with its costly expenditure of physical strength in the 120 yards spurt in
running which it involves.
There is one thing the season's experience has shown, and that is that
field captains of intelligence and judgment, like Anson, Comiskey, Ward,
Irwin, et al. have come to realize the fact that team batting is a very
important element in bringing about pennant winning, and by team batting
is meant the rule which makes everything secondary in the work of the
batsman to the important point to forward men around the bases and to
bring runs in. The batsman who excels in the essentials of the art of
batting is the true leader, though he may not make a three-bagger or a
home run more than half a dozen times in a season's batting. And a part of
team work at the bat is sacrifice hitting--sacrifice hits being hits
which, while they result in the striker's retirement, nevertheless either
forward runners to the bases or bring runs in. After a batsman has become
a base-runner, whether by a hit, a fielding error, or a battery error, if
he be forwarded to second by a safe bunt or a neat tap of the ball, both
being base hits; or by a sacrifice hit, the batsman is equally entitled to
credit if he forward a runner by such hit.
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