Blind Boys and Baseball.
Blind boys can play baseball. It is not the baseball of the League, but it answers—blind boys. Only one man in the game must have good eyes—the umpire. The diamond is like the regular ones, save that bases are forty instead of ninety feet apart. Players are stationed the same as in a League game, but there is a second short stop, or ten men on each side.
The catcher sits on the ground. Think of it—sits on the ground! He stays well back from the home-plate, and wears a mask and breastplate. The pitcher aims, first, to enable the batter to hit the ball, and, second, to have the ball, if not batted, to strike the ground just in front of the catcher and be taken on the bound. The batsman uses a bat much like a cricket bat. Taking his position, the umpire says, "One, two, three," and on the instant the "three" is spoken the pitcher delivers the ball. The batter has to guess at the time the ball will reach him, and he guesses rightly in more cases than one would think possible. If the ball is missed it lands in the catcher's lap. Beginners at the bat strike ludicrously wide of the ball, but as all the players are blind, they miss the place to laugh. If the ball is batted, the umpire calls out the name of the player toward whom the ball is going. This player hears it, and if he fails to catch it, chases it into the grass. It is his if he gets it, no matter on what bound it may be.
When the batter runs, the first-base man calls out, "First," and keeps calling, so the runner may know in what direction to go. The second-base man does the same, calling, "Second." Six outs put a side out. These blind boys get a wonderful amount of fun out of the play, and become expert at it.