held our opponents too cheaply and few of us had practiced any prior to the contest, thinking that we knew more about the game than they did. . . . The pitcher of the New York nine was a cricket bowler of some note, and while one could use only the straight arm delivery he could pitch an awfully speedy ball. The game was in a crude state. No balls were called on the pitcher and that was a great advantage to him, and when he did get them over the plate they came in so fast our batsmen could not see them." Committee on Rules Curry continued to be a prominent member of the Knickerbockers for many years. He was also appointed by the Knickerbockers as a member of the game's various rules committees for more than a decade and through at least 1856. An 1848 pamphlet published by the Knickerbockers identifies Curry, Alexander Cartwright, Doc Adams, Eugene Plunkett, and J. P. Mumford as the members of the committee "to revise constitution and By-Laws." In November 1853, Curry was assigned to a rules committee that included Doc Adams, William H. Tucker, and members of another New York baseball club, the Eagle Club. The committee met on April 1, 1854 at Smith's on Howard Street in New York. The committee adopted a set of rules that would govern play among the three leading clubs, the Knickerbockers, the Gotham Club, and the Eagle Club. Among other things, the 1854 rules included specifications for the size and weight of the ball, set the dimensions of the infield, and adopted the "force out rule" of tagging first base to put a batter out on a ground ball. In 1856, Curry became involved in a debate among the Knickerbockers as to whether to allow nonmembers to participate in games if fewer than 18 men were available to play. Curry, as the leader of the group that historian John Thorn has dubbed the "Old Fogy" or "exclusionary clique," resisted the proposal and offered a counter-proposal that no non-members should be allowed to participate as long as at least 14 members were available. The Curry measure was approved by a vote of 13 to 11. At that time, the club also debated a new rule to replace the prior practice of playing until a team scored 21 runs. The debate focused on whether the game should