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 safely on a line to the out field, when a "slugged" ball, hit from a shoulder-swing, goes up in the air, and as a rule, gives a chance for a catch. The most difficult hit to make is to earn a base by a skilful "bunt." The easiest hit is a homer, which the veriest novice at the bat can make, when he could no more tap a swiftly pitched ball safely, or earn a base by a bunt, than he could fly. Of course, place hitting is a difficult thing to do, but it is what all batsmen should aim to excel in. One of the greatest mistakes made by managers when selecting players for their teams each Spring, is to choose them for their high figures in base hit averages. The batsman who has the best average of runners forwarded by base hits, is the batsman who most helps to win games, not the one who excels in mere base hit averages, and the former is the one to select.

In one of the chapters on batting in Spalding's "" is the following article:

"In no department of the game are more facilities offered for strategic play than in batting; but it requires an intelligent player to engage in it successfully. The batsman who would be invariably successful must resort to strategy, for if he depends solely upon a quick eye and a strong arm he will fail. These are very excellent as aids, but a comparatively poor dependence to place your trust in altogether. The batsman, when he takes his bat in hand, finds opposed to him nine men, and though to the casual observer it may seem a very easy undertaking to bat a ball out of the reach of only nine men, covering as large a space as a four or five acre field, yet when you come to face nine experienced and active fielders, you will soon be taught to realize the fact that 'headwork' is as important an element of success in batting as it is in pitching; and you will then see that to earn bases on hits, and thereby to score runs, you will have to play 'points' pretty successfully."

Further on the writer says:

"From the moment the batsman takes his stand at the bat, to the time he strikes a fair ball, he should stand in proper form for hitting at every ball, or he will be sure to be caught napping by a skilful pitcher, and find himself retiring from a tip, a poorly hit ball, or from called strikes, instead of taking a well earned base. This proper form for a hit is important. It is fatiguing, of course, to stand still and keep prepared for hitting, while ball after ball is sent in out of reach; but it must be done in order to secure chances for hitting the ball you want when it does come. A skilful pitcher is always on the alert to find the batsman 'out of form,' and not prepared to hit, and the moment he sees him thus standing 'on the loose,' he is sure to send him a good ball, and the batsman either strikes at it hastily or lets it go by him, only to see the ball fielded easily, or a strike called on him."

Again, too, in commenting on the strong point in batting of standing ready to meet the ball properly, the writer says:

"How often do we see batsman go to the bat, one after the other, and as they take their stand, get into fair form for the first two or three balls, and then, on finding that the pitcher's delivery is rather wild, stand at ease, as it were, quite unprepared to hit in proper form, only to see the ball come in over the base, and at the height indicated, while they either fail to strike at it or miss the ball if they do, simply because they did not stand prepared to meet it, or, in other words, were not in form for batting. The