When all of the one side are put out of the game the opposite side has won, and all are entitled to a throw with the ball at the boy on the losing side who was first put out. The victim stands with head down and back arched facing the wall, while the victors line themselves at thirty feet distant and take turns "burning" the captive—that is, hitting him with the ball—if they can. It must be remembered that the dangerous baseball is never used in these games, and the other ball does no injury to the lad struck.
CHAPTER XVI
BASEBALL, THE GREAT AMERICAN GAME. A FEW POINTERS THAT MAY HELP YOU
The best baseball field is level and smooth. It is best, if it can be had, to start with the right kind of a layout.
The catcher, or back stop, as he is called by professionals, is usually in front of the observation stand, or a board wall or other obstruction. This is usually ninety feet from the home plate.
If you fasten a cord one hundred and twenty-seven feet four inches long straight out in the field, the place for second base is found.
This done, take a rope or line one hundred and eighty feet long, fasten one end to the home plate and the other to second base; then draw the middle of the line at first to the right and then to the left, till it is tight. This will mark the places of first and third base.
The place of the pitcher's box is fixed by measuring a line of fifty feet from home to second base. The pitcher's box should be five feet six inches long by four feet wide. For batsman there are two positions, one for the left and the other for the right handed. The batsman's stand is two rectangular spaces, each six feet long and four feet wide. The nearest line should be six inches from the home plate, and should extend three feet in front and three feet behind the center of the home plate.
Having thus laid out the field, we proceed to further mark the various points. In doing this, if the field is to be a permanent one, it is best to make use of the most improved apparatus; but if the field is only a temporary one, there are various devices which save expense, and which answer the purpose quite satisfactorily. The home plate is, by the rules, a whitened piece of rubber a foot square, sunk flush with the ground, its outer edges being within the lines to first and third bases. An excellent substitute for rubber is a piece of board painted white, or a bit of marble such as can be readily obtained at any marble yard. The first, second and third bases are canvas bags, 15 inches square, stuffed with any soft material, and so fastened as to have their centers at the corners of the diamond which we have already marked out. They will thus extend several inches outside the diamond. The customary method of fastening the bag is by means of a leather strap passing through loops upon the bag and directly around the center. This strap is slipped through an iron staple in the top of a post driven firmly into the ground at the corner of the diamond, and the strap is then buckled on the under side of the bag.
The wooden post and the iron staples can easily be had. It is better to have them to keep the base fixed. A stone is apt to work injury.