ENJOYING BASEBALL BY TELEGRAPH.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2587, 9 February 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

ENJOYING BASEBALL BY TELEGRAPH.

The New York World has given a striking example of tile use to which the telegraph may be put in gratifying public curiosity. A series of baseball panics has been going on to decide the championship of the world, and, in order to make the result known as quickly as possible, the World erected outside its office a huge blackboard, on which was drawn a sketch of the baseball ground, or " diamond," as it is technically called. Each of the two " nines" had its own color, and cach of the players of the " nine" had a numbered peg. As soon as the game started at the ground, it started also on the board, one side being shown at the bat, and the other side fielding. As each run was made, so the player was moved from base to base on the board, and this was kept up until the end of the game was reached. In order that no time should be lost a special wire was run from the ground, whether in "New York, Brooklyn Philadelphia, or St. Louis, direct to the foot of the board, where Satan operator, who as fast as the message was sent in dictated it to his assistant, who in turn made the movements on the board. In this way the spectators could follow every movement of a g.ime being played 1500 miles away almost as quickly as if they were on the ground itself. The public ''caught on," as we say here, and every afternoon while the series of games lasted the board was surrounded by a howling crowd of thousands of enthusiasts who cheered or groaned themselves hoarse as they followed the movement of those little pegs from hole to hole. This enterprise must have cost a large sum of money, but it paid for itself many times over in the advertising that it give the paper.