Baseball has changed a bit since its inception (some scholars say the 1780s!), so some of the rules described in The Right Pitch might be strange to us in the twenty-first century. Umpires (called judges) were culled from the stands, pitchers stood in a box instead of on a mound, and the national anthem wasn’t played at ball games until the 1918 World Series. For flavor, I used the 1876 terms for player positions except for one: a catcher was called a “behind” back then, but I used our modern name for clarity’s sake.
There were no official women’s teams until 1866 when students at Vassar College created two. For the most part, female squads were temporary and made up of leisure-class players with ample spare time. They wore everyday clothes but not gloves. Players, male and female, caught the ball with their bare hands.
Philadelphia hosted the Centennial International Exhibition in 1876, held from May to November to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
It was also the fictional home of the Beale family, Winnie’s neighbors. Little Penelope is the heroine of her own story, In for a Penny, in The American Heiress Brides Collection.
Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.
Yogi Berra
Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
EPHESIANS 4:1–3