THE AUTOMATIC BASEBALL PLAYOGRAPH
/. Hunt.
During the recent World's Championship Baseball Series, the eyes of the American people were centered on one of two baseball diamonds, one at New York and the other at Boston. Of course only an extremely small percentage of those interested were able to see the games personally, but by an ingenious invention called the Playograph, many thousands were enabled to see an exact reproduction of the games even to the minutest details. Each day of the series, in cities all over the country, loyal fans alternately cheered and groaned, clapped and hissed, as the rival teams, many miles away, fought out the championship. It is an illustration of the grip of athletic sports upon the American people that thousands of people repeatedly cheered a pitcher, in some cases thousands of miles away, when he got a strike over, or on the contrary by hoots and yells tried to rattle a pitcher on the "other" team.
This extremely ingenious invention is made by the Baseball Playograph Company of Stamford. Conn. On a vertical board is painted an exact reproduction of a baseball diamond. At first, second, and third bases, and at home plate, are slots in which appear, when necessary, a cross which signifies that the runner is safe, or an O which denotes that the man has been put out. By the audience a white ball is seen which moves rapidly over the field exactly as in a real game. For instance, the ball remains stationary in the pitcher's box until the pitcher is ready to throw it, when it.shoots down towards the plate, in a straight line, or a curve, as may be desired. If the ball pitched is a ball or a strike, it goes past the home plate to the catcher's box, and opposite the painted words "Balls," or "Strikes" appears a number telling the number of balls or strikes on the man If the ball is hit, it shoots out to wherever it is actually hit and in a slot provided for the purpose appears "Fly Ball", "Fouled Out", or whatever happened. If the man is safe, in the slots at the bases appears a cross; if put out, a large O. If there is a fumble, a pointer inscribed "Fumble'' runs down the lineup of the players which is placed on each side of the field and indicates who made it. In short, the Playograph shows every possible play, including Strikes, Balls, Outs, Runs, Singles. Two or Three Base Hits, Home Runs, Bunts, Passed Balls, Wild Throws, Muffed Balls, Fumbles, Strike Outs, Bases on Balls, Grounders, Fly Halls, Fouls, Errors, Batting Order, Batter Up, the Inning and the Half-Inning, Score by Innings, Hits, Runs, and Errors of all Individual Players, and Bases showing runner Safe, Out, On, or Off Base. Of course the above description is by no means complete, but it serves to make clear the large field of plays which the Playograph covers. All of the above is already known to almost all who are interested in baseball, but there are comparatively few who understand how the machine is operated. The operation of a Playograph requires two men, in addition to the telegraph operator who receives the plays over the wire. One of these men operates the ball, while the other works the keyboard, which manipulates all the other parts of the invention. The ball is worked in a comparatively simple way, once the operation is understood. On the back of the board, "behind the scenes," as it were, there is a perpendicular stick, one end of which is fastened to the floor. On this stick is a cross handle by which the ball is moved up and down by means of a thin and almost invisible string which is fastened to the ball above and below and similarly to the handle on the back. Thus it will readily be seen that by moving this handle up or down the ball will move down or up as the case may be. However this would only permit the ball to move straight up or down between the catcher's box and center field. The perpendicular stick is, while fastened at the bottom, loose at the top and free to move in a groove to the right or left. Now by a combination of these two movements the ball may be made to move anywhere on the board. Of course anyone could not go up and immediately work the ball, but by practice one may become very adept at it. For instance, while representing a throw from the pitcher's box to home plate, by a slight and quick movement of the perpendicular bar, an excellent curve may be represented.
As stated above, there is a slot at each of the bases, where symbols appear to show whether a man is out or safe. At the back of the board is a sort of keyboard. Each key works a different symbol for a different place. For example there is a separate key for each safe or out sign at each base and home plate, and also a separate key for each of the signs which appear below the diamond in a slot provided for them. These signs state "Flied Out", "Fouled Out", "2 Base Hit", etc. Besides the keyboard, on each side of the lineup is a pointer, one of which says "Error", and the other "Batter Up". By a manipulation of these pointers, the keyboard, and the ball, each and every play may be faithfully reproduced.
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