'. - ?>s2'' ,©At «s'^;'' '3?*' si^A ' Qass Book COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT I ICTOR Baseball Guide. imi\ rA "^ X ' V. i V.Alt*"^ PUBLISiIE& BY OVERMAN WHEEL CO., NEW YORK. BOSTON. DETROIT. DENVER. SAN FRANCISCO. LOS ANGELES. PORTLAND, Ore. Copyright. April, 1896. V63/ THE VICTOR BASEBALL GUIDE, PUBLISHED BY OVERMAN WHEEL CO., V^N- ii Makers of Victor Bicycles and Athletic Goods. !WAY 7 [ mfUx^%JO^,^^^I- iViFPT 70i?/)r. BOSTON. DETROIT. DENVER, SAN FRANCISCO. LOS ANGELES. PORTLAND, Ore. Copyright, April, 1896. — Publishers^ Notice. In preparing this book for the base-ball public, we have aimed at three things : First,—To give a readable book, free from dry and uninteresting statistics. Second,—To tell the public plainly and candidly cer- tain truths about the National Game which have here- tofore been concealed. Third,—To give a comprehensible code of Rules. For the first part of the work we have availed our- selves of the services of a well known sporting-editor. His work has been done carefully and conscientiously. For the preparation of a properly-worded code of Rules we have secured the services of Clarence W. Smith, who is probably the closest student of base-ball law in the United States. It has not been the aim to introduce much new matter ; but what Mr. Smith has done is to make the Rules say what they mean, as judged by their actual interpretation and enforcement on the ball-field. The code of Rules as issued for '96 by the Rules Committee of the National League is also printed for purposes of comparison, showing how little has been changed and how much has been left undone. Our code says clearly what the official code tries to say, and contains the substance of the Rules although it discards their clumsy wording. Cut showing Pres. N. E. Young's initials as written on every genuine "official National League ball." Balls without these initials, but claiming to be official, are frauds. THE Victor Ball and Adoptions. We have always wished to secure for the Victor ball as many adoptions as possible, but in no case have we ever or will we pay any league or any league officer for adopting our ball. Merit not money should be the only inducement for a league to use a ball. Our unwillingness to pay for adoptions cannot pre- vent the Victor ball from becoming very favorably and extensively known to the public. They know it, however, as ^^the great unadopted ball." Such is the fame we wish for our ball. The Victor baseball does not need the subsidized fiat of professional leagues to prove that it is good. It was a good ball before pro- fessional leagues knew of it, and will be a good ball long after the fake of adoptions has ceased to weigh with and deceive the public. A great many adoptions have come to us, the merits of the Victor ball having appealed strongly to the leagues. Such adoptions are always welcome and we THE VICTOR BALL AND ADOPTIONS. aim to get as many of them as we can. But we pay no league to say that our ball is good. Merit will assert itself no matter how deep the silence of leagues, and no number of adoptions will make a poor article meritorious. It is just here that the deceit in adop- tions lies. By adoptions *' you can fool all the people " some of the time and some of the people all the time so far as baseballs are concerned. But we prefer not to fool the people at all. We have accordingly put the best labor and material into the manufacture of the Victor ball. We charge you for the best material properly put together. That is all. We have no great adoption fees, drink bills at league meetings, junkets, etc., to charge up to you in addition. We should not give you full value for your money if we did. A ball will not last longer or bat farther if the word " adopted" is stamped on the cover. Players prefer good honest baseballs to those that sell by adoptions. We want every adoption we caii get honestly and on the merits. We are not in the market to buy adoptions. We advertise the Victor ball pre-eminently on its merits as the unadopted ball. We are depending on the quality of the Victor ball to give it popularity. We believe that the time has come when the word " adopted " cannot be longer used to hypnotize ball players. We further have had our attention called to great frauds in official baseballs perpetrated on ball players under the name "Adopted." We therefore fight shy of the name. How TO Play Base-Ball, BY JOHN M. WARD. Surrounding the origin of America's " National Game " there exists considerable uncertainty, some claiming it to be a mere transposition of the English game of "Rounders," while others maintain it to be a purely American institution. In a book published in 1889 the writer of the present little work went into the subject at some length, and . attempted to demonstrate by facts, records, and reasoning, that the game was entirely an invention of the Yankee boy. In a work of this size, such an inquiry would not be in place, and a brief sketch only of the recorded his- tory of the game will here be given. In 1845 a number of gentlemen, who had, for several years, been in the habit of meeting regularly to play baseball for exercise, formed themselves into a club known as " The Knickerbockers," and drew up the first written rules of which we have any record. Following the organization of the " Knickerbock- ers " came the " Washingtons," " Gothams," " Eagles," " Empires," " Putnams," " Baltics," " Unions," " Mu- tuals," "Excelsiors," "Atlantics," " Eckfords," and many other clubs in the metropolitan district. All these are names which are surrounded by a halo in the recol- lection of every old-time follower of the sport. Philadel- phia had its "Athletics" and rival teams, and New England its " Olympics," " Elm Trees," and " Green Mountains." The game grew rapidly in favor, and in 1857 a convention of delegates from sixteen clubs loca- ted in and around New York city and Brooklyn was held and a uniform set of rules adopted. In 1858 a second general convention found twenty-five clubs represented and a permanent organization called The National Association of Base-Ball Players was formed. It was already a game for men, since no 5 THE VICTOR BASEBALL GUIDE. one under twenty-one years of age was eligible as a delegate. It is a common impression that the present great popularity of the game with the public is something of as far as recent growth ; yet back 1858 there was played on the Fashion Course, Long Island, a series of three games between teams of local players represent- ing New York city and Brooklyn which enlisted more intense interest and were attended by crowds larger than witnessed any three successive New York-Brook- lyn games last season. In I860 the National Asso- ciation numbered seventy clubs and the sport really began to assume a national importance. There were delegates from clubs in New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Detroit, New Haven, Newark, Troy, Albany, Buffalo " and other cities, and during that year the '^Excelsiors made a trip through the state, going as far west as Buffalo, considered then a remarkable undertaking for a ball club. The outbreak of the war naturally resulted in a cessation of regular play, but it really served to spread knowledge of the game. Many were the friendly contests fought out between rival teams in camp, and the result was to familiarize the sport to players from all sections. So that as soon as the war had terminated, these mimic battles of the diamond were renewed all over the country and, at the meeting of the National Association in 1866, a total of two hundred and two clubs from seventeen states and the District of Columbia were represented, and in addition there were present delegates from the Pennsylvania and the Northwestern Associations representing more than " two hundred additional clubs. In 1867 the *^ Nationals of Washington made the first trip ever taken by an eastern team through the far west and helped greatly to spread the reputation of the game. In 1869 the famous Ciiicitmati " Reds," the first all- professional team, were organized and went through THE VICTOR BASEBALL GUIDE. the season with an unbroken string of victories ; nor were they beaten until the next season, when they fell before the conquering Atlantics of Brooklyn. For the season of 1871 a separate professional or- ganization was formed under the name of the Profes- sional National Association. In 1876 eight leading clubs of the Professional National Association, under the guiding genius of William H. Hulburt of the Chicago Club, formed an independent association called the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, which since then, almost exclusively, has been the controlling power in base- ball affairs and remains still the major organization. In 1881 a new body of professional clubs, known as the American Association, entered the field, and the following year the last two named, together with the Northwestern League, entered into what was known as the Tripartite Agreement, which in 1883 was developed into the National Agreement. This was an offensive and defensive alliance between the three leading leagues, the principal objects of which were to secure to each a monopoly of its own territory, and a right to the individual clubs each to retain its own players from year to year, that is, to " reserve " them.