Water Baseball

[Fern_Forest]

From the Pacific Commercial Advertiser of Oct 10, 1912 on page 3.

Pretty soon, if not right away, the rainy season is going to put the kibosh on dryland baseball and something or other should be done to furnish sport for the coming rainy days.

From Alameda, Cal., comes a suggestion which should be considered seriously. It is none other then “water baseball.” a game that has been tried there and is said to furnish untold amusement - more of this to the spectators than to the players themselves.

George M. Henderson, of Honolulu, recently received a letter from his brother H. V. Henderson, of Alameda, which recounts the story of such a game played there on the occasion of the annual meet of the Encinal Yacht Club.

“Besides the usual canoe races and other oldtime sports we had a water baseball game. A light bat and cork balls are used.” writes Mr. Henderson. "On each base raft are two men, a baseman and a fielder. The batter hits the ball, then dives overboard and swims for the first base and so on. The fielder nearest the ball dives off and swims for it and throws it to the baseman.

“The game is played under the same rules as obtain in the regular dryland game. It’s lots of fun, especially for the spectators as, in certain cases, the man who tries to reach for the ball falls into the water or a man is trapped between bases and swims under water to evade the baseman and save being put out.”

The illustration used here would have he game played different. The base lines of the diamond would be planked. The catcher and umpire would have their own little platform and so would the batter. The slabster also would shine on a platform of his own, just like Joe Cohen has. Shortstop could sit down on the plank leading from second to third and be ready to take the water the moment the ball would be hit his way. Each fielder would have his own little skiff, if not a small motor boat, to chase the flies and so on.

The game could be played in the harbor here. In Hilo, especially, it would easily take first place in the heart of the sport loving community as it could be played the whole year round.

There’s an illustration to go with the article but it’s more the artist having fun with the concept and it’s definitely not the actual game played.

Since I see nowhere on the internet where the great 1912 water baseball game of Alameda, CA was immortalized on the internet I thought I’d mention it here for posterity.

I love reading old time newspapers. The sports page from 1909 was talking about the second football game of the University of Hawaii (College of Hawaii) and while the play on the field wasn’t too impressive the author felt the need to compliment the crowd on the most excellent quality of their profanities.