f the Princeton College and Avery of Yale are
accredited with using the curve about 1875, but Mathews of the New York
Mutuals and Nolan of the Indianapolis team were among the first of the
professional pitchers, after Cummings, to become proficient in its use,
which was generally adopted in 1877, and to the skill acquired by both
of these men in handling of the ball I can testify by personal
experience, having had to face them, bat in hand, on more than one
occasion.

Many people, including prominent scientists, were for a long time loth
to believe that a ball could be curved in the air, but they were soon
satisfied by practical tests, publicly made, as to the truth of the
matter.

With the doing away with the restrictions that governed the methods of
the pitcher's delivery of the ball and the introduction of the curve the
running up of large scores in the game became an impossibility, and the
batsman was placed at a decided disadvantage.

Reading over the scores of some of those old-time games in the present
day one becomes lost in wonder when he thinks of the amount of
foot-racing, both around the bases and chasing the ball, that was
indulged in by those players of a past generation. Here are some sample
performances taken from a history of base-ball, compiled by Al Wright
of New York and published in the Clipper Annual of 1891, which go to
illustrate the point in question.

The largest number of runs ever made by a club in a game was by the
Niagara Club of Buffalo, N. Y., June 8th, 1869, when they defeated the
Columbias of that city by the remarkable score of 209 to 10, two of the
Niagaras scoring twenty-five runs each, and the least number of runs,
scored by any one batsman amounted to twenty. Fifty-eight runs were made
in the eighth inning and only three hours were occupied in amassing this
mammoth total. Just think of it! Such a performance as that in these
days would be a sheer impossibility, and that such is the case the
base-ball players should be devoutly thankful, and, mind you, this
performance was made by an amateur team and not by a team of
professionals.

One hundred runs and upward have been scored in a game no less than
twenty-five times, the Athletics of Philadelphia accomplishing this feat
nine times in 1865 and 1866, and altogether being credited with scores
of 162, 131, 119, 118, 114, 114, 110, 107, 106, 104, 101, and 101. On
October 20th, 1865, the Athletics defeated the Williamsport Club by