Clipping:The location of the ninth game in the series
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| Date | Sunday, November 9, 1873 |
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| Text | Mr. Chadwick states that the ninth game between clubs entered for the championship is not to be played on neutral ground, except in case of each having won four games. He also states that where the first game is played, so should the last be, except in the case referred to. The logic of this we cannot appreciate. Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch November 9, 1873 [see also Clipper 11/08/1873] arguments for and against the ten men rule; the limits of scientific batting; what constitutes a clean hit The allegations that of late in critical periods of a game, players are apt to endeavor to hit between first and second, which point is unguarded, and that to cover this takes the second baseman so out of his position, that a throw the least bit wild, allows a good runner to reach second, and that the batting of players will be rendered much more scientific, are all true and obvious; but on the other hand, the past season has demonstrated that in the majority of games, base hits are scarce, and it is seldom that they average more than nine or ten times to the game, or one to each player. The addition of a tenth man will render them doubly difficult to make because to say that, by batters giving more study they can acquire a science in batting that will enable them to make good hits with a round bat, in which the slightest change from hitting the ball at 4right angles will send it up or down, is to assert that every man has equal judgment, quickness of sight, nerve and muscle; and this the opponents of the system deny is possible, and that there are only very few exceptional cases of such batters in the country. Again, it is truthfully said that, as fielding has been brought to so great a perfection, batting is the only thing that really determines games, and that one gap should be left open for the display of this skill. … These are the arguments presented by the advocates and opponents of the system. One gentleman asserts that the opening between first and second being left unguarded makes the field “lop-sided,” and so it does, but in old times, and even now, the large majority of hits are to the left of second base... We side very much with the opposition as to making batting more scientific, for we see batters continually practicing to place the ball in certain places, often with results exactly opposite to those intended. While it is doubtless true that practice will to some extend give players better control of their batting, it is absurd to suppose that they can place the ball just where they please, even twice out of five times; for, if this was so, it would take fifteen fielders to cover the ground. This position has in its defense the fact that a club possessing players who have practiced, and therefore acquired what science is possible, will beat one that has not; but it will be neutralized by7 the ability to so dispose of the field as to cover more ground than now, and then the only possible base hits will be tremendous flies over the outfielders heads. Short liners, or hot, sharp hits, pass the players; and these latter, according to the theories of one of our city contemporaries who done so much to advance the game, are not really really clean hits. We also believe it impossible for every man to acquire batting on the same grounds as stated above, vide the numbers of players who do all in their power, but unsuccessfully, to bat well. We contradict the theory that batting would determine games, for clean hits would be about as anomalous as earned runs are of late, and while the latter would doubtless disappear altogether the former would not average more than three or four base hits to the game. Runs would be made on errors, and it is questionable whether it would be more interesting to the audience to thus witness them made than as it is now to occasionally having the monotony of good and bad fielding varied by a few good hits. In other words, fielding and not batting would determine the game, and it does that too much now. Give the batters some chance at least. Philadelphia Sunday Republic November 9, 1873 |
| Source | Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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