Charles William Eliot on the curve ball (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

> >> ________________________________________
> >> From: American Dialect Society
> >> [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Garson O'Toole
> >> [adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM]
> >> Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2012 6:05 AM
> >> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Charles William Eliot on the curve ball
> >>
> >> Below is a book excerpt that refers to Eliot's supposed statement
> >> about the deceptive nature of the curve ball. The passage has a
> >> footnote that points to a precise report authored by Eliot that is
> >> available in Google Books and HathiTrust. Unfortunately, the report
> >> does not appear to mention "curve" or "curveball". (The GB search
> >> seems to be malfunctioning, but the HathiTrust search seems to be
> >> functioning properly.) Eliot's report is very critical of some
sports
> >> at the college level.
> >>
> >> Cite: 2000, College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy by
John
> >> Sayle Watterson, Quote Page 28, Johns Hopkins University Press,
> >> Baltimore, Maryland. (Google Books Preview)
> >>
> >>
http://books.google.com/books?id=KFDCUPCIU7kC&q=%22curve+ball%22#v=sn
> >> ippet&
> >>
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> In his 1894 report for the previous school year Eliot let loose his
> >> first cannonade against college sports, namely baseball, crew, and
> >> especially football. Like his Puritan forebears, Eliot preached a
> >> gospel of simple and unadorned truth. He rejected the competitive
and
> >> deceptive spirit in college athletics, criticizing, for instance,
the
> >> curve ball in baseball because it was designed to deceive the
batter.
> >> He also showed extreme distaste for the win-at-any-cost commercial
> >> spirit of college athletics~what he called "an unwholesome desire
of
> >> victory by whatever means." He deplored the way in which
> >> intercollegiate athletics put colleges in the business of
> >> entertaining the non-collegiate public. Eliot also criticized the
> >> amount of time that competitive athletics took from a student's
daily
> >> life and the false image of university life which college sports
> >> projected, a point to which he frequently returned. [Footnote 6]
> >>
> >> [Footnote 6 is Ibid and footnote 5 is the following]:
> >>
> >> "President Eliot's Annual Report, 1892-93," Harvard Graduates'
> >> Magazine 2 (Mar. 1894): 376-83. The report was released in February
> >> 1894.
> >>
> >> [End excerpt]
> >>
> >> HathiTrust contains Eliot's report of 1892-1893 and it also
contains
> >> the issue of Harvard Graduates' Magazine that reprinted the report.
> >> GB also contains the issue of Harvard Graduates' Magazine. The
report
> >> does discuss sports and tricks and surprises. But I could not find
> >> the saying about the curveballs. Below is an excerpt mentioning
tricks.
> >>
> >> Cite: 1894 March, Harvard Graduates' Magazine, President Eliot's
> >> Report: 1892-1893, Start Page 374, Subsection: Athletic Sports,
Start
> >> Page 376, Quote Page 377, Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association,
> >> Boston, Massachusetts. (HathiTrust)
> >>
> >> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101075889087
> >> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101075889087?urlappend=%3Bseq=412
> >> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015013773679
> >> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015013773679?urlappend=%3Bseq=20
> >> http://books.google.com/books?id=XoEfAAAAYAAJ&
> >>
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> Again an unwholesome desire for victory by whatever means in
> >> intercollegiate football has perverted the judgment of the players
> >> and the college public concerning the propriety of 'tricks,'
> >> surprises, and habitual violations of the rules of the game as
means
> >> of winning a victory. In war, stratagems and surprises are
consistent
> >> parts of that supreme savagery; but in manly sports new 'tricks'
> >> practiced in secret sudden novelties, and undetected violations of
> >> the rules should cloud the joy of victory, and aggravate the
mortification
> of defeat.
> >> [End excerpt]
> >>
> >> It is possible that the statement about the curve ball appeared in
> >> another report form Eliot in this timeframe. I have not looked at
the
> >> other reports yet. Alternatively, Eliot's remarks may have led to
the
> >> creation of a parody that was later accepted as an accurate
quotation.
> >> This is, of course, speculation.
> >>
> >> Garson
> >>

The article that Garson located in  _Harvard Graduates' Magazine_ says
that it only reproduces a summary that "contains the most important
matter" of the report that Eliot gave to the Board of Overseers on 10
Jan 1894.  So the sought-for statement may appear in a full transcript
of the report.

Of course, that still doesn't explain how the statements took on a
public life.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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