After three players are put out, the other side has its “innings,” and at the completion of nine full innings the side having scored the greatest number of runs is the winner.  The game of baseball has become very scientific and the salaries of professional players are almost as high as those of the highest salaried men in business life.

The ball used in the game is made of the best all wool yarn with a horsehide cover and a rubber centre.  Baseball bats are usually made of ash.

BASKET BALL

A game of ball which may be played either indoors or out, but which is especially adapted to in-door play when weather conditions make out-door sports impossible.  Two baskets suspended on wire rings are placed at the two opposite ends of a room or gymnasium and the players strive to knock or pass the ball from one to another on their own side and to throw it so that it will fall into the basket.  It is not permissible to run with the ball as in Rugby football.  The ball used is round, but in other respects resembles the ball used in football.  It is made in four sections of grained English leather and is inflated by means of a rubber bladder.  The players use rubber-soled shoes with peculiar knobs, ridges, or depressions to prevent slipping.  The conventional uniform is simply a gymnasium shirt, running trousers, and stockings which are rolled down just below the knees.

The game of basket ball is especially adapted to women and girls and consequently it is played very largely in girls’ schools and colleges.

Any level space may be used for basket ball.  A convenient size is 40 by 60 feet.  The baskets used for goals are 18 inches in diameter and are fixed 10 feet above the ground or floor.  The official ball weighs about 18 ounces and is 31 inches in circumference.  Five players constitute a team.  The halves are usually twenty minutes, with a ten-minute intermission for rest.

It is not permissible to kick, carry or hold the ball.  Violation of a rule constitutes a foul and gives the opponents a free throw for the basket from a point fifteen feet away.  A goal made in play counts two points and a goal from a foul one point.

BEAN BAGS

This game is known to every one by name and yet its simple rules are often forgotten.  A couple of dozen bean bags are made in two colours of muslin.  The players stand in two lines opposite each other and evenly divided.  At the end of the line is a clothes basket.  The bags are placed on two chairs at the opposite end of the line and next to the two captains.  At a signal the captains select a bag and pass it to the next player, who passes it along until finally it is dropped into the basket.  When all the bags are passed they are then taken out and passed rapidly back to the starting point.  The side whose bags have gone up and down the line first scores a point.  If a bag is dropped in transit it must be passed back to the captain, who starts it again.  Five points usually constitute a game.