| s"sr 1 A. G. SPALDING & BROS., 108 Madison St., 241 Eroadway | 5 y Chicago, 111. New York. m V THE OFFICIAL BALL FOB 1885. As certain unprincipled manufacturers of inferior goods are endeavoring- to convey the impression that other than the “Spalding League Ball ” has been adopted as the official ball for 1885, we print the following fac-simile letter fr m the Secretary of the National League, which explains itself. At every match game played under League rules, this ball must be used. (s V ^bd/h/y?/] (/^JcyiAy, /s./m nmcnm. (AAAL O ncy> clOjOuviaj (/.e/yiAy 'AATi/f. W Cjoim/utd A/lAAAj), OUlf/L/ AA Q Taa/iaJ viaaJ -vPa^ctia crxAjV} <baao Gj 'OiA/gy &/Li <7vm For further information address _A.. <3-. SPALDING &o BEOS. 108 Madison Street, CHICAGO. 241 Broadway, HEM YORK . Lj^ r • THE LARGEST SPORTING GOODS HOUSE IN AMERICA. t' A. Ij. ^ALDINIJ \ B^O^. MANUFACTURERS, IMPORTERS AND DEALERS IN General Sporting Gorfds, m i gh Turns Base Ball Supplies^ Lawn Tennis, Cricket, Croquet, ice and Roller Skates, Foot Bails, Lacrosse, Po/o, Cutlery Gymnasium, Theatrical and General Sporting Goods, Send for Illustrated Catalogue, designating kinds of Goods wanted. Address, V A. G. SPALDING & BROS., 108 Madison Street, CHICAGO. 241 Broadway, NEW YOB.K. OUR PUBLICATIONS. The popular encouragement given to the pursuit of Athletic Sports, Recreative Amusements, Gymnastic Exercises, etc., and the comparative scarcity of mediums of instruction on these subjects, suggested the publi- cation of our Library of Athletic Sports. The benefits of Athletic and other manly exercises, from an educational as well as from a moral and recreative point of view, are now so generally recognized that the right method of promoting man’s physical welfare should be readily accessible. The aim of the various manuals or hand-books constituting our Athletic Series will be to educate the readers in each particular game or sport in which they may be interested. A long experience in sporting matters in- duces a belief that thorough descriptions accompanied by the necessary illustrations, will enable those who by fore : of circumstances are deprived of the opportunity of obtaining practical instruction or accurate knowl- edge, to become proficieut without such instruction. The following list in ludes those already published as well as those that are under way. Those unfinished will be rapidly completed and placed on sale at all news stands throughout the country. No. I. Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guide IOC <C “ 2, “ League Book u IOC. (< (t 3- “ Hand Book of Piti hing IOC., (( “ “ a 4- “ Batting IOC. (C “ “ <t 5- “ Base Running and Fielding IOC. (f %c 6. “ Cricket Guide . In Press, IOC. (6 6( (t 7- “ Lacrosse and Football Rules.... IOC. {< a << 8. “ Lawn Tennis Manual 25c. tC “ u 9- Manual of Roller Skating Completed 25c. iC “ i( IO. “ Croquet 15c. (( II. “ “ Manly Sports <( 25c. tc “ 12. “ Bicycling .In Press, 25c. (i a !3- “ Hand Book of Sporting Rules and i raining*, 25c. Any of the above books mailed upon receipt of price. Orders for the books now in press will be received, and the books mailed as soon as issued. OUR JOURNALS. To meet a general want in the sporting world, we have issued a series of Journals, which are replete with information in regard to the various sports; the utensils used, their description, cost, etc., are fully set forth. With the aid of these Journals those interested in any particular line of sporting, games or pastimes, can readily inform themselves in all the particulars of each amusement. We shall be pleased to mail a sample copy free to any address upon application. Spalding’s Journal of Summer Sports, “ “ Field Sports. “ Angler. “ Bicycle Journal, “ Cutlery Journal. BASE BALL GUIDE AND Official League Book for 1885. A COMPLETE HAND BOOK OF THE NATIONAL GAME OF BASE BALL. CONTAINING REVIEWS OF THE VARIOUS ASSOCIATION SEASONS —LEAGUE, AMERICAN, NORTHWESTERN AND EASTERN LEAGUES, WITH SPECIAL ARTICLES ON CLUB MAN- AGEMENT, ON PITCHING, ON BATTING, ON FIELD- ING, ON BASE RUNNING AND OTHER BASE BALL TOPICS OF INTEREST. TOGETHER WITH THE SEASON’S AVERAGES OF THE FOUR PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS FOR 1884, AND ALSO The College Club Statistics for 1884 , ADDED TO WHICH IS THE COMPLETE OFFICIAL LEAGUE RECORD FOR 1884, Including- a Synopsis of the Amended Constitution, the Playing- Rules in their Revised Form; Official Record of all League Games and • Players and the Official ; Schedule of League Games for 1885. A s adopted at the Special Meetings of tlpe League, Nov, 18/84 and JJarch/85. PUBLISHED BY A. G. SPALDING & BROS., NEW YORK AND CHICAGO. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year of 1885, by A. G. Spalding & Bros., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. PUBLISHERS’ NOTICE. “Spalding’s Base Ball Guide” again greets the base ball public with the official records of America’s national game. First issued in 1877, it has grown in popularity, has been enlarged and improved from year to year, and is now the recognized authority upon base ball matters. The statistics contained in the “ Guide ” can be relied upon, nearly all of them having been compiled from official records. The “Guide” has attained such a size—>17 6 pages —as to preclude the possibility of publishing in the same issue the League Constitution in full, and other interesting League matter. We are therefore com- pelled, in addition, to publish the “ Official League Book,” which contains only official League matter as furnished by Secretary Young, including the League Constitution in full. Copies of the “ Guide ” 01 “ League Book,” will be mailed to any address upon receipt of ten cents each. Trade orders supplied through the News Companies, or direct from the publishers. A* ©. SPALDING & MOS., 3N£a,cLiso:n. St., ; Broad-way 108 f CHICAGO. NEW YOKE. Washington, D. C., March 7, 1885. By the authority vested in roe, I do hereby certify that Messrs. A. G. Spalding & Bros., of Chicago, 111 ., have been granted the exclusive right to publish the Official League Book for 1885. N. E. YOUNG, Secretary National League of Professional Base Ball Chibs. CORRECT DIAGRAM OF A BALL GROUND Ce,»tr.e Left 'Right — BASE BALL GUIDE. 7 INTRODUCTION. It is now over a quarter of a century since the game of base ball became popularized as the game of games for American youth; and within that period it has so extended itself in its sphere of operations that it is now the permanently established national field game of America. Unlike many sports taken up by our people, which have ridden into general favor on the wave of a public furore, base ball has come to stay. Not even the great war of the rebellion could check its progress to any great extent; in fact, in one way—through the national army it led to its being planted in a Southern clime, and now base ball can be said to “know no North, no South, no East, no West.” It has even crossed the border into Canada, and in addition, like cricket, has found its way at times to foreign shores. Within the past fifteen years, too, the national game has burst its youthful bonds, and from the amateur period of its early growth it has entered upon the more advanced con- dition of its career under the professional system, which system has developed its innate attractions within a single decade to ah extent it otherwise could not have reached in thrice the amount of time. In 1871 the first professional association was estab- lished, and now, in 1885, we find the professional fraternity, after their passage through the Red Sea of gambling abuses so thoroughly controlled in the interests of honest play by the existing professional organizations, that the evils which attach themselves to professionalism, in sports generally, no longer find space for existence within the arena of professional base ball playing. In fact, our national game now stands alone as a field sport in the one important fact that it is the only public spOrt in which professional exemplars take part which possesses the power to attract its thousands of spectators without the extrinsic aid of gambling. At horse races, athletic contests and every other public sport in vogue, if the pool selling and book making of the gambling fraternity are prevented, nearly all the attraction which draws most of the public patronage to such sports is removed. This fact was strikingly illustrated in NewYork during the season of 1882; for at the Jerome Park races that year, when an attempt was made to stop the book-making and public betting, the 8 spalding’s official attendance dwindled down to a few hundred, while, with the betting in operation, the attendance reached five or six thousand a day. It was the same at the last great international pedes- trian contest at Madison Square Garden in New York, the pre- vention of the pool-gambling feature making the meeting a financial failure. At the professional base ball matches for championship honors, however, especially on League Club Grounds, where pool-selling and all forms of open public bet- ting are prohibited—thousands of spectators are attracted to the grounds solely by the excitement of the sport itself. This is a peculiarity of our national game which fully proves, not only the intrinsic merit of the game itself, but what a suitable sport it is for the patronage of the best classes of the community. Another thing worthy of remark is the eminent fitness of the game of base ball for us Americans. It is very questionable whether there is any public sport in the civilized portion of the world so eminently fitted for the people it was made for as the American national game of base ball.