HIT-AND-RUN



This is from the SPORTING LIFE, 29 April 1905, pg. 2, col. 2:



Old Browning an Originator.

Lave Cross gives a new version to the origin of the hit-and-run game. He

says: "Pete Browning was the originator of the hit-and-run game. He was hard

of hearing, and one day he couldn't hear the coaches after getting to first on

a hit, and started for second on the first ball pitched. He ran like a wilcat

(sic) and got to third on a single. Pete would not have got past second had

he not misunderstood the signals, or if he could have heard the coacher. As

it was, when he started off on his mad run he got to third safely, and would

have been on the way home if he hadn't been held by the man coaching on third.

That play of Browning's suggested the hit-and-run game. Hugh Jennings heard

of it, and the system was introduced in Baltimore and worked with great

success."



------------------------------------------------