Clipping:Bob Ferguson on the invention of the curve ball; early pitching; reference to chest protector
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| Date | Thursday, July 10, 1884 |
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| Text | Robert Ferguson, the veteran player and manager; Charles Daniels, the oldest umpire in America, and a party of friends were sitting in front of the Laclede last night recalling old times. During the conversation Daniels asked Bob Ferguson who it was that first demonstrated the curve in pitching, desiring to draw Ferguson out. “I know it has often been asserted that Bobby Matthews was the inventor so to speak, of the curve in pitching,” said Ferguson, “but let me tell you it is wrong–dead wrong. The man who showed the world the first attempt to send in the ball by the rules of the higher mathematics was none other than Arthur Cummings, during the years of ‘60, ‘61, and ‘62, when he pitched for the original ‘Eckfords.’” [N.B. This is incorrect.] “In those days,” Ferguson continued, “a pitcher had the prerogative of sending as many balls as he wanted to across the plate until the batsman made up his mind to strike at one. In an ordinary game, forty, fifty and sixty balls were considered nothing for a pitcher, before a batsman got suited. [N.B. This is vastly exaggerated.] in those days, masks, breast-plates, catchers gloves and other inventions of the progressive game of the day, were not known, much less used, and a catcher stood a long distance behind the bat.” St. |
| Source | St. Louis Post-Dispatch |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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