WHAT IS BASEBALL.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 323, 8 December 1888, Page 4

WHAT IS BASEBALL.

In la?L evening's issue we gave a shorb notice of the visit of two American baseball teams to the colonies, where they will endeavour to initiate athletes in the mysteries of the Yankee national game. Naturally the first question that arises in the minds of our readers is " What ( is baseball ?" A& w e stated last evening il | is rounders very much improved upon. 'All Aucklanders who are, or who ever were, in. the habitof attending Sunday-schoolorother picnics will have played rounders. They know that in rounders the idsa is to keep your side in as long as possible. Now, in baseball the theory of the game is that two contesting teams must endeavour tosend the j greatest number of men around the circuit of the bases under prescribed rules within a limited number of innings. Americans are | a& intensely sporting in their nature as j colonials are, and they dearly love excitement, therefore the growth of baseball during the pasb thirty years is not surprising. The hold it has obtained upon popular favour is only to be understood by one who has visited the country, or by one who has had an intimate acquaintance with the newspaper and periodical literature of the UnitedStates. Columns upon columns in the daily press are devoted to chronicling the victories and defeats upon the " diamond," and in public favour the game has supplanted horseracing (popular as that is) and aquatic and field sports of every and any character. The professional players, and all the firsb-class , players are professionals, receive enormous salaries for a few months' play, some receiving as much as £1,500 a season, while last year to be able to secure the services of Michael Kelly, who comes out with the Ameiican combination, the Boston Club paid Mr Spalding i>2,000 to cancel his engagement. Directly and indirectly the game involves the annual investment of nearly 10,000,000 dollars of money. As all colonials would like to wafceh a, game of baseball intelligently, to be able to understand the real theory of the game and ! appreciate its finer points we will endeavour, to give a brief account of it. Baseball has a language of its own, but a colonial would needia, dictionary to read it. Our readers would hardly appreciate an article that bristled with expressions like " foul fly," " liner," " grounder," " slide." "sacrifice grounder." Each team must' consist of nine men and the gamemu^t be played upon a regularly , marked or laid out field. This field consists of a con- 1 tinuous runaway, these runaways being clay-covered paths, laid out in the shape of a huge diamond. At each corner of the diamond, is'i a base -bag- of- canvas '- filled with curbed hair,, or other material,' and strapped • securely to ,the ,(grouiid., These rbags ..are*, known '< ass first base, .second^base.jthirctbaseja.nd home plate, the jdistanco, beb^wepnpbase^beipgfrnjnety feet. The players are knowiias pitcher, catcher, ,

iirsb baseman, second baseman, short stop, , j third basemahiKghtfielder.centre-fielderand left-fielder. The pitcher (or bowler,) stands in the centre of- the diamond, within prescribed lines four feet wide by fivo foefc four inches long, known as the'pitoher's box. The forward line of the pitcher's box is fifty feet from the home plate which the pitcher faces ; [ when ready to deliver the ball, and beside I which the batsman stand? as ho faces the 1 pitcher, Behind the home plate stands fche catcher, it being his duty to receive the ball from and return it to tho pitcher, should it not be batted by tho batsman. Just behind the catcher stands the umpire, who is expected to judge every ball pitched and every play "made "during the game, his decision being iinal in every instance. At first base stands the first baseman, and at second base stands the second baseman. The short stop is stationed midway between the second and third basemen in or near the runway, and the third baseman at third base. These four men constitute the "infield" of the team. Faciug the diamond, and stationed from 100 to 125 yards from the in field are the right, centre and lett fielders. These men constitute the "outfield" of the team. When the fielding team lias takon its position tho first batsman of the opposite team steps to the plute and others follow him in regular turn until three batsmen have been retired by the efforts oi the opposing fielders. Then tho positions of the teams are reversed, the side which was at bat going to the field, and the side which was doing fielding duty coming in to take their turn at but in regular order. When three of the second team's batsmen have been retired or put out by the eilbrts of the opposing fielders, the innings is ended, each team having sent three or more men to bat, and each having had three men retired. Nine such innings requiring from one hour and a half to two hours play, constitute u game, and the team which has scored the most runs wins the game. When the batsman steps to the plate he is expected to hit the ball so that it will pass the intercepting fielders and go to such distance in the outfield as will enable him to reach first base before the ball can be returned to the fielder stationed there. It he can reach second or third base, or make the entire circuit of the bases before the ball his been intercepted by any one of the infielders, or before it has been captmed by an outfielder and returned to the infield, so much the better, for the base runner's object is to ultimately make the circuit and touch the home plate, by which he scores a run for his side. To put a batsman out, a fielder must catch the batted ball before it has reached the ground, or munt recover it in time to throw it to the base for which the base runner is making before the base runner reaches there. The pitcher is required by the rules to pitch the ball over the plate and between the knee and shoulder of the batsman. Each time he tries and fails to do so the umpire calls " ball," and upon five such balls being pitched, the batpman is entitled to take first base. When three lair balls have been put over the plate, however, and the batsman has failed to hit them the batsman is out whether he has struck at the ball or not. For each fair ball the umpire calls '•strike.'* One can very well imagine the excitement that a well-played game would cause. It is rush, rush, from start to finish, and an innings is often over betore it is well begun. When a swift and daring runner is endeavouring to make his bases and has the whole nine men fielding the ball from one to another in their efforts to put him out then according to our Yankee friends there is more yelling than at agood football match. In the words of a good player who also writes anent the sport: — " It is a slugging game calculated to rend the lungs and make hair grow upon the baldest head in thirty minutes." The well-known football ground atEpsom has been prepared for the match on Saturday and will do very well for the game. —Auckland "Star," December 4. [ .