The pitcher has the most important position on the team.  If by his skill he is able to deceive the opposing batsmen and cause them to strike out or to make feeble hits, the rest of the team will have but little to do except of course to bat when their turn comes and try to score runs.  Baseball has become a very scientific game in recent years and the sustained interest in it year after year is largely due to the fact that the regular attendants at a game have learned to understand and to appreciate the finer points of the game almost as well as the players themselves.  While it might appear to a beginner that the battery does all the work in a game, as a matter of fact every man on the nine is supposed to do his part in backing up every play and to be in the right place at the right time.

[Illustration:  The in-curve]

[Illustration:  The out-curve]

A good pitcher must be able to pitch a curved ball.  This art will only come with constant practice.  Until about forty years ago a curve was unknown.  In the old days the number of runs scored in a game was very high, it being a common thing for a winning team to make twenty to thirty runs.  The rules of baseball are changed frequently and almost every change has been made with a view to restricting the batsman.  As a consequence, in modern games the scores are very low and sometimes neither side will score a single run in a tie game of ten or twelve innings.

[Illustration:  The drop]

[Illustration:  The out-drop]

In modern baseball a team that plays together frequently has a prearranged code of signals that are understood by each member of the team.  It is very important for every player on a side to know whether the pitcher intends to deliver a high or a low ball or one that may either be batted well into the out-field or probably be a grounder that will be taken care of by some one on the in-field.  Of course these things do not always work out as is planned.  The pitcher may not have good control of the ball or pitch wild, the catcher may make a bad “muff” and let the ball get by him, or what we expect to be a bunted ball may be a home run, but all of this is part of the sport and helps to make baseball one of the most interesting and exciting of games.  In any case there is no question that nine boys who are accustomed to play together and who understand each other’s methods of play and signals will have a better chance of winning a close game than nine other players who may have a shade the better of it in individual work but who do not play together.

Most games are won or lost in a single instant at a crucial moment when some one fails to make good, or who, usually in the case of a pitcher, lets up on his speed or accuracy just at the critical time.  The National Championship of 1908 was decided in favour of Chicago because one of New York’s players in the deciding game of the season failed to touch second base when the last man was out.  The game had been won by New York except for this mistake, and the result was that another game was played, which Chicago won before the largest crowd that probably ever assembled to witness a game of baseball.