Clipping:Fewer balls for a walk; too much pitcher and catcher
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| Date | Wednesday, February 27, 1884 |
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| Text | [discussing proposed rules changes] Another way to help the batsman...would be to reduce the number of called balls to six. The reduction of called balls from nine to seven some years ago was found notwithstanding many predictions to the contrary, to be advantageous, and this would be the case if the number were reduced one more. Of course this would be apt to bother pitchers somewhat at first, more particularly the young and inexperienced ones, and bases on called balls would for a time be more frequent, but this is no worse that to see man after man striking out; rather better, as it would put men on the bases who otherwise would not get there at all, and everybody knows that the real interest in an inning begins when there are runners on the bases, because this at once puts both audience and players on the alert. Indeed, far better a base on balls than a struck out. Narrowing the pitchers' limit thus will tend to make them more careful and really save them some strain and labor, as the number of balls delivered in the course of a game would be materially reduced. Pitchers were no more effective when they could deliver nine balls without penalty than they are now with seven, and the reduction to six will have naught but a beneficial effect. It will operate slightly to the advantage of the batsman, and this is most desirable, as for years the batter has had too little consideration. All the efforts have been directed, season after season, to the improvement of the fielding department at the expense of the batting until it has skeletonized the game, as it were. In fact it has come down to this, that two men, the pitcher and catcher, virtually do the best part of the work.... The Sporting Life February 27, 1884 [reporting on the NL meeting] The playing rules were considered, and the only change made was limiting the pitcher to six balls instead of seven. The idea, a delegate said, is to make him do more artistic work, and improve the batting. The Philadelphia Sunday Item March 9, 1884 |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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