Clipping:A proposal to score runs by bases rather than by reaching home
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| Date | Wednesday, October 24, 1888 |
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| Text | [from a letter to the editor by F. C. Anderson] Instead of making the players touch four bases in succession before they can add to the tally of their side let every base made during the game count in the score. For instance, if a player gets on first base that counts one point in the score. If he steals second and gets to third on a sacrifice by another player he adds two more to the score, and if he reaches home finally he makes a total of four, instead of one as at present. By this plan everything a man does for his side is counted, and not often wasted as it is now. Base-running becomes as important as hitting. Sacrifices are nearly as valuable as base hits, and, in a word, every man is compelled to aid his side in order to aid himself. How often nowadays do men reach third by clever work at the bat and between the bases without their cleverness affecting the score at all, while a slugger who happens to get a slow ball and knocks it out of the lot is glorified because he has added to the score? This plan handicaps no one. Every man starts from the scratch, and it depends only upon himself how far he gets and how much he adds to the score of his side. Think of the advantages of this plan. If the pitcher makes a wild pitch it don't only appear in the summary, but for every man who is advanced a base by it one tally is scored against his club. He cannot indulge in bases on balls, for then he is sure to affect the result of the game. Catchers can no longer let balls pass them with impunity, for the same result will follow on a passed ball as on a wild pitch. The consequence will be that pitchers will have to put the ball over the plate and depend on head work and their fielders to put men out. Fielders won't take chances on reckless throws, because the penalty is too great, men will no longer hang on first base waiting to be batted our. Team work will follow, because there will be as much glory in stealing a base or making a sacrifice hit, as in slugging the ball out of the lot. The man who can get himself on first and work himself around, will be looked upon with more favor than he who simply depends on his slugging qualities. In other words, brain will be a premium over brawn, and the man who possesses both will be the star, even if he is outclassed in either faculty by other men. |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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