official instructions to umpires and captains.

The great size of the GUIDE precludes the possibility of including the
games record of the League campaign, as also other records of League
legislation, etc., and these will be found in the "Official League Book,"
which contains only official League matter as furnished by Secretary
Young, including the League Constitution in full.

[Illustration: CHICAGO GROUNDS.]

The American national game of base ball has reached a period in its
history, when it no longer needs to be referred to as a field exercise,
calling for particular mention of its peculiar merits. It is now the
established favorite game of ball of the American people, and occupies a
position in public estimation which no other field sport in vogue
approaches. The game has attained its present position of popularity, not
only from its adaptability to our peculiar national characteristics, as
regards its possession of special points of attraction; but also from its
value as a field sport which presents sufficient excitement in itself to
draw thousands of spectators, without the extrinsic aid of betting as its
chief point of interest, the latter attraction being something which
pertains to nearly every other popular sport. Then, too, it should be
borne in mind that base ball first taught us Americans the value of
physical exercise as an important aid to perfect work in cultivating the
mind up to its highest point. It is to the introduction of base ball as a
national pastime, in fact, that the growth of athletic sports in general
in popularity is largely due; and the game pointed out to the mercantile
community of our large cities that "all work and no play" is the most
costly policy they can pursue, both in regard to the advantages to their
own health, and in the improvement in the work of their employees, the