1844.14

"At Base, They Cannot Hit Him With the Ball."

Salience	Noteworthy
Tags	FictionFiction
Location
City/State/Country:	[[{{{Country}}}]]
Modern Address
Game
Immediacy of Report	Contemporary
Age of Players	JuvenileJuvenile
Holiday
Notables
Text	A small work of juvenile fiction published in 1844 contains this description of a youthful ballplayer: "Johnny is a real good hand to play with the older boys, too. At base, they cannot hit him with the ball, any more than if he were made of air. Sometimes he catches up his feet, and lets it pass under him, sometimes he leans one way, and sometimes another, or bows his head; any how, he always dodges it." Another scene describes several boys sitting on a fence and watching "a game of base."
Sources	Willie Rogers, or Temper Improved, (Samuel B. Simpkins, Boston), 1844.
Warning
Comment	David Block observes: "the sentence describing the boy's skill at taking evasive action when threatened by soaking seems significant to me. I don't recall ever seeing this skill discussed before, and, although long obsolete, it must have stood as one of the more valuable tools of the base runner in the era of soaking/plugging ." Edit with form to add a comment
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Source Image	[[Image:\|left\|thumb]]
External Number
Submitted by	David Block
Submission Note	Email of 2/10/2014
Has Supplemental Text

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