Clipping:A defense of scoring a base hit on a base on balls
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| Date | Wednesday, April 13, 1887 |
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| Text | [from Frank Brunell's column] I have been waiting to see some of my confreres of The Sporting Life hit the writers who are continually howling against the base hit for a base on balls rule. Their owls make us tired, because they are the result of a glance. One would think that ere this the value of the patient batsman of good judgment, who waits until he gets the ball he wants before he strikes at it, would have been recognized. But it hasn't been, and week after week I pick up papers who editors should, and generally do, know better, and see condemnations of this rule. Ask the men who make it a business to select players for teams, how valuable is that batsman who hits at only what he calls for. It is his skill against the pitcher's, and—under the new rules—with the chances in the pitcher's favor. Often the pitcher gives the man—if he is dangerous and the situation is critical—his base on balls rather than risk a hit and a consequent run, should he evade the responsibilities upon him without cost? It does not seem that he should. Except when in front of a “skyrocket” pitcher, the batsman who gets his base on balls earns it. Batting isn't the only ingredient of base ball that wins games, and I consider the batsman who is patient and alert enough to refuse the baits offered him by a good pitcher entitled to as much credit as though he hit the ball safely. |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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