ots 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.

When a team is playing away from its home grounds the choice of
innings--i.e., who is to bat first--goes to the home team.

A game consists of nine full innings unless called by rain, darkness
or for some other cause. If five complete innings have been played
when the game stops, the score always stands and the team ahead is
declared the winner. In case of a tie at the end of the game the play
continues until at the completion of a full inning one team is ahead.
That ends the game and the team ahead is the winner.

In arranging games with visiting teams it is customary to make some
arrangement as to expenses, share of gate receipts or other guarantee.
It is very important in order to avoid unpleasant disputes to have
this matter fully understood and agreed upon by the managers of each
team before the game starts.

On account of fences, houses, and other obstacles that some baseball
fields have it is customary for the umpire to decide what are called
"ground rules" before the game starts. The principal thing that mars a
good game of ball next to kicking and wrangling is the tendency of the
crowd to get on the field and to interfere with the players. An easy
remedy for this is simply to call the game until the spectators take
their proper places.

Baseball is a good game if it is properly played. It is unfortunate
that so many amateur games are spoiled because some of the players
lose their tempers in their anxiety to have their wrongs righted. No
matter how good a ball player a boy is he will never get the real
benefit of the game unless he remembers that it is not the one who
loses his temper but "he who ruleth his spirit" that is really
entitled to the respect of his fellows. Make up your mind to abide by
the decision of the umpire just as a soldier obeys the