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