Base-Ball: How to Become a Player
By John Montgomery Ward
The Greeks and the Romans were great devotees of ball-play; China was noted for her players; in the courts of Italy and France, we are told, it was in special favour, and Fitz-Stephen, writing in the 13th century, speaks of the London schoolboys playing at “the celebrated game of ball.” No bat was known for centuries, but in those games requiring the ball to be struck, the hand alone was used. In France, a species of handball was played early. To protect the hands’ thongs were sometimes bound about them, which eventually furnished the idea of the racquet. Strutt thinks a bat was first used in golf, cambric, or bandy ball. This was similar to the boys’ game of “shinny,” or, as it is now more elegantly known, “polo,” the bat used was bent at the end, just as now. The first straight bats were used in the old English club ball game. This was “fungo hitting,” in which one player tossed the ball in the air and hit it, as it fell, to others who caught it, or sometimes it was pitched to him by another player. Concerning the origin of the American baseball game, considerable uncertainty exists.
A correspondent of Porter’s Spirit of the Times, as far back as 1856, begins a series of letters on the game by acknowledging his utter inability to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion upon this point, and a writer of recent date introduces research into the history of the game with the frank avowal that he has only succeeded in finding “a remarkable lack of literature on the subject.” Given its extraordinary growth and popularity as “Our National Game,” the author deems it essential that its true origin should, if possible, be ascertained, and he has, therefore, devoted to this inquiry more space than might at first seem necessary. In 1856, within a dozen years from the time of the systematization of the game, the number of clubs in the metropolitan district and the enthusiasm for attending their matches began to attract particular attention. It became apparent that it was surely superseding the English game of cricket, and the adherents of the latter match looked with ill-concealed jealousy on the rising upstart. There were then, as now, persons who believed that everything good and beautiful in the world must be of English origin, and these at once felt the need of a pedigree for the new game.
Read or download Book
John Montgomery Ward
John Montgomery Ward (March 3, 1860 – March 4, 1925), known as Monte Ward, was an American Major League Baseball pitcher, shortstop, second baseman, third baseman, manager, executive, union organizer, owner and author.
Biography
Ward, of English descent, was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Renovo, Pennsylvania. He led the formation of the first professional sports players union and a new baseball league, the Players’ League. Ward attended the Bellefonte Academy in the early 1870s, and at 13 years of age, he was sent to Pennsylvania State University. In his short time there, he helped jumpstart a baseball program and is often credited for developing the first curveball. However, he was kicked out of school for pushing an upperclassman who attempted to haze him down a flight of stairs and stealing chickens. In 1874, his parents, James and Ruth, died the following year. He tried to make it as a travelling salesman, but when that proved unsuccessful, he returned to his hometown.
There, he rediscovered baseball. In 1878, the semiprofessional team for which he was playing folded, which opened the door for him to move on to a new opportunity. He was offered a contract to pitch for the Providence Grays of the still-new National League, an all-professional major league that began operations in 1876. Ward’s first season with the Grays was successful, going 22–13 with a 1.51 ERA. He played that season exclusively as a pitcher, but during the following two seasons, he played increasingly in the outfield and third base. Ward had his two finest seasons as a pitcher, going 47–19 with 239 strikeouts and a 2.15 ERA in 1879 and 39–24 with 230 strikeouts and a 1.74 ERA in 1880. He pitched nearly 600 innings yearly (587.0 in 1879 and 595.0 in 1880). As a 19-year-old pitcher, he won 47 games and led the 1879 Providence Grays to a first-place finish.
John Montgomery Ward
