Deutsche Ballspiel

2. The German Ball Game

This game which has not yet been described anywhere merits very well a detailed description. It is not my goal to be entertaining in this endeavor – simply understand this dry stuff, enjoyment will be found in the practice.

Mark on a flat lawn the beginning point X and end point Z of the playing alley [Spielbahn], approximately 30-40 steps apart, and the preparation is done; if you want to be more precise, cut the lines A-B and C-D with a stick into the ground, and mark their ends as well as positions 4 and 5 with posts. This way, the width of the playing alley is also defined.

Line A-B will be the batting crease [Schlagmal], C-D the fielding crease [Fangmal].

Ball: One makes it of very durable woolen yarn, without any impurities, wrapped as tight and round as possible and covered as firmly as possible with bleached white or Danish glove leather. This covering is not composed of several pieces, but only one, which is cut with scissors in two round flaps sewn progressively, which are united by a seam which does not go quite around the ball. A good ball two Leipzig inches in diameter, strongly thrown down, bounces twenty-five feet high and is almost like new gum rubber.

One also obtains very elastic balls, if you put the loosely wound yarn so long in water that it shrinks, then the ball is wound extremely tightly; temporarily give it a covering of paper which you bind with string and then bake these balls in the oven until the paper is singed dark yellow. Then in place of the abovementioned paper the covering previously described is added. The balls for the ball-houses are wound of small pieces of woolen stuff, evenly wrapped with soft twine and covered with white cloth. The first style I consider the best for this game.

Ballstock (Racquette): It is not good to use a broad piece of wood, as it resists the air and therefore hitting cannot be as powerful as with a completely round stick that tapers towards the handle, made from a trunk of a young spruce tree. Only with those can you successfully hit the ball 80 to 100 feet high and nearly 100 paces away. The handle, to avoid it flying away, where the hand grips it is slightly carved so that the end terminates in a small button. This narrowly carved ​​area one either wraps with twine and soaks it a couple of times with glue, which damp hands will hold firmly after drying, or one provides the bat with a strap through which the hand grips it.

Play: On our pitch is gathered a team of eight, ten, twelve or more persons, whether short or tall makes no difference. The two best players will be appointed leaders, and are to organize the game, arbitrate in case of disputes etc. Their first duty is to divide the group into two parties fairly equal in ability. This is to be done according to the rules in Appendix 1. Once both parties are made, the choice of which is to be the ‘ruling’ [Herrschende] and which one the ‘serving’ [Dienende] shall be made by tossing a coin (see Appendix 1). Now the game can begin. Both parties continuously struggle against the other: the Rulers try to retain their rule; the Servants try to win the bat. This is the main idea of the game; but I will first expound the activity of each team separately before explaining the general rules.

1) Employment of the serving party
Let us suppose six persons for each team. At the start of the game and each time his team has lost the bat, the team leader places his team in positions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and the best players are to be put in 1,2,3,6 – because the side positions may be occupied by less skilled players, but 1 and 2 need to be able throwers, and 3 and 6 able catchers of the ball.

The person in position 1 is called the pitcher [Aufwerfer]; he must throw the ball for the batter [Schläger]. For this purpose he stands two steps in front of the batter, who stands at E, and throws the ball in the middle between himself and the batter vertically into the air, a bit higher than the head. As the ball drops down, the batter has to hit it in the air. All other Servants in 2,3,4,5,6 have to try to get the ball as soon as possible into the hitting crease, and therefore have to run in all directions to catch the ball and throw it to the pitcher. All of this has to be done quickly, therefore everyone should be able to catch and throw well, with right, left and both hands and in all positions, even at a run. The body will become very able, flexible and strong.

In all this activity the main goal of the Servants is to elevate their status and become Rulers by winning the bat. This happens if a) a Servant catches the batted ball out of the air, b) if he throws the ball at a batter who is running from X to Y or back, and he hits him, c) if he can get the ball into the hitting crease at a time when no batter remains there – the last two cases will be clarified in what follows.

2) Business of the ruling party
They have the pleasure of hitting the ball, but each hit must be earned by the batter by running from the hitting crease X to the fielding crease Y and back.

As the batter cannot run while the ball is in the hands of a Servant who is trying to hit him with the ball, he first has to hit the ball, or, if he fails to do so, to stay in the hitting crease X and wait until one of the following batters hits the ball and “frees” him; only then can he run. If he reaches the fielding crease Y, and the ball is still not close, he can immediately run back to X. In the contrary case he remains behind the fielding crease Y until a good hit is made which frees him to return to the hitting crease X.

It happens often that only one of all the batters is left in the hitting crease, because the others have not hit well or not hit the ball at all, and are thus still standing at X or Y waiting to run. This last remaining batter is then called the “liberator”, as he must free all the others. He has the right to strike three times, whereas otherwise only one strike is allowed.

If the “liberator” is a bad hitter, he might take his three swings without hitting the ball; if this happens without one of those standing at Y managing by cleverness and speed to get to the hitting crease, then the bat is lost, because the ball will get to the hitting crease without there being a “freed” batter. The Rulers will of course try to prevent that by attempting with cleverness and speed to bring one of them into the hitting crease, for instance by several of them running at the same time from different sides to the hitting crease, and trying to distract the attention of the Servants. But this occurs so often that one must ensure that the “liberator” is a good hitter who rarely misses the ball.

At the beginning of the game, when the order of batting is not yet established, the best batter stays behind and lets everyone else hit before him, so that he can “free” his team members. As the game goes on, the order of who will bat next will be determined by which player arrives first from Y to X – therefore the batting team has to make sure that of several players returning to X the best one arrives last, so that he can become “liberator”. For instance, if a, b, c are bad players and d is a good one, and all four were away at Y, and a hit would “free” them to come back to X, then d would have to let the other three get “home” first. Or if a, b, c were at Y and d, e f, as three good players, were yet to take their at-bats at X, then a, b, and c would not be allowed to run back once a good hit has been made, but they would have to wait until one of the better three players comes out to Y – this good player has then again to come in last, to later become “liberator”.

The “liberator” needs to be sure not to run after he makes his first hit – unless he can be certain that the waiting batters could definitely make it back to X from Y before the ball can be returned to the crease. Imagine if the “liberator” ran after the first little hit, and the Servants could bring in the ball before the batters get back from Y, the hit would be lost. Now the following rules for the players will be easy to understand.

1. Rules for the serving party

a) Pitcher: His role is one of the most important, and he has to be very skilled. His is the key position in the game, as he has to encourage the fielding team to throw him the ball, and to hurry up the batters, not to be laggardly. Doing both, he keeps the game lively. His attention should be focused on

1- the current batter: if the current batter is inclined to send the ball regularly further away than the positions 4 and 5, the pitcher needs to change his position a bit as to prohibit that behavior. The better the pitcher throws the ball for the batters and adapts to their particularities, the more good hits will be done, and the better those hits can be caught by the fielding team.

2- the ball: often, the batter will hit the ball only on the quarter or in its eighth part and sends it only slightly up – these kind of balls the pitcher needs to catch to win the hit.

3- the batters of the batting team in general: he needs to strive to hit with the ball everyone who runs away from X or returns from Y either by himself, or to throw the ball to his team member in position 2, in case this person is nearer to the running batter, so that team member 2 can hit the batter. The pitcher also has to watch the batters standing in X; in case they pass the line A-B with as much as a single foot he has the right to throw the ball at this foot, and even more they trespass the line completely. In case the pitcher hits in such a case, he has won the hit.

4- to himself: he has to step back at least one wide step in the moment where the batter strikes, so as not to be hit by the raquette.

b) The other members of the fielding team have to watch carefully and at all times the ball and the batters. They have to know the habits of each batter – how far, in which directions they drive the ball. In case they predict the ball to come to their position, they have to be even more careful. Each time the ball is hit and gains height, they have to calculate the arch in which it will come down again, and try to quickly reach that spot to catch the ball and either hit one of the runners of the batting team or to pass the ball to a player who is better positioned to hit a runner.

If none of these cases is possible, the players of the fielding team pass the ball to the pitcher, to make the game continue.

Each member of the fielding team also keeps an eye on the lines A-C and B-D to check whether one of the runners of the batting team trespasses them – if this happens, their hit is lost. They should also notice if no “loosened” batter is in the batting plate anymore, because in this case they have to get the ball into the batting plate – this action has to be announced to everyone so that it can quickly be carried out without a batter reaching the batting plate first. Of course, if the ball arrives before the batter, the batting team has lost this hit.

2) Rules for the batting team
None of the batting players should run while the ball is held by one of the nearer players of the fielding team, as the chances are too high he could be hit by the ball and lose the hit. Only then is he allowed to run if there is no good batter in the batting plate anymore who could loosen the other players. Each player needs to strive to hit the ball well and with strength, because small and week hits will be caught too easily. He has to be able to strike the ball into each direction he wants, and needs to choose the direction in which no good catcher is positioned. Also, he should never drive the ball to Y if his fellowmen are running in this direction, and by all means drive the ball to Y if his fellowmen are running in the opposite direction, towards X the batting plate. In short, he has to take care to drive the ball in such a way that it is far from his teammates, so as to minimizing their risk of being hit by the ball. Of course, if a batter can drive the ball further than the position 6, that would be an ideal solution. If the ball threatens to hit a batter, the batter must be quick to avoid it – therefore he always looks around him and prefers to go down than to be hit. But the batter must take all the risk to get to the batting plate in the case of the “cleanup hitter” having only one hit left. Of course, the batters also need to make sure they don’t step over the sidelines of the field.

I finish the explanation with a general rule set for this game.

1) Each team has to follow its team leader. If there is a controverse about if a hit has been lost or not, and no agreement can be reached, it will be decided by lot.

2) Who ever goes down loses the hit of his team, if he is a batter. Is he who goes down a fielding team player, his party has to win twice before switching roles and becoming batting party. As punishment, the one who was laying on the ground is not allowed to strike in the next term, but still has to run with the team leader from X to Y and back.

3) If the game changes too often, meaning it is won too often from one, then the other team, one can decide that the fielding team needs to win two or three times in a row before they can become the batting team.

4) No batter is obliged to hit a ball which the pitcher has badly thrown. If no batter is satisfied with the balls a particular pitcher throws, they can ask the fielding team to put a better pitcher in place. If the “cleaning hitter” is about to do his third strike, he is allowed to not strike at all but on purpose let the ball drop, so that the ball is out of the hands of the pitcher for a moment, but he can only do so twice.

5) The series of strikes a team does before they lose the right to strike is called a „Gang“. In order to find out which team has won the game at the end, each team has to count the strikes done aloud and note them after the “Gang” on a blackboard. Small strikes that do not reach higher than a man will not be counted. At the end of the game, when both teams have played the same number of “Gaenge”, all strikes will be added and the team who has the higher number of them has won.

6) A strike gets lost if: a) If a player of the fielding team catches the ball out of the air. Has the ball already touched the ground, this is not the case – but if the ball has just bounced back from a person or an object, the catch out of the air is still valid. b) If any player of the batting team gets hit by the ball in between A B C D, no matter under which circumstances. However, the pitcher is not allowed to partake in this throwing if he is inside of the playing field – he has to remain in front of the line A-B, because If he was allowed to partake in hitting the players of the batting team with the ball, he could run after each of them who is slower than he is, catch up with him and hit him, while the other is trying to run from X to Y to get “loosened”. c) If a player of the fielding team throws the ball into the batting plate while there is no batter present on the batting plate. d) If a player of the batting team crosses the lines A-C or B-D. e) If a „cleaning hitter“ has done his three strikes and after the third strike the ball gets quicker into the batting plate than a new batter. This is the same case as c) and happens most often in case the third strike is not hit and the ball falls down in front of the line A-B. f) If a player of the batting team touches the ball. g) If a player of the batting team takes the raquette from the batting plate into the playing field on his run from X to Y. h) If a player of the batting team, after striking, throws away the raquette so quickly and carelessly that one of the other players is hit. t) If a player of the batting team drops the raquette while striking.

7) If the hit is won by the fielding team, the winner has the right to do the first strike, after him the former pitcher has the right to strike, after this one all of the others no matter in which order. But afterwards, as the game goes on, the order in which the players strike is determined in the order in which they come in from Y. If the case happens that a bad batter is the last one to come in and would normally become “cleaning hitter”, the fielding team is not obliged to accept that this bad batter may strike before to have a better batter become the “cleaning hitter”.

8) The ball is never carried by hand, but has to be thrown from player to player, and then caught out of the air.

From all games for young people, this is one of the best, because it fulfills several goals of physical games. It favors much moving in the open air, and furthers the body’s speed, promptness and strength. Batting and throwing gives ability and strengths to the arm and the running makes flanks and legs quicker. Avoiding to be hit by the ball makes it necessary to be very quick. Also the visual judgment is trained during this game, for instance for hitting the ball the pitcher has thrown, or for hitting a running batter, or for catching the ball out of the air – and this while the ball goes in arches of 70 feet high and 80 steps wide. The game asks for constant attention and brings so much pleasure and interest for young people who are not effete that they will prefer it to any other game, during spring time.

I already said that this game can be played by more and fewer people, even with just 4 persons. This last version which is called “Fourball” is a lot more intense because those four persons have to do just as much as the twelve as described above. Also here, one of the fielding team is the pitcher, the other one stands outside, and one batter becomes the “cleaning hitter” for the other hitter.