The striker would also be put out if the struck ball were caught in the air, or if they swung three times at the giver's deliveries and missed.
In his book Base-Ball, John Montgomery Ward wrote that to initiate a game of one old cat, players called out a number to claim a position: one, two, etc.—one being the striker, two being the pitcher, and three the catcher.
The Mills Commission, formed in 1905 to ascertain the origins of baseball, recorded many reminiscences of people playing three and four old cat in their youth.
Baseball historian Harold Seymour reported that old cat games were still being played on the streets and vacant lots of Brooklyn in the 1920s.
[1] One old cat is seeing a resurgence as a batting and fielding training game for younger baseball and softball teams.