I started watching Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary and decided to get into “old-timey” baseball. This is start!
Sometimes, when we’re not marveling at giant bugs or depraved activities, the internet gifts us with a real gem. With that said, enjoy John Montgomery Ward’s “Base-ball: How to Become a Player.”
A small taste:
“Outside of the nine players on each side is another important personage, known as “The Umpire.” He is not placed there as a target for the maledictions of disappointed spectators. He is of flesh and blood, and has feelings just the same as any other human being. He is not chosen because of his dishonesty or ignorance of the rules of the game, neither is he an ex-horse thief nor an escaped felon ; on the contrary, he has been carefully selected by the President of the League from among a great number of applicants on account of his supposed in- tegrity of character and peculiar fitness for the position ; indeed, in private life he may even pass as a gentleman.”
Clearly Mr. Ward had never met Joe West. Click through to read the whole wondrous book.
(h/t Baseball Nation)
