, ‘feeder’ and that along with the game they brought the name to America. Popular in Early 1800s. “That game, then at least a cen tury old, is what Abner Doubleday taught the boys of Cooperstown in 1839—if he taught them anything. Even that is doubtful. In 1839, he was a cadet at West Point and it was not the year of his leave. The main testimony in his favor came* from a very old man named Abner Graves. And a commission, work ing not to establish the truth but to prove that no English hand had ever sullied our national game, made a fatal slip when it let him testify that in the game revealed to Coop erstown, the fielder put a runner out by hitting him with the ball! “There is evidence to show that this form of the game — some times called ‘“Town ball’’ — be came popular in and about Boston during the 1820s and 1830s. Then, in the early 1840s, the modern game made a dramatic appearance in New York City. An early tradition of the old-time baseball players tells the story about as follows: In that period, Madison Square was a pleasant, level field at the edge of town. There the adolescent boys and the young men used to kick foot balls or play such games as ‘crack the whip.’ Then one day in the early 1840s Alexander Cartwright said to some of them: “ ‘Fellows, I’ve got a new game to show you. Help me lay it out.’ At his direction, they laid out a dia mond with bases at the corner, of about the dimensions of our mod ern infield. He produced a round bat and a hard but elastic, leather-cov ered ball, and taught them round ers, town-ball or early-day baseball Alexander Cartwright, first pres ident of New York’s Knickerbocker Baseball club is credited with being the real originator of modern base ball. He introduced one revolution ary change—the putout by tagging with the ball. Previously the base- man threw the ball at the run ner. Cartwright’s innovation per mitted the use of the hard ball. or whatever you wish to call it, with one great, vital exception. The field er put out a runner between bases not by ‘burning him’ with a thrown ball but BY HOLDING THE BALL IN HIS OWN HAND AND TOUCH ING HIM WITH IT. The variation of this plfty, in the case of a bats man making for first base or ot a force play, came later. That was the stroke which transformed baseball. Henceforth, the players could use a hard ball. The boys liked it. The slap and sting on their hands was a challenge to their fortitude, and the smack of the bat on this solid but elastic ball a most satisfactory sen sation. Further they could throw it with the speed of a bullet. The game had grown up, become one of the ‘manly’ sports. “And even if this story about Cart wright be only false tradition, the fact is that by 1845, when those same boys founded the Knick erbocker Baseball club, the boys of New York City and the nearby New Jersey towns were playing the game in the new way. Here, let me mention two links with the parent game. At that time, the modern method of scoring — nine innings, with the team making the most runs the winner—had not yet come in. The first team making 21 runs won the game, as in handball. And this, I found by correspondence in 1912, was the time-honored rule in Eng lish rounders. The pitcher, in 1845 and for some years afterward, had to throw underhand without bend ing his elbow. And the pictures in the old books cited above show the pitcher or ‘feeder’ doing exactly that. ‘New York Game’ was Rugged. “The game spread to upstate New York and to Pennsylvania. New England, however, continued to play baseball in the old way. By the time of the Civil War the newspa pers and certain rudimentary sporting weeklies were publishing items about it, including scores of the important matches. Always they distinguished, a little contemptuous ly in New York, between the ‘Bos ton game’ where no one took chances with damaging his pretty hands and the ‘New York game’ where knotty fingers were scars of glorious wounds — for it was a point of honor not to wear gloves. During the war, the New York regiments played it in camp and .taught it to men of other states, even to Con federate prisoners on parole. These novices carried it home; and the Boston game went back to the "GAY GADGETS" Associated Newspapers—WNU Features. By NANCY PEPPER DO AND DYE What’s your favorite color? You’ll find it in a package of dye and you can spread it through your ward robe just by following the directions on the box. We’ve seen lots of keen teens lately dressed all in one color from head to foot and we’ve been wondering. Now, the mystery’s solved. One of our soda fountain sleuths reports that it all eomes out of a package of dye. Skirt and Sweater Harmonies— You’re burnt to a crisp if you have a sweater and skirt that exactly match. Take any old sweat er and dye it to pair up with the skirt. Monotone — but not monotonous. Hot Feet — Dye your Robert socks any color to match sweaters or com plete outfits. It’s easy. Colored Cords—Even the boys are dyeing! Have you seen those T.D. \ & G’s with two tone corduroy-1 slacks? They dye one leg red, the other green. Perish forbid is what we always say in a case like this. | Singin’ in the Rain—That’s what { you’ll be doing if you dye your old tan raincoat a bright color. Don’t envy those slick chicks with their | new purple, green or what-have-you' rain coats. Just do and dye. SEWING CIRCLE PATTERNS Released by Western Newspaper Union. By VIRGINIA VALE I ISTENERS to a recent “John- ny Presents’ ’ broadcast nev er even suspected that in the studio the sort of thing was hap pening that speeds radio per formers and producers toward nervous breakdowns. Ginny Simms was singing when a man walked up on the stage and headed toward her. Since, when a big show like that one is produced, there are so many people on stage, oo one realized just at first that the tnan didn’t belong there. Then Ken Roberts, the announcer, spotted him. Just before the man reached Ginny, Roberts reached him; he took the stranger by the arm and led him off stage, whispering in his ear very 'confidentially all the while. Credit t Ginny with never missing a note! —I In more than six years in pictures Geraldine Fitzgerald practically al ways lost out romantically, with the other girl getting the man. In “Wil son” she won out, and decided to leave Warner Bros, and strike out , Fugitives We slink around the comer. We rush into the show; we’re praying that we don’t meet Anyone we know. What are we girls ashamed of? Oh, anyone can see It’s Friday night and we are W. A. D * •“W. A. D.” means “without a date.”) Minute Make - Ups By OABRIELLB children, who are playing it yet. “The Baseball museum and Hall of Fame is a worthy institution. But it is in the wrong place. It should stand ,on Madison Square, New York. Most of the pioneer base ball players whom I knew in the early 1910s revered that spot as the cradle of the game. Whenever Sam Crane passed it, he took off his hat and said, ‘There was planted the little acorn from which the great oak grew.’ “Will Irwin.” A tense moment in the “Grant Match for the Championship” between the Knickerbockers and the New York Nine played in Hoboken, N. J. in 1846, is captured in this Currier and Ives print. The quaint uniforms, underhand pitching, awkward stances of batter, catcher, basemen and fielders seem laughable today. Wealth Goes to Things He Never Cared About BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND. — Arthur W. Keep, wealthy export er, who died last November, left the bulk of his fortune of more than $600,000 to the city of Bir mingham for sports fields, swim ming pools, and bus and trolley shelters. Associates said he never had shown any interest in sports, never learned to swim. T £ L E F A C T MORE MODERATE-PRICED CLOTHING FOR U.S. CIVILIANS IN 1945 WP> AND OP A PLAN NEW GARMENT QUOTA OTHER ITEMS 25% U. S. Infantry Outfit In Line for 500 Days ROME. — The veteran United States 34th infantry division claimed a record for American forces in this war recently when it completed 500 days of actual combat. As a matter of fact, 5th army headquarters announced, there were some Iowa, Minnesota and Dakota national guardsmen, who made up the original 34th, in the division who had been in line more than 600 days and were still going strong. Use fresh, crushed strawberries, beaten into your big jar of cold cream. Strawberries have a gentle bleaching effect on the skin. The fresh fruit has a wonderful fra grance and if you will keep your crushed strawberry cold cream in the ice box it will last and last! Ledger Syndicate.—WNU Features. GERALDINE FITZGERALD for herself. So they let her win John Garfield in “Nobody Lives Forever,” as a parting gift. On her own, she went into “Uncle Haiyy,” for Uni versal—doesn’t get her man, but goes to the gallows for trying! All of one day Hollywood was filled with rumors that RKO and Paramount had merged—a big gate was opened between the two studios, and that was enough for the gossips. The fact of the matter was that Leo McCarey was shooting exteriors with Ingrid Bergman, Henry Trav ers and several extras on a Para mount lot for Rainbow Productions’ “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” being made at RKO. * Eddie Cantor’s still untitled West ern Comedy at RKO will retain for Cantor and Joan Davis the same character names they used in “Show Business,” though there’s no simi larity between the pictures; they’ll keep the same names just for luck. Oliver Wallace, who composed “Huhdustan” during the last war and “Der Fuehrer’s Face” during this one, provides the score for Walt Disney’s new short, “African Di ary,” which RKO is releasing. This time Goofy is starred. * Lauren Bacall has a difficult task ahead of her; she’s finished “The Big Sleep,” her second. picture, in which she appears opposite Hum phrey Bogart; for her third assign ment she’ll have the feminine lead in “Confidential Agent,” which play an English woman. A differ ent accent, a different male lead, —she’ll have to work hard. Fred MacMurray and Leslie Fen ton launched their new enterprise, Mutual Productions, recently, begin ning work on “Pardon My Past.” It’s a comedy, and MacMurray plays twin brothers who never meet, but whose effect on each other’s ex istence is disastrous. Marguerite Chapman is Fred’s leading lady; Akim Tamiroff, William Demarest, Harry Davenport and Douglas Dum- brille have strong roles. An air-force friend is responsible for Abbott and Costello’s signing Bob Mathews as a vocalist on their Thursday night NBC programs. The friend, on furlough, was asked to Costello’s one Sunday for a swim; he took along a record of Mathews’ and played it for Lou. * A special concert made up of re quests from our troops overseas will be broadcast by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, Artur Dodzinski conducting, over CBS on Sunday, July 1. Requests are being cleared by the Armed Forces Radio Service. —* ODDS AND ENDS—On fcij Sunday radio program Ozzie Nelson recently urged people to take servicemen into their homes—and when he got home found that his children had filled the house with sol diers and sailors. . . In “Masquerade in Mexico" Dorothy Lamour wears a stream lined silver bathing suit. . . . Joan Bennett will start in “Woman in the Window” on the Radio Theater June 18. . . . Republic’s Sunset Carson, 6'4" Western star, dropped into the studio’s hospital for an aspirin; on the way out he hit his head on a sign, and had to go back for treatment. . . . Amos ’n’ Andy plan to leave on a tout o| foreign military installations in June. Two-Piecer to Wear All Summer Party Frock for a Little Girl V 7 W 4/ l\ [ / 1350 /. 1 l V 2-6 yw* 1319 12-20 Simple Two-Piecer DERFECT answer for every 1 summer need—a simple two- piecer with a crisp, clean-cut air. Use bright checked or striped fab rics, trimmed with the boldest of ric rac. * • • Pattern No. 1319 is designed for sizes 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20. Size 14. short or three- quarter sleeves, requires 3 7 / B yards of 35 or 39-inch material; 2 yards ric rac for trimming. (V. (V. <%. P-. <%• O’* (V. (V. (V. 0~ fk~ <V. (V. <v. \ ASK ME O ? ? ANOTHER i \ 9 Ho f A General Quiz o~ o- o- o- o'- o~ o- o- o- o- r*- o- o- tv. 1. Was Beau Brummel a real or fictitious character? 2. What is the tactile sense? 3. When Noah sailed in the Ark how many women were aboard? 4. What coat of arms suggested the use of stars and stripes in the American flag? 5. What one thing remained in Pandora’s box? 0. What Biblical characters went to heaven without dying? 7. Is the army man of today tall er than the army man of World War I? 8. When it’s 6 p. m. in London, what time is it in Chicago? Dainty Parly Frock CHE’LL look as bright as a new ^ penny in this dainty party frock. Gay little ruffles and nov elty buttons on an all-over floral print make it as pretty a dress as you’ll see. • * • Pattern No. 1350 Is designed for sizes S, 3, 4, 5 and 6 years. Size 3 requires 1% yards of 35 or 39-inch fabric: 2 yards machine-made ruffling to trim. • . Due to an unusually large demand and current war conditions, slightly more time is required in filling orders for a few of the most popular pattern numbers. Send your order to: SEWING CIRCLE PATTERN DEPT. 530 South Wells St. Chicago Enclose 25 cents in coins for each pattern desired. r Pattern No Name Sooltias and protects baby’s lander Irritated skin. Believes doper rash, helpe prevent R. MEXSANA SOOTHING MEDICATED FOWDiR The Answer* 1. Real (George B. Brummel). 2. The sense of touch. 3. Four — Noah’s wife, Shem’s wife, Japheth’s wife, and Ham’s wife. 4. The coat of arms of the Wash ington family. 5. Hope. 6. Elijah and Enoch. 7. Yes, soldiers of this war are two-thirds cf an inch taller. 8. Noon. Shifting Sand Raises Town 150 Feet in 500 Years The shifting sand in and around Skagen, the chief fishing port of Denmark, has raised the level of the town about 150 feet in the last 500 years, says Collier’s. Conse quently, the 2,400 inhabitants have been obliged to raise their homes and other buildings from time to time to keep them on the surface. The only structure to be aban doned, because its great weight prevented its removal, is a large 15th century stone church which is now buried so completely that the only part visible is the top of the tower. IS GETTING UP NIGHTS GETTING YOU DOWN? Thooiands say famous doctor's discovery gives blessed relief from irritation of the bladder caased by excess acidity in die urine Why suffer needlessly from backaches, run-down feeling from excess acidity in the urine> Just try DR. KILMER'S SWAMP ROOT, ths renowned herbal medicine. SWAMP ROOT acts fast on tho kidneys to promote the flow of urine and relievo troublesome excess acidity. Origi nally created by a practising physician, * Ily blended i Dr. Kilmer's is a carefully L nation of 16 herbs, roots, yegstables, bal sams. Absolutely nothing harsh or habit forming in this purs, scientific prepara tion. Just good ingredients that quickly act on the kidneys to increase the flow of urine and ease the uncomfortable symp toms of bladder irritation. Send for free, prepaid sample TODAY! Like thousands of others you'll bo glad that you did. Send name and address to Department B, Kilmer Al Co^ Inc., Ben 1255, Stamford, Conn. Offer limited. Send at once. All druggists sell Swamp Root. ffcaB WAR LOAN This | and package contains a combination of minerals produced •u. u compounded by Nature alone, with no artificial fc- gredients nor man-made drugs. When you mix it with your drinking water, according to directions and drink Crasy Water day after day, you join millions who have attacked tlw cause of their troubles. Gently but surely Crasy Water stimulates three main cleansing channels--—kidney, skin and intmtinal elimination. Crazy Water brings positive benefits in faulty elimination, ;he cause and aggravating factor of rheumatic pains, digestive orders, constipation, excess acidity, etc. Get a package of Crasy Water Crystals at your drug store today. (k^z^r 11 1 Q&sials M FOR QUICK RELIEF FROM TIRED,ACHYMUSCLES| Sproim « Stroim « Bruiot • Stiff Joints ■W/uxtpxi N££D SLOAN'S LINIMENT