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Show HOBOKEIi; H. J., IS THE CRADLE OF BASEBALL s. As ranmrll hall in Philadelphia w i th cradl of liberty, 19 la Hobokan, N. J., th cradla of baseball. The grant national pastime was bora In that city away back In 1845, says the Kansas City Star. Authenticated records do not state what seams partlelpated In the first fame. Neither has the older Inhabitant and the gurrivor of the Mexican war been able to agree upon this point. not have to touch the runner in order to put him out. The first game was played between two teems, chosen promiscuously from a crowd that gathered oa a vacant lot. But on June 14. 144, e regular game between two teams that really had names was plsved at Elvtias Fields. N. Y. The elubs were the K nicker bockers and the New York Cltye. No tally record of this game can be found in any book or at the county morgue, so it ia presumed that the score wax forgotten and there were ao fatalities. For thirteen years ths game was per mltted to drift along aad then, in 18.17. a leageie wee f srsssS i i Varh -&U salaries were paid, however, and it was trulv a "Fourth of July" league. Soldiers plared the game on the Held of battle during the civil war. and returning re-turning home, fascinated with the sport, gave it a new lease on life. 80 speedily did the gsme advance that io the early sisties umpires began to call balls oa pitchers who could not put them over. In 1M.1 a bold New Englander started start-ed a factory for making baseballs. They were mueh superior to the old handmade halls and caused increased interest in the game. Three vears later a salaried team was put ia the field in Cincinnati. This grew into the famous Cincinnati red stockings, whs. in I860 1870, played eighty games without a defeat, aetting a record in the pastime that has never been equsled. When Nat Hicks, catcher, slipped on a meek and moved up behind the plate, in 187fl. hia relatives began to doubt the validity of his life insurance policy with a suicide rlsuse attached. The breast pad followed a few years later. Not until 18H6 were gloves need for the left hsnds by any other player than the catcher. That was the year Kansas Kan-sas City broke into the National league and. incidentally, finished next to last with percentage of .147. Through many long, hard winters, when they were not posing for their pictures to be used in patent medicine testimonials, they have sat around the stove down at fire headquarters and ar gued this question, but never hsve come to an agreement. Baseball was an outgrowth of the old pastime of "rounders," which was pisyed back in 1823, and which has been played by men sow but little past the meridian of life. To this generation, genera-tion, however, "rounders" is unknown. The first ball that was used in a game was made of sections of an old over shoe, wound with woolen string and covered wlth-roars Towhtde.-Non of t be players wore a glove, the catcher standing about thirty feet back of the Clste and picking up the balls en the ounce. Here is the set of rules used: The bases shall be from horn to second sec-ond bane, fortv-two paces; from first to third base, forty two paces equidistant. equidis-tant. The game to consist of twenty one counts, or aces, but st the conclusion an equal number of bands must be played. (This meant that the first team reaching a score of twenty-one in a limited number of innings won.) .The ball must be pitched and not thrown, for the bat. c A hall knocked outside of range of first or third base ia a foul. Three balls being struck at and missed, the last one caught, is a hand ouf; if not caught it ia considered fair and the batter must run. A ball being struck or tipped and caught ither flying or on the first bound is a hand out. A player running the bases shall be nut if the ball is in the hands of an adversary ad-versary on the base, or the runner is touched by it before he makes his base; it being understood, however, that in no instance ia the ball to be thrown at him. A player running, who shall prevent an adversary from catching or getting the ball before making his base, is s hsnd out. If two hsnds are already out a player running home at the tint the hall is struck cannot make a ace if the striker is csnght out. Three hsnds out, all out. Playera must take their strike ia reg-ulsr reg-ulsr torn. No ace or base can be made on a foulstrike. A runner cannot he put out in making ma-king one base when a balk is made. 1 But one base allowed when the ball bounds out of the field when struck. After a few games the rules were changed so that the first baseman did |