THE BALL GAME
25,000 See Marines Introduce It
WELLINGTON’S WELCOME
The Americans came to New Zealand Tvitli a reputation for doing things in a big way. Yesterday they introduced their national game —'baseball —to the Wellington public and were rewarded with an attendance never before accorded a game almost foreign to New Zealanders. A crowd of at least 25,000, like that which packed into Athletic l“ark yesterday, was getting back to big-time pre-war Rugby—to a spectacle of a mass of humanity that the park has not known for some years. It was more than the mere satisfaction of curiosity in the American game it was a city’s expression of goodwill. It was a big day for the Marine Corps, which provided the game, for Wellington and for the patriotic funds as, last mgii , with some returns from pre-match ticketsales still to bo reckoned, the gate estimate was £lOOO. , The Americans brought more than the game—they brought the atmosphere. When a decision went against one player all players abandoned their places to swarm round an umpire and give thenviews of his ruling. A happening like that at a big Rugby game on the park would have been akin to the sensations produced in Bateman’s cartoons of the ‘‘man w-ho bid a half-g*unea at lattersail’s” or “the Guardsman wlio dropped it.” Yet it was all part of the atmosphere of the game and made even a bigger hit than the play with the spectators, ignorant, as most were, of the finer points of the play., lhe occasions when players were injured and the olHcial photographer was hot on tne spot, snapping the injured where they lav. struck a new note. The comments from the American spectators made those efforts of "Wellington Rugby’s “Little Erie of Berhampore seem innocuous by comparison. Atter all, it is hard lines for a fielder who runs his hardest to catch <t fast falling ball, and misses, to be told that beginners try with both hands,” or, as a reflection on his eyesight, for a bystander to call for the lights to be switched on. Ihej were all Marine players, but those having a run of bad luck got no sympathy from their fellows in the stands or on the banks. Some were told to join another branch of the United States s-er-vices as a punishment for temporary loss of skill. ... , t The teams were called National League and American League. The former w°n> 13-0, the scores by innings being as follows, National League mentioned first: First innings, 5-0; second, 10-0; third, 11-0; fourth, 11-0; fifth, 11-0: sixth, 13-0; seventh, 13-0; eighth, 13-0: ninth, 13-0. Broadly the idea of the game is that the strikers on the in side endeavour to hit the ball and advance to the bases without being eaught out of base and tagged out. In the first two innings (each innings is divided in half, a strike to each side), National League hit out. all over the field, but in succeeding innings did not get in enough hits to get right round the bases to the home base again to score. This explained their score remaining stationary for the third, fourth anfl fifth innings, and again for the seventh, eighth and last innings. The pitching is not just hard throwing. The pitcher so manipulates the ball as to make it twist or curve round from either left or right, and drop or rise before as it reaches the striker. It a striker misses three times what are caned strikes (balls which are below the shoulders and above, the knees of Um striker, within the diamond). he is out. Similarly, if the pitcher should send down what are called three “balls (m cricket, they would be termed wides or no-balls), the striker gets a “free” run to the first The teams which played yesterday were picked from after a weeding out of 50 to (>0 players for each side, iney had not played together, as a team, till yesterday; some had not even met Lil the game. A really close baseball game will see little scaring; perhaps a Imai score of 3-2, or similarly low, close gomkThere is no rounders about baseball. The pitcher delivers his ball at a speed reaching the batter at anything from <•> to 100 miles an hour. And n tne laiier flicks it, “into the slips,” as it were, it mav be doing up to 140 miles an hour, and the catcher (wicketkeeper) has to have his eve right on to it. Hie ball is nine inches in circumference, corkcentred, wound tight with woollen yarn, again with cotton strands, and then covered with horse-hide in two sections amt stitched. The weight of the bat is a matter for the individual; it measures up to 34 inches. The strikers put enough punch into yesterday’s play to break five bats. . . Three players were hurt, all hi tne exciting runs between -bases. One was hit on the head with a ball and removed by ambulance. He was not seriously hurt. The catcher wears a welded steel mass, strong stomach protector and shin guards, and gloves. He has to eaten or protect himself against more Lnan mile a-minute balls. •No white coat and leisured attitude behind Ihe pitcher vi •bowler for the chief .-.umpire. He stand* behind the catcher, weans, similar armom, and needs it.
When some players were given out after missiug three strikes, there was none of the erieketer’s practice stroke at where tlie ball “had been. ’ ’J bey just threw down their bats, disgusted with their bad luck. Hitting a rouuU ball lair ami square with a round but takes a hawk-eye and a utrong arm. Highlights of yesterday’s game im’ cricket fans were ihe splendid cutches taken oulncld. The game was formally started by the ollicer commanding [lie Marine Corps in New Zealand selecting a new ball, auu handing it to Ihe mayor ot Wellington, Mr. Hislop, who tossed it to the players. Tlie deputy-Chief of the General Staff, N.Z. Forces, Brigadier K. L. Stewart, D. 5.0., N.Z.S.C., attended the game.
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Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 108, 1 February 1943, Page 3
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1,010THE BALL GAME Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 108, 1 February 1943, Page 3
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