ot. Finally Fisher began sending them in with all
the speed for which he was noted. I let a couple go by and then I
slammed one out in the right field, and with that first hit my
confidence came back to me. From that time on I batted Fisher
successfully, but the most of my hits were to the right field, owing to
the fact that I could not at that time successfully gauge his delivery,
which was much swifter than anything that I had ever been up against.

In after years a hit to right field was considered "the proper caper,"
and the man who could line a ball out in that direction at the proper
time was looked upon as a most successful batsman. It was to their
ability in that line of hitting that the Bostons for many years owed
their success in winning the championship, though it took some time for
their rivals in the base-ball arena to catch on to that fact.

After that time I was informed by Mr. Waldo that I was "all right," and
as you may imagine this assurance coming from his lips was a most
welcome one, as it meant at that time a great deal to me, a fact that,
young as I was, I thoroughly appreciated.

The make-up of the Rockford Club that season was as follows: Hastings,
catcher; Fisher, pitcher; Fulmer, shortstop; Mack, first base; Addy,
second base; Anson, third base; Ham, left fielder; Bird center fielder;
and Stires, right fielder; Mayer, substitute.

This was a fairly strong organization for those days, and especially so
when the fact is taken into consideration that Rockford was but a little
country town then and the smallest place in size of any in the country
that sup-ported a professional league team, and that the venture was
never a paying one is scarcely to be wondered at. To be sure, it was a
good base-ball town of its size, but it was not large enough to support
an expensive team, and for that reason it dropped out of the arena after
the season of 1871 was over, it being unable to hold its players at the
salaries that it could then afford to pay.

There were several changes in the make-up of the team before the season
was over, but the names of the players as I have given them were those
whose averages were turned in by the Official Scorer of the league at
the end of the season, they having all, with one exception, played in
twenty-five games, that exception being Fulmer, who participated in but
sixteen. I led the team that season both in batting and fielding, as is
shown by the following table, a tabl