1912 baseball "jazz"--Check Portland newspapers

[Gerald Cohen]

    I have a few thoughts (not profound) about the April 2, 1912
"jazz" attestation which George Thompson discovered. I'll share them
piecemeal over the next few days.

    First, since Ben Henderson pitched for the Portland Beavers, the
Portland newspapers of April 1912 should be consulted for mention of
"jazz." It's hard to imagine a Portland player coining a new term
without the Portland sportswriters picking up on it. (Btw, my
suspicion is that the term was intended to be humorous rather than
referring to a bona fide new pitch.)

     I'm aware of the Portland Journal and Portland Telegram. They'd
be good places to start. I'll order the Portland Journal via
interlibrary loan.  If anyone else wants to check the Portland
Telegram or other Portland newspapers (if there are in fact others),
please let the ads-l list know so that we don't duplicate our efforts.

Gerald Cohen

P.S. to 19C. Baseball Discussion Group:
The first attestations of "jazz" are in a baseball context (The term
should be added to the new addition of Paul Dickson's baseball
dictionary). March 3, 1913, and March 6, 1913 are the key dates for
its start (in the San Francisco Bulletin). Set aside the Oxford
English Dictionary's 1909 attestation, recognized as an error.
    Last week Librarian George Thompson (Bobst Library, NYU), found a
few attestations from April 2, 1912, which he shared with the
American Dialect Society and then followed up with another message:
    2 April 1912, Los Angeles Times, part III, p. 2, col. 1:
                        'BEN'S JAZZ CURVE.
        '"I got a new curve this year," softly murmured Henderson
yesterday, "and I'm goin' to pitch one or two of them tomorrow.  I
call it the Jazz ball because it wobbles and you simply can't do
anything with it."
        'As prize fighters who invent new punches are always the
first to get their's Ben will probably be lucky if some guy don't hit
that new Jazzer ball a mile today.  It is to be hoped that some
unintelligent compositor does not spell that the Jag ball.  That's
what it must be at that if it wobbles.'