Collections Item Detail

2009.006

Lukacs, Claire

Gift

Museum Collections. Gift of a friend of the Museum.

1859 - 1859

Date(s) Created: 1859 Date(s): 1859-1859

Good

Notes: Harper's Weekly, Vol. III, No. 136, Saturday, October 15, 1859. ==== Editorial on page 658: The Cricket Mania. In New York, it is well known, there are several base-ball clubs which play periodically. The same thing is true of Boston, Philadelphia, and perhaps one or two other cities. But is base-ball so popular that it is a regular and well-understood diversion in most of the counties in most of the States of the Union? Do young men naturally-learn base-ball in Massachusetts, in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, and in Louisiana? Could a base-ball match be got up in every town of tea thousand inhabitants throughout the country? We leave it to those who are better acquainted with the sporting fraternity than ourselves to answer these queries. For our part, we regret to say that we doubt very much whether base-ball be a popular game at all in the interior, or in any part of the country except in a few great cities. We see no evidence that either base-ball or any other athletic game is so generally practiced by our people as to be fairly called a popular American game. In this country the importance of athletic exercises is only just beginning to be understood. Men of thirty can remember well that, when they were at school, proficiency in the athletic games of the play-ground was regarded rather as a drawback than a merit. Schoolmasters sneered at fast runners, and bold leapers, and alert ball-players, and reserved their encomiums and their favors for little prodigies who had aorists and alcaics at their fingers' ends. To this day many, we believe the bulk, of the school-teachers throughout the country proceed on the Blimber principle, and discourage all kinds of games as tending to interfere with "legitimate studies." As with our boys, so with our men. Bank clerks, young merchants, mercantile aspirants, all seem to think time devoted to manly exercise wasted, and the model clerk him who drudges six days of every week at his desk without an hour of physical labor. Still, as we write, the world moves, and we are all the time learning. Common sense has made vast strides within the past ten or twenty years. Under the Van Buren Presidency it is doubtful whether any leading family journal would have dared to intimate that it is perhaps as important for boys to learn base-ball as prosody or conic sections. Another twenty years, and no doubt our people will be as devoted to athletic exercises as the English. The results on the American frame will surprise physiologists. [end text from page 658] ==== ==== Article on page 666 describing the events in the two illustrations on page 664-665: CRICKET AND BASE-BALL. ON the preceding pages we give engravings of the game of Cricket as played at Hoboken last week between the Eleven of All England and the Twenty-two of the United States; and of the game of Base-ball, as played by the clubs in this part of tile country. It is impossible, in the space allotted to us, to describe either of those two games. Both would require several columns even to give the ordinary rules which govern each game; and the account would be unintelligible to persons unacquainted with the game and superfluous for all others. Our advice to all who wish to understand these games is, to go and see them played, and after that to learn them on the field. They will thus not only be enabled to understand the accounts in the newspapers, but will likewise develop their muscles and improve their stamina. For the benefit of those, however, who are intrigued by the accounts which are appearing in the papers of the cricket games which are being played by our English visitors, we may, in a few words, give some rough notion of the game. Cricket, or double wickets (the only kind of cricket played here), is played by eleven players on each side. The ground chosen should be a smooth plain. In this, at a distance of 22 yards from each other, two sets of wickets (consisting of three stumps of wood 28 inches long and surmounted by one or two cross pieces called bails) are planted, one inch in the ground. In front of each of these wickets stands a batsman or striker. Opposite to the striker, rather behind the opposite wicket, stands the bowler. At the signal "play" the bowler throws the ball to the striker, aiming it at the wickets; the striker protects his wickets by striking the ball with his bat. When he strikes the ball he may run from wicket to wicket, the opposite striker running also at the same time. Tile striker is out, 1st, when the ball bowled to him strikes his wickets and knocks down a stump or the bails; 2d, when, while he is absent from his post on a run or otherwise, one of the opposite party succeeds in throwing the ball against his wicket; 3d, when the ball, having been struck by his bat, is caught by one of his opponents; 4th, when he knocks down his wickets with his clothes or his bat; 6th, when his body is placed before his wickets, etc., etc. When any of these casualties occurs, he is ''out," and another of his eleven takes his place; the innings ends when the whole eleven are out. Only two of the party having the innings can play at once; the other nine wait their turn. The "outs" are all actively employed. One of them is "bowler," and throws the ball to the striker. Another is ''wicket keeper;" he stands behind tile wickets to stop balls which pass them without being struck; and behind him stands "long stop," whose duty it is to stop balls which have escaped both striker and "wicket keeper." in a line with the striker, on his left, stands ''leg," who "backs up" balls which come in his direction; and on the opposite side are stationed ''short slip," "long slip," " point," and "cover," whose duties are to catch the ball if it comes their way, or at all events to stop it as soon as they can, and to throw it toward the wickets. Around and behind the bowler, on either side, are "middle wicket," "long field on-side," ''long field off-side," who are charged with the duty of looking after balls which have been hit hard and are traveling over the field in their direction. Almost all games at cricket are played in two innings-though at Hoboken last week this was not necessary. The winning side is the one which counts most runs. A striker may run when he has hit the ball, or when the bowler ha bowled it out of reach. He may run as often as he can, subject only to the penalty of being put out if his opponents can knock down his wickets while he is away from his post. We wish that this were more intelligible than it must prove to such of our readers as are not familiar with cricket; but we can only repeat our advice-go and see the game for yourselves. Base-ball differs from cricket, especially, in there being no wickets. The bat is held high in the air. When the ball has been struck the "outs" try to catch it, in which case the striker is "out;" or, if they can not do this, to strike the striker with it when he is running, which likewise puts him out. Instead of wickets, there are at this game four or five marks called bases, one of which, being the one at which the striker stands, is called "home." As at cricket, the point of the game is to make the most runs between these bases; the party which counts the most runs wins the day. For the particular rules of the game we must refer to the treatises on the subject. [end article on page 666] ==== ==== Status: OK Status By: dw Status Date: 2009-06-11