| This issue of who started baseball or who made | | | | front yard and a runner is on base. The defender |
| the first rules for the game is just so much | | | | or player in the field would toss the ball in the air. |
| malarkey. Just like it took Einstein to tell us the | | | | His throw would be higher and higher. At some |
| truth of which came first the "chicken or the egg". | | | | point the runner would take off like a blue streak. |
| Must have been a tie because there has never | | | | Ironically, the odds were good the defender would |
| been a declared winner. | | | | get excited and miss handle his catch and the |
| I'll tell you one thing the age old nursery rhyme of | | | | runner would outrun the defenders throw. The |
| "Humpty Dumpty Sat On A Wall" then when he | | | | throw and the toss in the air was nothing more |
| fell all the kings men and horses could not put him | | | | than another wrinkle or version of the hit the |
| back together again. Folks that little ditty was well | | | | runner with the ball. |
| before "duck tape". | | | | You tell me where these kind of rules are written |
| Seriously the issue of who and when is really a | | | | down and passed along from a rule book. My ball |
| part of the chicken and the egg and humpty | | | | playing buddies, when I was growing up, never |
| dumpty question, it just happened. | | | | really knew there was a book with all the rules. |
| Growing up, playing baseball by playground rules, I | | | | This learning the game and playing by rules |
| never saw a rule book and I know of no one | | | | although you might say unofficial rules served us |
| who I have ever known reading one. Some how | | | | well. |
| we managed to get a game underway, | | | | Like I said in my introduction most of the rules |
| sometimes we finished the game, and then | | | | we played, by or against, were made "By some |
| sometimes it ended in a good argument or fight | | | | dude." When watching the bigger youngsters play |
| over some rules we simply made up. | | | | and waiting our turn we absorbed the rules by |
| Would you believe we even have made rules like | | | | observation. Right wrong or indifferent somehow |
| so many foul hits would equal a strike. Some of | | | | we began to play by the rules which counted the |
| the bigger boys were so good at hitting,and would | | | | most. |
| not want to give up their turn at bat, they would | | | | Nothing could be more elementary than three |
| foul hit pitch after pitch. Bigger boys were in | | | | strikes and you are out. Must tag up on a fly ball |
| control and they would take advantage of the | | | | being caught. A runner must be tagged with the |
| smaller inept players and simply toy with us and | | | | ball not the glove only. Running out of the baseline |
| stay at bat. | | | | to avoid a tag caused more fights than being |
| This old thing about getting a runner out by | | | | called a sissy. |
| throwing and hitting him with the ball between | | | | We learned the rules and the bigger boys made |
| bases? Where we learned that rule is beyond | | | | sure the rules were applied their way. If you think |
| me? Never do I recall someone sitting us down | | | | an umpire has control of a game you have not |
| and saying, "Now the way you get a runner out is | | | | seen control like a sixth grader who stands a |
| hit him with the ball." | | | | head taller than his classmates. |
| You see somewhere way back there in history | | | | Rules written or unwritten we loved to play the |
| the hitting the runner with the ball got started. | | | | game so we learned the rules and we passed |
| Here is another of those just got started rules. | | | | them along both altered and unaltered. This is part |
| Rule for use with only two players playing in the | | | | of the game we loved and still cherish. |