Henry James on Eliot on "a curved ball"

[Garson O'Toole]

Stephen: I've been trying to get the 1930 bio also because it contains
a passage that about "deception on the diamond" that is connected to
the following action: "making a feint to throw a ball in one direction
and then throwing it in another". This is the kind of story that could
be used to synthesize the curve ball quote:

Cite: 1930, Charles W. Eliot: President of Harvard University,
1869-1909: Volume 2 by Henry James, GB Page 69, Houghton Mifflin,
Boston. (Google Books snippet; Not verified on paper)

[Begin extracted text]
"Baseball," said Eliot in 1883, "is only fit for professional players,
because success in it  depends chiefly upon one man, the pitcher, who
must needs be professionally expert." 1 To pitch a curved ball seemed
to him to be a resort to a low form of cunning. Coaching the runner on
bases, and interlarding instructions to him with gibes intended to
rattle the other side, offended his taste. When, on a certain
occasion, a baseball player was put on probation because of a poor
record in his classes, Eliot remarked that there was no occasion to
regret that he was thereby automatically put off the Nine, because it
was admitted that he was a player who resorted to deception on the
diamond. Professors Briggs and Wendell, much puzzled by this, went to
Eliot to ask what warrant he had for such a statement. "Why!" said the
President, drawing himself up and speaking in his most impressive
manner, "Why! They boasted of his making a feint to throw a ball in
one direction and then throwing it in another!"
[End extracted text]

Looking forward to seeing what you find. I think you will probably
obtain the 1930 book first.
Garson



On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 8:04 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      Henry James on Eliot on "a curved ball"
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>
> I already sent back to storage James' biography of Eliot. But, FWIW, the words "To pitch a curved ball seemed to him to be a resort to a low form of cunning" appear about midway between two sentences with footnotes. It may be that this is James' characterization or memory or paraphrase of Eliot. In other words, possibly, maybe, drawing on personal acquaintance rather than a document.
>
> Stephen Goranson
> www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
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