RECREATION. 



[83 



TWO KINDS OF BASE-BALLS. 



A. G. Spalding & Brothers make base- 

 balls and sell them to dealers and to con- 

 sumers. If they do not make them they 

 have them made on contract. They call 

 these balls " Official League Balls." They 

 give the balls this name because the National 

 Base Ball League specifies that balls for its 

 use shall be made so and so. Among the 

 requirements of the League are : — 



1 ounce of very elastic, pure rubber gum ; 



Clean scoured, first quality, four-ply, pure 

 wool, gray yarn ; 



Same quality three-ply gray yarn ; 



Best of fine worsted, with rubber cement ; 



Cover, selected horsehide, drawn to the 

 ball, stitched with best heavy linen thread ; 



Circumference, 9 inches ; 



Weight, 5 to $y& ounces. 



Strictly hand made throughout. 



Spaldings make base-balls that conform 

 to these specifications in every particular. 

 These I will designate as genuine league 

 balls. This same firm makes balls that 

 do not conform to these specifications by 

 any means, but that look exactly like the 

 genuine. They are marked the same and 

 put up in the same box as the genuine. 

 These I will designate as the spurious 

 or counteifeit league balls. 



I have before me one of each which I have 

 cut open. The genuine ball has, in the cen- 

 ter, the required sphere of pure rubber 

 which is wound to the depth of % of an 

 inch with pure wool gray yarn and worsted, 

 and this yarn is filled with rubber cement. 



The spurious ball has in its center a lump 

 of composition which looks as if it had been 

 made largely of sweepings from the floor of 

 some shop or factory. It contains bits of 

 brass wire ; brass filings ; scraps of wood 

 or leather; some yarn, lint, etc. This trash 

 is held together with some kind of dark 

 colored stuff that may contain a small per- 

 centage of rubber, but it does not look like 

 rubber. If Spalding does not like my diag- 

 nosis I will have a chemist analyze the stuff 

 and see what he can find in it. This lump 

 of conglomerate is wound with an inferior 

 quality of yarn and worsted — having little 

 resemblance to that used in the genuine 

 ball. 



Yet this ball bears on its cover these 

 markings : — 



" Official League Ball." 



" Adopted by the National League." 



" Adopted by the American Association." 



" Warranted 9 in., 5 oz." 



"A.G.Spalding & Bros., Chicago, New 

 York and Phila." 



" Pat'd Feb. 27th, '83." 



It also bears the Spalding trade mark. 



1 have said that Spalding puts up his 

 genuine and his counterfeit balls in boxes 

 that look alike. This is true. These boxes 

 are covered on all four sides with advertise- 

 ments of Spalding's goods. Among other 

 things they bear this legend : 



I hereby certify that SPALDING'S LEAGUE BALL, 

 manufactured by A. G. Spalding A Bhos. 

 of New York, Chicago, and 

 Philadelphia, has been adopt- 

 ed as the official ball of 

 the National League 

 and American Asso- 

 ciation of Professional 

 Base Ball Clubs for 

 seasons 1892 to 1896 and in all 

 Championship games played dur- 

 ing 1892 to 1896 this Ball must be useo. *>d . 



Also this 



BEWARE OP COUNTERFEITS. 

 The only genuine and official Lerjrue-Ball, as adopted 

 by the "National League and Americau Association" for 

 1892 to 1896 inclusive, has this signature on each label 



The only difference in the labeling of the 

 boxes containing the two grades of balls is 

 shown in the two cuts below, which are 

 photographic reproductions from two of 



these boxes. The label containing the dim, 

 indistinct, mysterious hieroglyphics written 



over the picture, is from the box containing 



the genuine ball. Only salesmen, or ol 

 trained in the sign language of the Spalding 

 camp would in. tin- tins. If anyone 

 should happen to see it he would not know 

 what it meant. 



Now comes the most interesting part of 

 all this story. I am told that Spalding - 

 his genuine league ball and his counterfeit 



