Clipping:Star club as 'offshoot' of the Excelsior

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Date Sunday, June 5, 1859
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The Stars are an offshoot from the Excelsior Clubs [sic] and are nearly all young men, under twenty-one years of age. They were the favorites of the juvenile portion of the audience, and did not fail to give them hearty applause, whenever they did any “tall” playing. New York Atlas June 5, 1859

The Charter Oak had hardly grasped the laurels they gained by beating the Excelsior Club, when they were handsomely taken away from them by the Star Club–a promising offshoot of the Excelsiors. New York Sunday Mercury June 5, 1859

interpreting force plays–note the answers to the second and third questions; note also the usage of “basing” the ball

SYRACUSE, N.Y. June 14th, 1859

To the Editors of the Sunday Mercury:

One or two questions have come up in our Club (the Syracuse Base Ball Club), in regard to the rules of play:

1st. The three bases are occupied. The ball is struck fair, but falls very near home base. The ball is fielded, and held on home base:

Question.–Is the player occupying the third base–that should make home base–out without being touched by the ball? and can the ball be passed to third base, putting out the player occupying the second base in the same way, and so round until players reach the bases they are entitled to?

2nd. The three bases are occupied. The ball is struck fair, and fielded so as to reach the first base before the striker:

Question.–Have the players occupying the bases a right to remain on them? and, if they have not the right, can they return to them after the striker is out? If not, can the ball be passed to second, or any of the bases, putting the man trying to make that base out without touching, as in the case of the striker.

3d. The first and second bases are occupied. The ball is struck fair, and fielded to second base before the man that occupied the first base reaches it.

Question.–Is he out without being touched? and if the ball is passed to third base before the man that occupied the second base reaches it, is he out without being touched? If not, can he return to the second base?

We think Sec. 18 of the Rules very clearly answers the first question of our correspondent: “When a fair ball is struck, and not caught flying, or on the first bound, the first base must be vacated, as also the second and third bases, if they are occupied at the same time. Players may be put out, upon any base, under these circumstances, in the same manner as the striker, when running to the first base,” that is to say, by basing the ball in advance of the runner. The rule, as will be seen, gives authority for putting out all the players in the manner described by our correspondent.

The same section (18) applies equally well to the second query. “When a fair ball is struck, and not caught flying, or upon the first bound, the first base must be vacated” as also the other bases. The players, therefore, have no authority for remaining on the bases–they “must be vacated,” and they have no right, under the circumstances of the case, to return to them; they must go forward. As we have shown above, by the rule, the players may be put out, under these circumstances, in the same manner as the striker, when running to the first base. Consequently it is quite clear that it is not requisite that the runner should be touched with the ball.

In all other cases, except where the bases are all occupied–as provided in Sec. 18–and as regards the striker in running to the first base, it is imperative that the players running the bases should be touched with a ball in the hands of an adversary, in order to be put out. Therefore, in the case pointed out by our correspondent, in his third query, the playing running to the second base is not put out unless he has been so touched. It is not sufficient, in this instance, to base the ball in advance of the runner. As regards returning to the bases, the rule expressly provides that the bases occupied by players at the time a fair ball is struck and not caught must be vacated, and even if the runner from the first to the second base were put out, the runner from the second to the third base has no right to know it–there is no turning back for him. New York Sunday Mercury June 19, 1859

Source New York Atlas
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Submitted by Richard Hershberger
Origin Initial Hershberger Clippings

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