Every boy knows how to lay off a “diamond,” and understands the main
rules of the game and the terms, ‘‘assist,” “error,” “battery,” ‘fly ball,” “foul,”
“dead ball,” “block ball,” “muff,” “double play,” “wild throw,” and hosts of
other base ball vernacular are apart of his vocabulary. In a scoresheet, A. B.
means times at bat. R. means rums scored. B. H. means base hits. P. O.
means put out. E. means errors made. A. means assists rendered. S. B.
means stolen bases. S. O. means struck out, and other terms may be used.
but these are most common.

It is a question if the youth of to-day get the fun out of ball that the youth
of a generation ago did. Then the ball was pitched to the batter, who, if skill-
ful, drove it far out into the field. How well I remember games which lasted
from three to five hours, games in which the score reached thirty to seventy on
aside. What yells greeted the boy who rushed panting over the plate and
cried “Tally!” What a hero was he who caught a “fly,” and did a side fail to
score during an inning it was hooted at mercilessly! How we farmer boys
worked through the week to finish our allotted tasks by Saturday noon so that
we might have the afternoon to play in. What vim, what energy we put into
the game! The “error” column was not kept then—nothing but the “runs,” and
these were usually counted by notches cut into one side of a stick. The um-
pire knew little of the game, but as the players knew less no harm was done.
We played for fun and fun we had until the evening shades warned us that we
must drop our loved sport. No thought of weariness came to us while we
played, but there were often bumps and bruises and soreness on our bodies
that a week’s respite could scarce allay. We who played the game in its in-
fancy go out to-day and witness the science, the strategy, the skill, which are
shown, the lightning-like speed with which the ball goes to the batter, the mar-
vellous dexterity with which a fielder pulls down a seemingly impossible ball,
the daring base running, and lastly the small score, with an intense longing for

the game as we knewit, and go home convinced that base ball, like everything
else, was better when we were boys.