Canadian Film Weekly (May 19, 1948)

Page 4 The Old Game Did You Ever Play One Old Cat? While the question of whether baseball is of American origin or derived from the old English game of rounders has never been settled, we do know that its ancestor on this continent was the boys’ game called One Old Cat. Right now the older boys who inhabit Peter Campbell’s ballyard by the bay are harrying the horsehide in the modern version of the game, a course of conduct that makes kids of us all. Hundreds of years have gone by but the good old game goes on. Abner Doubleday is generally credited with inventing baseball in 1839 as it is played now and the honor was given him by a commission headed by A. G. Spalding in 1907. This commission was formed because of a major quarrel over baseball’s beginnings. But Henry Chadwick, “the father of baseball,” Spalding’s good friend, insisted that it was a development of rounders. One Old Cat, the most common form of the game in early America, is still played by boys and was called “One In, One Out” when I was one. The idea was to hit the ball, run to a base and back to the plate before the ball got there, thereby continuing at bat. One Old Cat became Two Old Cat and so on as more bases and players were added. It stopped growing at Four Old Cat, in which game the safe hitter was advanced by the batter, and began changing form. The next development was called Town Ball or Round Ball and to play it the participants made up teams instead of acting individually. The four bases were arranged into a square, the batter and catcher taking their positions between the first and fourth base. The first leagues were formed. Later it became baseball. While the Spalding commission gave Doubleday the credit for devising the game, others contend that the officials of the New York Knickerbockers of 1845 established the rules and distances. The first real ballpark was in Brooklyn, where a man erected a special enclosuré in 1862 and charged admission, splitting the take with the players. One of the First Fans I got into all this by coming across an old admirer of baseball in the New York Public Library recently. His name was John Newbery, known in literary history as the philanthropic bookseller of St. Paul’s Churchyard, London, where he carried On a business in the 18th Century. A lover of children, Newbery wrote many of the first children’s books in English. He knew the value of games in building character and used the children’s interest in:them to point his morals. About 1744 he wrote, published and sold “A Little Pretty Pocket Book,” of which no copies are known to exist today. An American edition of it was issued in 1787 by a Worcester printer and this is the one under glass in the library. One of Newbery’s poems is called “Base-ball” and describes the game. Indeed baseball was referred to as such by a minister in 1700, who objected to it being played on Sunday. The Newbery poem: The Ball once struck off Away files the Boy To the next-defin’d Post, _And then Home with joy. Moral: Thus Seamen, for Lucre Fly over the Main, But, with Pleasure transported Return back again, Canadian baseball history is quite distinguished and goes back a long way, for a game similar to Town Ball was played in Upper Canada about 1828. There were many fine teams and players. The Guelph Maple Leafs, backed by George Sleeman, a brewer and six times mayor, won the world’s semi-pro championship and a prize of $500 with it in 1874, They played Boston before 10,000 people in Brantford on Dominion Day and lost. In those Canadian FILM WEEKLY May 19, 1948 Come On Over “SQUARE Variety at Home If anyone ever had more fun in the long history of this town than those at the Variety ladies’ night, I’d like to hear about it. The barkers and their friends clogged the Fiesta Room of the Prince George, one of our most ancient hostelries and now the most modern here, to swig and sway to Dennis Stone and his orchestra. It was an extra special occasion for Harry and Ben Smith, as well as for Stone, since they are brother barkers. The boys and girls of the Carousel company, invited by Barker. Ernie Rawley of the Royal Alexandra, entertained, as did Valaida Snow of the Casino. Chief Barker John J. Fitzgibbons welcomed the guests and thanked the entertainers and the committee. The ladies picked up some loot via the lucky draw. The clubrooms, across the hall from the Fiesta Room, opened the next day and were rated by theatrical visitors to the city as just about the nicest on the continent. They have already developed an atmosphere unlike anything here, for the barkers mingled immediately with the show folk who found they had a home away from home among kindred and congenial souls. The traditional hospitality of the amusement business will always prevail here, for guest cards will be provided to actors and other company people working in town. And since Toronto is the Canadian headquarters of the movie industry, there, will frequently be industry persons with famous names sharing the scene with you. If you haven’t visited the Variety clubrooms, do it now. You will be just as appreciative of the work of Jules Wolfe and his committee as we are after Paul Courtney, our chief steward, has shown you around. The house committee, of which Dave Griesdorf is the chairman, is anxious to have any suggestion that will make the quarters more enjoyable or convenient to visit. Its members — Ralph Dale, Ben Freedman, Archie Laurie, Haskell Masters, Ben Geldsaler, Ernie Rawley and Jules Wolfe — will be glad to hear from you. days Canadian players on leading American teams numbered many and in later years there was much agitation to make Toronto a major league team. In 1866 a Canadian pro league was formed but before it could get going Toronto and Hamilton pulled out to join the International. Sleeman’s Guelph team then toured Canada and the USA, losing only one game in 50. The game was dangerous in those days, for gloves and padding were hardly used at all. . Get Set for the Pitch But one thing is clear and John Newbery knew it many years ahead of us. It is that baseball and boys belong together. On June 21st the Variety Club of Toronto, of which Peter Campbell is a member, will take over the Maple Leaf Stadium. The men who sponsor and support baseball for the Toronto and Jersey City teams will try to pay off their debt to that eternal brotherhood of boys whose game of One Old Cat developed into something which provides them with an enjoyable way of life. Perhaps you share that way of life by participation or observation. In either case you will want to help pay off that ancient debt. The money earned that night will go to Variety Village, the project of the Variety Tent of Toronto. Variety Village will be the location of a vocational guidance school and residence for Ontario’s crippled children. Twenty members of the club have joined to purchase the back page of the program for the s2ason. They will use it to boost the game up to the time it takes place. . By buying and helping to sell tickets when the time comes you will make the crippled kids happy, as well as us and yourselves. And I’ll bet that good old John Newbery, in his present domicile, won’t mind a bit, either. What better way to make it up to those boys who, because they are crippled, cannot play baseball — or even One Old Cat?