i866H Baseball 



Along about this time the wholesome American 

 sport of baseball came into vogue. The modern 

 game had then been developed out of the old loose 

 one commonly known as i( rounders," although we 

 always called it baseball; this was played with an 

 indefinite number of bases, and the soft ball was 

 thrown directly at the runner. At Gainesville we 

 soon heard of the new sport, and the village black- 

 smith was accordingly sent over to Buffalo to see 

 how it went. The glowing accounts he brought 

 back led to immediate results. At once we formed 

 a team, the "Gainesville Zouaves," flaunting a mlle 

 uniform of brilliant scarlet Zouave trousers and 

 white shirts, and announced ourselves ready to play 

 against clubs in neighboring towns. From that 

 time up to 1909 I took part every year in some sort 

 of match game. At the age of fifty-eight, while 

 president of a university and with a steadily lower- 

 ing batting average, I reluctantly abandoned the 

 sport so far as my own participation went. 



In the " Zouaves" I began as left fielder, for I was 

 very good at catching fly balls; I was also the best 

 base runner, being able in those days to leap any 

 ordinary fence. I was afterwards promoted to the 

 rank of second baseman, and later I became a hard 

 hitter. My greatest achievement along this line 

 occurred in my junior year at Cornell, when on the 

 old Willow Avenue grounds in Ithaca I made three 

 consecutive home runs, the ball in each case passing 

 over the roof of a house supposed to be beyond the 

 center field. 



It has long been a matter of mild interest to me 

 that my baseball career began about simultaneously 

 with that of : 'Pop" Anson, creator of the famous 



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