No attempt has been made in these lines to color the picture. Public enthusiasm in America over the national game is something more than the cleverest pen could depict. From day to day the relative standing of the teams in the championship races is stated in tabulated form at the head of the baseball column of every reputable American daily, and the slightest change in the positions of the teams in the race is sufficient cause for exultation in the home of the fortunate team, and for a corresponding degree of depression in the home of the team that has been supplanted in its position. The position of a team in the race is determined by the percentage of the games it has won, the percentage being determined by dividing the number of games won by those played. Thus a team may have won 51 games and lost 47, consequently it has played 98. Now, divide 51 by 98, adding to the dividend three ciphers, and for a quotient you have .520, which would be the percentage of games won to the number of games played by that team.
The theory of the game of baseball is in itself simple. It is that two contesting teams must endeavor to send the greatest number of men around the circuit of the bases under prescribed rules within a limited number of innings. That is the cardinal point in the theory of the game.
Now, as to the rules and requirements to which players must adhere in attempting to make the circuit of the bases, and the means by which they can be prevented.
Each team must invariably consist of nine men, and the game must be played upon a regularly marked or laid-out field, as illustrated upon page 165.
The field, it will be seen, consists of a continuous runway, these runways being clay-covered paths, laid out in the shape of a huge diamond. At each corner of the diamond is a basebag of canvas filled with sand or other material, and strapped securely to the ground.
Now, to the average American youth, the duties of the players in two contesting ball teams, and their positions upon the field, are known in a general way. There are many spectators, even in America, however, who, if asked to explain the simplest points in a game, would find themselves lamentably ignorant upon the subject. Baseball correspondents, writers, professional players and rule makers, probably because long experience has made them thoroughly familiar with the rules and terms of the national game, have fallen into the use of technicalities, that in many instances cause the game to seem intricate to the uninitiated. In truth, however, the game’s greatest charm is its simplicity, combined with the manifold opportunities it offers for brilliant and daring work by the players. A simple description of the cardinal points in the game, therefore, divested of all technical terms that cannot be plainly defined, will, perhaps, aid many a reader in America, as well as in other countries, to understand baseball, where the simple reading of the professional playing rules, framed by the rules committee, would mystify rather than inform a reader not already familiar with the game.
Let it be understood, therefore, that the basebags are known as first, second, third base and home plate, first base being the first bag to the right of the batsman as the latter faces the pitcher. The distance between bases is ninety feet. The players are known as pitcher, catcher, first baseman, second baseman, short-stop, third baseman, right fielder, centre fielder, and left fielder. The pitcher (or bowler) stands in the centre of the diamond, within prescribed lines four feet wide by five feet four inches long, known as the pitcher’s box. The forward line of the pitcher’s box is fifty feet from the home plate, which the pitcher faces when ready to deliver the ball, and beside which the batsman stands as he faces the pitcher. Behind the home plate stands the catcher, it being his duty to receive the ball from and return it to the pitcher, should it not be batted by the batsman. Just behind the catcher stands the umpire, who is expected to judge every ball pitched and every play made during the game, his decision being final in every instance. At first base stands the first baseman, and at second base stands the second baseman. The short-stop is stationed midway between the second and third basemen, in or near the runway, and the third baseman at third base. These four men constitute the “infield” of the team. Facing the diamond, and stationed from 100 to 125 yards from the infield, are the right, centre, and left fielders. These men constitute the “outfield” of the team.
The choice of going to bat or to the field for the opening innings of the game is optional with the captain of the home team—that is, the team upon whose grounds the game is being played. Should he decide to send his men to the field, he stations them as above indicated, while the nine players of the opposing team take their seats upon the visiting players’ bench. These players go to bat in the order in which their names appear upon the score card. When the fielding team has taken its position, the first batsman of the opposing team steps to the plate, and others follow him in regular turn, until three batsmen have been retired by the efforts of the opposing fielders. Then the positions of the teams are reversed, the side which was at bat going to the field, and the side which was doing fielding duty coming in to take their turn at bat in regular order. When three of the second team’s batsmen have been retired, or put out by the efforts of the opposing fielders, the innings is ended, each team having sent three or more men to bat, and each having had three men retired. Nine such innings, requiring from one hour and a half to one hour and fifty minutes of play, constitute a game, and the team which has scored the most runs wins the game. Should rain, or any other cause, stop the game before five full innings have been played, however, the game must be contested over again before it can count in a championship record.
When the batsman steps to the plate he is expected to hit the ball so that it will pass the intercepting fielders, and go to such distance in the outfield as will enable him to reach first base before the ball can be returned to the fielder stationed there. If he can reach second or third base, or make the entire circuit of the bases before the ball has been intercepted by any one of the infielders, or before it has been captured by an outfielder and returned to the infield, so much the better, for the base-runner’s object is to ultimately make the circuit and touch the home plate, by which he scores a run for his side. To put a batsman out, a fielder must catch the batted ball before it has reached the ground, or must recover it in time to throw it to the base for which the base-runner is making, before the base-runner reaches it.
The pitcher is required by the rules to pitch the ball over the plate and between the knee and shoulder of the batsman. Each time he tries and fails to do so the umpire calls “ball,” and upon five such balls being pitched, the batsman is entitled to take first base. When three fair balls have been put over the plate, however, and the batsman has failed to hit them, the batsman is out, whether he has struck at the ball or not. For each fair ball the umpire calls “strike.”