Scrub baseball

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Scrub baseball is a way of playing baseball with no teams. The number of players is variable, and score is not kept, as the idea is "each against all". Batting, pitching, and fielding are the same as in standard baseball; scrub is often used as practice for baseball, or a substitute when there aren't enough players available.

The game is traditionally initiated by one person yelling, "Scrub!" to claim the first batting position. Others quickly shout, "Scrub One!", "Scrub Two!", "Scrub Three!", etc. - one being the batter, two the pitcher, three the catcher - until all positions are filled. As in computer language, the first item - scrub - is counted as 0. When an out is made the batter moves to the highest numbered position (e.g. five = center field); five becomes four, four becomes three, three moves to two, two moves to one, and one takes a turn as batter. However, if a batted ball is caught in the air, the fielder who catches it becomes the batter.

In some varieties of scrub, there are two batters and four bases. If one reaches base, he or she must run around all the base and score during the turn of the other. This leads to much daring base-running excitement. Sometimes the batter who reaches base returns to bat again, leaving an "automatic runner" on base. Automatic (invisible) runners advance the same number of bases as the batter does, and may be forced out.

In another version only one base is used, as in the 19th Century game of One Old Cat. The base is third base. The fielding positions are center field, left field, shortstop, third base, and pitcher. Two batters work together until one makes an out and is replaced. The batter on deck acts as the catcher. If no one is covering home (both batters are running), then the runner advancing homeward can be put out by throwing the ball to the plate before the runner gets there - a practice called "crossing out".

A similar type of practice baseball is called workup - because the fielders work their way up to bat. There are three or four players on the batting team and everyone else in the field. All the bases are used. When one of the batters makes an out he or she joins the fielding team, the pitcher joins the hitting team, and everyone moves up a position.

The word "scrub" is used in the sense of a scrub oak - a tree that is smaller than full-sized. A scrub team is the junior varsity or second team at a school, and its players are called scrubs. At one time, a scrub baseball team might also describe an uncoached gang of rowdy youths playing baseball. A book called Educational Hygiene by Louis Win Rapeer (1915), warned teachers, "There should always be an attempt to secure permanent teams and to keep the score from day to day. Scrub teams never get anywhere. They do not secure practise or inspire loyalty."

President Warren G. Harding played scrub baseball as a boy [1], as did the historian Bruce Catton [2], and rockabilly singer Sonny Burgess [3].