1912 "jazz (ball)"--mention of it seems isolated

[Gerald Cohen]

   This is a very brief and preliminary readout on "jazz ball" as
spoken by Portland Beavers/Ducks pitcher Benny Henderson, mentioned
in the LA Times, April 2, 1912 (discovered recently by Bobst
Librarian (NYU) George Thompson):

   Today I read through all the baseball columns of newspaper _Daily
Oregon Journal_, April 1-17, 1912,looking for any mention of "jazz,"
especially in connection with the games Henderson pitched.  Result
(for "jazz"): Nothing. Zip. Nada. There's no mention of "jazz" or
even a hint of Henderson's developing a new pitch.

     Reports of Henderson's pitching appear in the Portland newspaper
on April 3, 6, 13, 17. He lost all those games, and the Portland
hitting in these opening weeks was anemic. There was therefore no
journalistic exuberance to help produce mention of "jazz," assuming
the Portland sportswriters were even aware of Henderson using the
term.

    Of particular interest is a cartoon, April 17, 1912 entitled
"Impressions Of The Opening Game [of Portland-San Francisco
series]..." There are seven separate pictures in the cartoon, each
featuring players or fans of interest. There's even one of a San
Francisco pitcher ("Slivers" Henley).  There's a brief text
accompanying each cartoon. And Benny Henderson was slated to pitch
the opening game of the series.  No doubt about it: This situation
was tailor-made for presenting a comic picture of Henderson throwing a
strange-breaking curve ball with "jazz" mentioned somewhere in the picture.
But this never happened.  It's as if the cartoonist had never even
heard of Henderson's "jazz ball."

    When the Portland newspaper is eventually digitized, we'll know
for sure whether Henderson's "jazz ball" is ever mentioned there. For
now, though, it seems clear: Henderson's April 2, 1912 mention of
"jazz ball" to an LA Times reporter found no resonance in the
Portland newspaper _Oregon Daily Journal_ in the following weeks. So
there seems to be no justification at all to assume that _San
Francisco Bulletin_ baseball reporter Scoop Gleeson acquired "jazz"
from Henderson's 4/2/1912 use of the term. The starting point for
"jazz" therefore seems to remain early March 1913, _San Francisco
Bulletin_, where Gleeson
introduced the term and used it repeatedly.

Gerald Cohen