[Illustration:  How to lay out a baseball field]

The pitcher’s box should be denoted by a strip of wood or rubber 24 inches long and 6 inches wide.  This and home plate should be buried so that they are flush with the surface of the field.  The pitcher’s box on a full-sized field is exactly 60-1/2 feet from home plate.

The standard baseball is the kind used by professional players.  It is covered with horsehide, and is warranted to last an entire game without ripping or getting out of shape.  Baseball bats are made of a variety of woods, the common materials being ash, willow, and hickory.  A bat must not exceed 2-3/4 inches in thickness at its thickest part.  There are a great many shapes and models named after the professional players who use them.  The shape of a bat does not make as much difference as some poor batters are inclined to think.  The manufacturers of sporting goods make all the accessories for playing baseball both in men’s and boys’ sizes.  Every ball player should own his own mitt or glove and become accustomed to it.  The same is true of his bat.

The art of becoming a good ball player depends largely on the boy himself.  No one plays ball naturally.  It all comes with practice, and it follows that the more practice we can get the better ball players we shall become.  It is a game where a loss of nerve is absolutely fatal to good work.  A player must keep his head no matter how trying the circumstances may be.  Cool-headedness is especially important and the surest way to develop it is to be just as indifferent to the criticism of the crowd or your fellow-players, so long as you know that you have done your best, as you should be to their applause.  Just play the game for all there is in it, and you will be sure to become a moderately good player even though you may not be a star.  In field practice, when some one is batting out balls to you, try just as hard to stop and field each ball that comes within reach as you would if the result of the game depended on it.  It is only by this means that you can hope to become a finished ball player.  You can never learn by lying around in the shade and telling your friends how good you are going to be in the coming match game.

A regularly organized ball team should always adopt some club colours and be provided with uniforms.  Very good ones complete with shirt, pants, stockings, belt, and cap can be purchased of sporting goods outfitters for two or three dollars a suit (when ordered in lots of nine or more).  They can also sometimes be made more cheaply at home if mothers and sisters are willing.  The shirt should always be lettered with the name or initials of the team.  Baseball shoes are usually provided with steel plates or leather knobs.  Spikes are very dangerous and should not be permitted.  The regulation baseball shoe reaches just under the instep.

The rules of baseball are too long and complicated to be published here.  Almost every year many important changes are made to improve the sport and to make it harder for the batsmen to make runs.  All of this tends to make the game more interesting and to develop it from a scientific side.