New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-07-29
THE SEASON OF SPORTS.

The fondneSS Tor certain KINDS Oh sport
seems to be yearly on the increase in this
country. Baseball matches now draw bigger
crowds of spectators in ali the chief cities than
ever before, while the scores of such contests
are looked fol with eagerness in the remote st
corners Of the land. In number and prosperity
of cluts in excellence of play and i'll the interest
and enthusiasm aroused, this season has sur
passed any of its predecessors. Baseball may
fairly be- considered the national game OF
Americans as cricket is Ut Engishmen, for
there is now hardly a hamlet in any part of the
United States where boys and men do not meet
in these peaceful summer afternoons with ball
and bat. 70 turn from a sport which is so con-
spcuOusly the pleasure of the masses to one
which is above all others the recreation Of a
comparatively limited class, yachting is con-
stant!y adding to the number of its devoted fol-
lowers. 1t may be said with confidence that
never before IN America were there so many
Yachts of all classes in commission, and never
before were SD many persons gaining health,
vigor and enjoy ment in days and weeks spent
on the waves. There have been no great in
ternational yachting contests this year as in
some previous seasons, but the number of new
vessels built and ordered, the improvements
made in others, the friendly rivalry as to the
speed of the various craft, both those of the
white wings and those of the big black tunnels,
show that yachting is steadily making progress.
But the sport which has taken the longest
strides forward this year is racing. This is
true both of tIotting and of thoroughbred rae
ing. In value of prizes and in extent and va
rie,y of contests the Grand Crcuit-as the COM
bination of the allied trotting tracks is called
will surpass all former achievements. The
Increase in trottng stock and the development
of speed in recent years have been amazing.
Only few years ago the number OF horses IN
America able to trot mile in 2:2O could
be counted on the fingers of one hand. Now
they can be reckoned by dozens. Hundreds of
horses are driven daily by their owners on the
road at speed that would have been thought
wholly unattainable on a track generation
ago.
But if the interest in trotting has advanced
to noteworthy extent, it lie evident that the
popularity of thoroughbred racing has more
than kept pace with it. At New-Or,eans,
Memphis, Nashville, Lexington, Louisville,
Covingt0n, Cincinnati, st. Louis and Chicago
in the West, the meetings have been almost
without break, and the sport has been enjoyed
by hundreds of thousands of people. AT Wash
ington, Baltimore, jerome Park, Coney Island,
Long Branch ami Saratoga in the East, it has
attracted bigger crowds and excited more i'll
terest than il any previous year. There has
been far more of ii, too, than ever before. New
courses nave been opened, the number OF rae
ing days has been multiplied, and the list OF
contests has been immensely extended. And
as yet there is no sign of safety on the part of
the public. Any who has seen the throngs
that have been gathering and still continue to
gather at the race-courses must admit that
this is a sport-loving generation. Visitors
from abroad who come here with the notion
that Americans devote too much attention to
business and give too little time TO recreation
should take look at our ball grounds and race
tracks.
The danger now seems to be, not that the
people will not have abundant opportunities to
enjoy all the recreation they may desire, in
the way of seeing Iacss, but that the matter
will be overdone and reaction will follow
which will seriously affect the prosperity of the
turf The rivalry between Long Branch and
Saratoga each association insisting Oh keeping
up its meetings through the month of August,
must result in mischief to both of them. The
policy of racing every day but Sundays for
six weeks cen hardly be con sdered jadicious.
Such an excess of this sort of sport must soon
pail on the public taste. The pressing need of
the American turf is a National Jockey Club
composed of representatives of the leading as
sOciations, which shall have us much authority
as the Jockey Club has in England. Until some
such central body is clothed with power to
limit the number of racing days within reason
able bounds, to compose conflicts between
clubs, to suppress hippodrome performan ces,
and to punish frauds, racing is likely to go on
expanding until swollen to such unnatural
proportions that collapse will be inevitable.