Clipping:Another defense of the New York game
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| Date | Sunday, October 30, 1859 |
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| Text | Noticing, a few days since, a paragraph in the Tribune, in regard to the anticipated match at base ball between the English cricketers and the New York ball players, which does gross injustice to the National Game; and, thinking some of your readers in New York–more especially ball-players–may imagine that it expresses the sentiments of the players of Massachusetts, or New England, I would inform them that the game played in New York is acknowledged by hundreds of players in Massachusetts and New England, as well as scores of clubs who play under the rules of the National Association, to be the only game of base ball worthy of being adopted as the National Game. Whether they are correct in their opinions or not, may be judged from the fact that the game is known and appreciated from Maine to Louisiana, while the Massachusetts game is hardly known beyond the New England states, and the rules of the Massachusetts Convention are only acknowledged by some twenty clubs in Massachusetts. I give you a few of the points of the Massachusetts game, that your readers my judge how far it is superior to the National game: 1st. The ball used in the Massachusetts game weighs two ounces, is six inches in circumference (about the size of a respectable English walnut), and about as hard as a well boiled dumpling. The New York ball weighs six ounces, and measures ten inches in circumference, and is nearly as hard as a cricket ball, as the crooked fingers of many players will testify. 2d. The distance between the bases is sixty feet–two-thirds of the space between those of the Nation game. 3d. The man who can poke the ball in the most awkward manner–over his head, between his legs, or to the side–is considered a first-class batsman, in the Massachusetts game; while in the other the striker, is obliged to bat fair and square into the field. 4th. Instead of one player behind, as in the New York game, there are generally three, and sometimes four, to stop and catch the ball. 5th. Nearly the whole of a game, in the Massachusetts style, is played by the thrower, striker, and first man behind, the other nine or eleven players having little or nothing to do, except to run after the ball and return it to the thrower, while–as the rules of the game make an inning finished when one man is out–an hour’s time is sometimes occupied by the players in trotting to and from their positions without either party making a run. In the National game, the interest and action of the game is much more equally divided, and all engaged have an equal opportunity to exhibit their skill, courage, and activity–the game depending as much upon the fielders and base-men as upon the pitcher and catcher. These are but a few of the comparisons which might be made between the two games, but the only favor I ask of the cricketers–or any other disinterested parties, would be for them to witness the two games fairly played, and then to decide which is the genuine game of base ball, and best entitled to the name of the National game. I would mention, as a significant fact of the progress of the National game, that the Olympic Base Ball Club of Boston, who were the most active in calling the Massachusetts Convention, and whose president framed nearly all the rules of play, Constitution, etc., that were not copied from the National Association, has been virtually disbanded, and its most active members and best players are now members of clubs which play the National game. , Very respectfully yours, “A BOSTON BASE-BALL PLAYER” |
| Source | New York Sunday Mercury |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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