[Sidenote: Modify Rules]
From scraps of conversations floating in through the open window near
which Mr. Tilden was accustomed to sit correcting papers, as well as
from sundry complaints coming to him from the defeated “nine,” Mr.
Tilden got an inkling after a while that all was not as it should be on
the ball ground.
“I’ll come down and play with you after school this afternoon,” he
replied one day to a seventh grade boy, who had come in to tell him that
he wanted to give up his place in the baseball nine.
“We can’t win no games, Mr. Tilden,” said he, “coz the other team ain’t
square. They kid us all the time.”
Mr. Tilden, true to his word, joined hands in the game, purposely taking
a place in the losing team. Next to the ball ground was a tennis court.
Between the two fields was a high wire fence. Presently over the fence
went a ball, sent thither by a batter of the opposing nine. Of course
there was vexatious delay while one of the boys went to hunt it up and
bring it back. Before the game had proceeded very far another ball flew
over the high wire fence, and later another.
“Oho! I believe I can see through that game,” thought Mr. Tilden. “The
boys on the other team are heckling these boys, wasting their time and
strength and confusing them more or less by sending the balls over the
fence in order to place these fellows at a disadvantage. That needs a
bit of attention.”
The game over, he called all the boys to him. “Well, boys, we had a fine
game and I’m glad I came in if my side did get beaten. But there’s just
one rule I’d like to change a little. Some of you fellows need to
practice striking so as to hit squarer than you did today. It’s a great
nuisance to have the balls go over that fence. We’ll have it the rule
hereafter that whoever can’t do better than send his ball over there
will choose someone else to take his place while he drops out for the
remainder of the game. Probably he needs to rest his arms a little.
Anyhow we can’t have the fun spoiled just for a few boys who haven’t
practiced enough.”
This arrangement solved the immediate problem, but Mr. Tilden found that
new ones successively presented themselves as one side or the other
worked out new devices for outwitting the opposite side. He did not make
the mistake again, however, of leaving the boys to themselves entirely,
but kept in touch with the players and readjusted the rules as occasion
required.