The Battle of Base-Ball

C.H. Claudy might have trouble finding a publisher for his Battle of Base-ball today. His yoking of baseball to warfare--accounts of ways to "cripple the enemy" and descriptions of managers as "battlefield generals"--to teach the young and inexperienced about the game would not likely be applauded in the age of political correctness. But as Claudy says in his preface, "The points of similarity are actual, not imagined," and he spends most of the book, meant to be both instructional and historical, demonstrating his assertion. Originally published in 1912, this work consists of chapters on batting, running, offensive game planning, the pitcher-catcher battery, fielding, defensive strategy, umpiring, drills (titled "Battlefield and Arms"), major league regulations, and A.G. Spalding's organizational rules. Christy Mathewson's "How I Became a Big-League Pitcher" is also included.