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FIRMLY believing in the future of baseball, I have no hesitancy
\n complying with the request made by the editor of The Call
to contribute ray opinion on the question, "Will baseball live?"
Unhesitatingly I espouse the affirmative : Unquestionably baseball will
live. I know it is the fashion in certain quartersto speak slightingly of
those who take an active interest in the diamond and in the things and
men pertaining thereto. However, baseball is the national game of
the United States, and patriotic young and old America will not be
forbidden the keen pleasures of playing and witnessing others play the
fascinating game.
Periodically some one says that baseball is soon to be replaced in
public favor by football or cricket, or some other foreign game. In the
past these prognostications were not only untrue as to their fulfillment,
but entirely unwarranted in their prediction by any of the existing facts.
I do not hold that baseball should or ever will enjoy a complete
monopoly of the favor of those who like outdoor sports. Such a thing
would be most injurious to baseball itself, for the public, having no relief
at all from the diamond, would soon become surfeited, and be ready to
fly off entirely, temporarily at least, to the first outdoor sport that should
come along.
But, being the national game, I am convinced that baseball always
will hold the larger share of public favor. It is well to indulge in all
harmless athletic sports, but baseball will always lead.
It has been predicted that this season would see a decrease in base
ball enthusiasm, and that the interest would be much less this year than
last year. . *
This is anything but true. On the contrary, baseball is a stronger
drawing card to-day than it was four years ago. People are now taking
an interest in the scientific end of the game. They have become critical
in their favor, and only the best players will suit them.
There is no boisterous enthusiasm for baseball to-day, but a quiet,
steady, earnest admiration for and knowledge of the national game.
Business and professional men patronize the baseball games to-day as
they do the theatres. They calculate and lay their plans for the day or
the week, making provision for the particular games they desire to see.
It is more than a running and batting game now. It has come to be
scientific through and through, and it is the science that has developed
in the game that has renewed all the latent baseball enthusiasm that was
never dead, but only slept off the effects of drunkenness from over
indulgence.
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Once baseball was a fad and a craze. All kinds of people went wild
over the games and the players, and there was much shouting and little
science.
All that is changed now. The public interest in baseball to-day is the
same as that in billiards. The game itself is a matter of science. The
most scientific teams will make the best average in the season, and the
players who are the most skilled in their several parts are the ones who
make the best records for themselves and command the highest salaries.
Where before thousands shouted and threw their hats in the air for a
club or a player, now- hundreds are studying the game from a scientific
standpoint and hundreds more are admirers and enthusiasts, even
"cranks," if you will, because they see in the game more than mere
brute skill and proficiency.
The ball player with the biggest brain is the most skillful one to-day.
At all events a player must be intelligent, and the more intelligence he
possesses, the higher salary he can command.
As an instance of this, let me cite the case of Mr. Griffith, the pitcher
for my club. There are other players equally skilled in pitching, but in
my estimation most of them lack t!ie mental capacity to make themselves
as valuable players under all circumstances as Mr. Griffith is. In these
days the mere proficiency in curving the ball from the pitcher's box does
not suffice to make a perfect pitcher.
To be successful in the box, he must be a man who is capable of
analyzing human nature as it appears before him at the bat. He must
learn the peculiarities of every other player, and he must do this quickly
and accurately. Besides his qualifications in the box, of course, a good
pitcher must be a thorough all-around player.
The most expert pitcher would be of little service to a good team if
he invariably struck out when at the bat, or was unskillful in fielding.
And so it is in all the nine positions on the diamond. And because
baseball has reached this point of science and intelligence, intelligent
people are becoming more and more interested in the national game.
All over California I have found this season unmistakable evidences
of a renewed interest in the game. Every town in the State has its two
or three or more baseball nines, all with new uniforms and thoroughly
equipped for the season.
Amateur baseball teams are double, yes, perhaps triple in number
what they were last season. In Los Angeles alone three new diamonds
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II
THE MORNING CALL, 6AN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, MAY 28 1893.
will Baseball Live.
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have been laid out this year by the amateurs, and as many new amateur
teams have sprung into existence.
The Native Sons' parlors all over the state have organized nines, and
nearly every secret society now has a club of its own.
With the professional clubs the outlook for the coming season is espe
cially brilliant. Everywhere evidence is not lacking of wholesome and
timely improvement.
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All the leagues of the country have weeded out the lukewarm
elements which lacked the capital to carry on an aggressive season. The
teams have all been reorganized, and most of them are now working on a
strictly scientific basis, and there is harmony between them and among
the members of each team and each league.
The Giants of New York are greatly improved this year. This team
and the Chicago nine naturally hold the key to the national baseball
situation, and it is an excellent sign that both of them have been
strengthened and improved in many ways this season.
Our league on the coast compares most favorably with the minor
leagues of the United States. I do not believe there is a minor league in
existence as strong in every respect as the California Baseball League.
In none of the others are the clubs so uniformly strong and harmo
nious as they are out here; and 1 do not believe that in any of the minor
leagues is there a club as strong as {he Oaklands.
Of course, there is a good and sufficient reason why the California
League contains the best material. It pays the highest salaries. The
difference between the California and National Leagues is simply one of
experience in the players, and an instance going to prove this is shown
in the fact that Lang went from the California League into Jhe Chicago
nine.
I take it that all these things show a greatly increased interest in the
national game, and they presage a brilliant future for it.
Another sure sign, I think, is the great interest taken in the game by
the institutions of learning all over the country. There is not a college
or university where there are not one or more crack teams, and every
athletic club of any standing has taken hold of baseball .with vim and
vigor this season.
From a financial standpoint there is every indication to showthat
that baseball will not lack support this season— that its profits, in fact,
will be greater than for many seasons back.
The season has opened thus far with better attendance and larger
receipts than ever before. They were better than we expected.
Even with all the rain and disagreeable weather of the first week, our
receipts were equal to an average week of the previous season.
In Oakland the season was opened with much genuine enthuiusm and
a very large attendance, despite the bad weather, which made it neces
sary to forego all demonstrations of a public character. And this, too,
when Oakland is known as the poorest show town on the coast. The
Sunday morning after the opening we played a postponed game at Pied
mont, and I take it as a striking evidence of the real interest manifested
in baseball this season that church members on their way home from ser
vices stopped in the street to chat with me and ask me which team won
and what the score was. I think this shows how really alive the people
are this year on the baseball question.
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Assuredly baseball will live. And one of the things that will tend to
its longevity on this coast is that the teams are better managed this year
than ever before. They are being handled on scientific principles. The
best baseball material in the world may make a very poor team if it is
not [first put together as it oughV to be and then handled on scientific
principles.
It will be interesting, I imagine, as the season advances, to watch the
progress made by the clubs of the coast league, and more especially so
from the fact that they are composed of such different material. Take
the San Francisco team, for instance. It is made entirely of heavy timber,
and quite different from the Oakland club.
The Stockton team is likewise composed of heavy-weights, if one or
two members are exceptcd. The weather has been so bad thus far this
season that the grounds have been heavy, and these heavy teams have
not had a fair testing. The Oakland and Los Angeles teams are of much
lighter material, and, so far, heva been more successful.
Personally, lam in favor of heavy men. Look at the "Giants" of
New York, and the Chicago club— all heavy-weights. I think the Ne\r
York team is a pattern that cannot be copied after too much. It has
proven abundantly the advantages of heavy players.
But in spite of my preference for the big men and those heavily built,
I do not believe the San Francisco team will be the winners this season.
My observation is that they do not work together with the harmony and
singleness of purpose that is necessary for the success of a team.
Stockton's team is an unknown quantity so far. It is a mixture oi
good men of various kinds who have never played together before. One
or two changes will undoubtedly have to be made in it ere long. I con
sider its pitcher, Mr. Harper, one of the best in the country.
The one weak point in the Los Angeles team is, in my belief, theif
lack of unanimity in action. They are agile in the field and good basa
runners. They seem to be a little timid in their play. When this feature
has been overcome by them, as it undoubtedly will be, as they get more
and more warmed up to the work before them, the Angels will prove a
splendid team.
There is this much to be said in favor of the lighter men on this coast;
The heavier men require a much longer time to get shaped up in this
climate, anJ that is a circumstance quite necessary to be taken into
consideration.
There is another phase of the so-called baseball " craze " that ought
to be remembered. It is a harmless, invigorating out-door sport, and as
such it deserves to be encouraged by those who have the welfare ot
young America at heart. To be only a spectator one must go outside
into the sunlight where there are grassy lawns and the green things of
nature. It means fresh air and health if one never takes a bat in hand
himself. But the great majority of young men interested in baseball are
not content to sit quietly and see others do all the playing. For every
professional game they witness, it is more than likely that they take part
in two amateur games. And this is the side of baseball that must receive
the encouragement of every thinking man and woman.
If every young man were a baseball enthusiast, even to the point of
becoming a member of some amateur nine, there would be less sickness
in the land to-day, and our young men would be brawnier and of tougher
muscle than they are.
Dyspepsia and nervousness, so readily contracted by in-door occu
pations, are the deadly enemies of baseball. The indulgence in one will
unfit a man for a complete enjoyment, of the other, and this relation is
entirely reciprocal.
This is no off-hand statement of mine, but a matter of solemn truth
that is recognized by the faculty cf every university and institution of
learning in the land.
An abundance of out-door sport is indispensable to the rearing of
strong and healthy boys, and grown men and women are coming to
realize the necessity for out-door amusement. The ladies who are seen at
the ball games oftener than at the theatres are the ones usually with the
glow of health on their faces and complexions that need no artificial
heightening.
Truly there are no valid claims to be urged against baseball, and
much more to be said in its favor than I have mentioned. It is not a
brutalizing sport; there is but little or no betting connected with it, and
no objectionable features of any kind whatever. It is a harmless and
innocent game to witness, or sport to indulge in, yet very fascinating.
In-door people often wonder what others can find so interesting in base
ball, but the game has a peculiar fascination of its own that grows on ont
who is willing to be interested in a pure and healthful sport.
Yes ; baseball will live.
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