How do you play this game, again?

Is there a story behind the picture. It is very odd

Jay

I found it without the story.

I'd sure like more.



Here is another of those:

Just looking at the catcher is proof that they threw no where near as hard back then as they do today. Although I've seen pictures of the hands of some catchers back then and they were brutal looking

Jay

Looks a little like cricket. Maybe an in-between game?

Looks like a posed picture as opposed to an actual in game shot, like they were trying to get as much into the shot as possible. I have little doubt that the pitcher was more than 20 feet away while pitching, if this is in fact baseball. Wierd picture though

Great observation Rhett. I just noticed that the player in front of the pitcher is holding a bat against his leg.

Jay

it almost looks like the "pitcher" is the 3b, and that each runner is touching his base with a bat.

The earliest versions of baseball had posts instead of bags for bases. Given that the one is leaning, it is most likely a bat they holding, but why?

Jay

the more I think about it, the more it seems certain that there is a runner standing on 2b, and that the pitching mound or whatever you call the place the pitcher is set should be centered between 2b and home plate. Isn't the thrower basically on 3b?

"The Cartwright Rules required pitchers to "pitch" the ball as though they were tossing a horseshoe. So, when the first official recognized baseball game was played in 1846, pitchers delivered the ball to the batter in an underhanded motion.

By 1884, however, the National League (which now controlled baseball) changed the rule and allowed pitchers to deliver the ball in an overhanded motion towards home plate".

Read more: http://baseball.suite101.com/article.cfm/baseballs_pitching_rule_changes#ixzz0HZTX8ySB&B


Since the pitcher is throwing overhand ..... it could date to the post-1883 era. Or maybe they were just practising overhand pitching. Certainly fielders did not have to throw underhand.