Picture from the Past
National pastime marked by numerous rituals, lore
By John S. Baggerly
'Take me out to the ball game; take me out to the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack; I don't care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team; if they don't win it's a shame. So it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game."
These stirring lyrics were written by song and dance man Jack Norworth, a veteran of the vaudeville stage. Norworth thought he understood the game of baseball well enough to write the song, but ironically he did not see his first game until 30 years later.
The song got nationwide attention in modern times when the late announcer Harry Caray played it during the seventh-inning stretch at Chicago Cubs home games.
Some players become more famous in their after-years, such as Bill Zuber, above, whose Dugout Restaurant in Homestead, Iowa, became known to thousands of cross-country motorists, including some Los Gatans. Previously, few knew Zuber had played with the New York Yankees before seeing his business card. His name is slightly mentioned in baseball history books.
Back to Zuber's card. On the back of the same he quotes Joe McCarthy's 10 Commandments of Baseball. McCarthy was, of course, a longtime Yankee manager. These words to the wise are as follows:
1. Nobody ever became a ballplayer by walking after a ball.
2. You will never become a .300 hitter unless you take the bat off your shoulder.
3. An outfielder who throws back of a runner is locking the barn after the horse is stolen.
4. Keep your head up and you may not have to keep it down.
5. When you start to slide, S-L-I-D-E. He who changes his mind may have to change a good leg for a bad one.
6. Do not alibi on bad hops. Anybody can field the good ones.
7. Always run them out. You never can tell.
8. Do not quit.
9. Do not find too much fault with the umpires. You cannot expect them to be as perfect as you are.
10. A pitcher who hasn't control hasn't anything.
Baseball, more than any other sport, is overrun by rituals, traditions and lore. There's the throwing out of the first ball, of course, tossing the ball around the "horn" after a strikeout, the seventh-inning stretch and the home-run trot.
Even stepping into the batter's box is treated by hitters as a sanctified moment. Each batter has his recognizable routine before stepping into the batter's box. Boston Red Sox hitting marvel Wade Boggs, for example, uses his bat to draw in the dirt the Hebrew word chai, which means life.
As for tossing out the first pitch, we do know that the first American president to throw out the first ball to start the season was William Howard Taft, on April 14, 1910, in Washington, D.C., for a game against Philadelphia. Many Los Gatos mayors and other celebrities have been asked to throw out season-opening first balls at Little League and Pony League games locally.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
Visitors to baseballer Bill Zuber's Iowa restaurant found the '10 Commandments of Baseball' on the back of these autographed cards.
