FEEDER GAME – Outdoor Games for Kids

In this game four or five stones or marks must be placed on the ground, as ia the annexed figure, A, B, C, D, E, about twelve or fifteen yards asunder ; these marks are called bases, and one of them, as A, is styled “home.”

The players next toss up for the office of “feeder,” who takes his place about two yards in front of “home,” as at F, and the rest of the players stand at and round the home. The feeder then calls out “Play!” and pitches the ball to the first player, who endeavours to strike it with a bat, as far as he possibly can; should he succeed in hitting the ball, he immediately drops the bat, and runs to the first base on his right hand, as E, while the feeder is going after the ball: but if he can run all the bases and then home, before the ball is in hand, so much the better.

If, however, the feeder obtains the ball soon enough to throw it at, and strike him with it as he is running from base to base, the player is out; he is also out if the feeder catches the ball: in either case the player becomes feeder, and the latter runs home to join his playmates. Should any of the other players be out at the bases, when one is caught or struck out, they also must run home.
If the first player could only reach the base E, after striking the ball, he should, when the second player strikes it, run to the base D, as it is not allowable for two persons to be at one base at one and the same minute; he proceeds in the same manner to the third and fourth bases, until he arrives home again, thus enabling the others to get to their bases and home in their respective turns.
The player with the bat is not obliged to take every ball the feeder chooses to give him; if he does not like a throw, he catches the ball and throws it back again.
He is not allowed to make more than three “offers” at the ball; if he does so he is out, and must be feeder.

Excerpt from the book:
EVERY BOY’S BOOK: A COMPLETE ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF SPORTS AND AMUSEMENTS.
EDITED BY EDMUND ROUTLEDGE.
With more than Six Hundred Illustrations
FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS.
LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS,
THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE.
NEW YORK: 416, BROOME STREET.
1869.