Clipping:The composition of the ball
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| Date | Sunday, December 5, 1869 |
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| Text | At the special request of the State Conventions of Ohio and Massachusetts, the Committee of Rules have fixed a regular weight for the amount of rubber used in the composition of the regulation ball for 1870. In 1858, ‘59 and ‘60 Mr. Van Horn, the noted ball maker, never used more than an ounce and a half of rubber in the balls he then made, and they were found to be fully as elastic as was required. At that time, the boundcatch was in vogue, and it was not desirable that balls should be made so elastic as to bound over the player’s head. Afterward, as heavy batting became popular, and especially when large scores were considered the acme of good batting and a specialty of leading clubs, very elastic balls came into sue, and the heavier and livelier a ball was the more it was liked by heavy-batting nines; the Athletic Club, of Philadelphia, especially favoring this style of ball. The abolition of the bound catch, too, put a stop to the demand for dead balls; and since then a hard, lively ball, and especially very elastic balls, have always been asked for by clubs whose strength in play lay in their muscle in batting rather than in their skill as fielders. In 1867, the great increase of severe injuries from the large, heavy and elastic balls at that time in use led to a change in the size and weight of the ball, which was reduced in both respects to its present size, and in neither respect can it be improved upon; for it is now exactly heavy enough to throw well, and just the size for a good grasp by the hand. But there is need of one great and important improvement, and that is in regard to the elasticity of the ball, for it has been found by experience this past season that though the decrease in size and weight of the ball has lessened the danger of injury to the hands from swiftly thrown or batted balls, the excess of rubber used in by which it is made more hard and elastic than ever, has had the effect of offsetting the advantages derived from the lessening of the size and weight of the ball, and hence severe injuries to fingers and hands have marked all contests in which these heavy over-weight and over-elastic balls have been used. Balls have been opened in which nearly three ounces of rubber have been found, and three balls have been found to be capable of being hit so hard from the bat, and of being sent with such an impetus, both from the bat and from the hands of a fielder when thrown, that even the hardest handed fielders have been unable to hold them or stop them, without the risk of broken fingers or split hands. Besides this, these over-elastic balls have been sent from the bat in such a manner as to bound over the heads of the in-fielders, whereby giving based to the strikers on hits that, if made with a dead and hard ball, would have led to their being put out by good fielding. In addition, too, these elastic balls have been sent flying over the heads of out-fielders, not by skillful batsmen, but merely by heavy hitters, who simply use force in batting, and not judgment or skill in handling the ash. |
| Source | New York Sunday Mercury |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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