BASE BALL.

base ball correspondence.

New York, Oct. 20.   

Dear Spirit:—As the season for playing Ball, and other out-door sports has nearly passed away, and as you have fairly become the chronicle for Cricket and Base Ball, I take the liberty of writing to you, and to the Ball players through you, a few letters, which I hope will prove of some interest to your readers, as well as induce some prominent player to write or publish a book on the game.

Among the many books on the sports and pastimes of the people, Cricket is well represented, and the various Clubs have manuals and books giving sufficient knowledge to the person desirous of learning the game, and enabling him to acquire it without a teacher ; although in England a tutor is considered necessary to impart a thorough knowledge of positions, &c. But no such work has made its appearance to meet the wants of the young Base Ball players ; not that such a book would be considered useless, for we well know that every true lover of the game desires to be well acquainted with everything that relates to it ; and there are but few persons to whom the book would not convey some ideas, or impress more strongly their past experience.

I intend, therefore, to write a few letters to you, Dear Spirit, which may cause, as I have before said, some book to make its appearance.

It would occupy much time, and perhaps uselessly, to go into any research on the origin of the game.

My letters will, undoubtedly, call forth some criticism from the many good players that reside among us, and, there may be many faults ; but I shall state that which has come under my own observation, as also some of my friends, during the last four years of the Ball-playing mania. Indeed, I hope that such effect will be produced, as many original and novel ideas may be started, which will at some future time help to control the game, and improve the laws as well as players.

We find that Cricket was played as early as, and perhaps before the sixteenth century—although many improvements and alterations have since been made in the game. Base Ball cannot date back so far as that ; but the game has, no doubt, been played in this country for at least one century. Could we only invoke the spirit of some departed veteran in the game, how many items of interest might we be able to place before the reader.

New England, we believe, has always been the play-ground for our favorite game ; and the boys of the various villages still play by the same rules as their fathers did before them. We also find that many games are played, differing but little from the well-known game of Base.

I shall touch slightly on one or two of them in some of my letters. Although I am a resident of the State of New York, I hope that I do her no wrong by thinking that the New England States were, and are, the ball grounds of this country, and that many of our present players were originally from those States.

The game of Base, as played there, was as follows : The two best players generally were the leaders. They would take the bat, “hand over hand,” as the present time, “whole hand or none.” After the sides were chosen, the bases would be placed so as to form a square, each base about twenty yards from the other. The striker would stand between the the first and fourth base, equi-distant from each. The catcher was always expected to take the ball without a bound, and it was always thrown by the player who would stand between the second and third bases. A good catcher would frequently take the ball before the bat could strike it. A hand was out if a man running the bases should be struck with the ball which was thrown at him while running. He was allowed either a pace or jump to the base which he was striving to reach ; or if a ball was caught either flying or on first bound. There was no rule to govern the striker as to the direction he should knock the ball, and of course, no such thing as foul balls. The whole side had to be put out, and if the last man could strike a ball a sufficient distance to make all the bases, he could take in one of the men who had been put out. The ball was not quite the same as the one in present use, and varied very much in size and weight, it also was softer and more spongy.

The bats were square, flat, or round—some preferring a flat bat, and striking with it so that the edge, or small side, would come in contact with the ball. Another arrangement of bases is, to have the first about two yards from the striker (on the right), the second about fifty down the field, and the third, or home, about five.

Having briefly touched on the game, as played in days gone by, I will turn my attention in my next more to the present, and especially to New York city and vicinity.            Yours, respectfully,            X.