New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-10-28
TIE MOST POPUL4R or SPORTS.

part of the country than in any previous year.
| Not only have the games in Brooklyn and
New York been attended by immense numbers
Of spectators, but bulletins Of the various in
nings and results have been scanned with eager
ness by large crowds, while extra editions Of
evening newspapers giving details of the i'm
portant contests have been sold by the tens Of
thousands. 1t is good thing in every way
that our boys are growing up with so keen a
delight in so thoroughly healthful and bene-
fetal a sport. Baseball in the East is almost
entirely free from the gambling faint, which
is the most serious evil Of racing, and it has
| the immense advantage over racing that all Of
| its votaries whom extreme age or physical
weakness does not prevent from taking part in
vigorous exercise can play ball themselves if
they wish. Active participation in racing, ex-
cept in the way of gazing upon the contests and
betting upon them, is confined to a compare
| lively small class of men, most Of them of large
means. Boys and young men with few eX-
ceptions have no opportunities either to ride or
to race thoroughbreds, and it is well enough that
| they have not 1t is unfortunate, indeed that
| so many of them get chances to bet on thor
| oughbreds. But the number of baseball clubs
| that have been organized in almost every vii
| lage, town or city Of the Union is something
prodigious and the number Of youths and
men whose health, vigor and enjoyment of life
are vastly increased by the excellent exercise
which baseball affords is so great that an in
vigorating element of great value to the COM
munty is steadily expanding.
The League series of battles for the cham
| pionship has attracted the enthusiasm of New
| Workers in an uncommon degree on account of
| the victory of their representative club which,
| after taking the highest honor possible in the
| League, has easily defeated the champions of
| the Association, and now enjoys the champion
| ship of the world. The New York Baseball
| Club is powerful organization, composed of
| some of the best equipped players in the coun-
| try. At times these players have shown an in
| clination TO rest too much upon past laurels,
to betray jealousy and envy of their associates,
| to attempt to win individual fame rather than
to support the discipline Of the club and in
crease its chances of success. With so many
players who consider themselves individual as
well as collective champions, the management
of the organization will become even more diff
cult next year. President Day and Manager
Mutrie have done so well with the material
at their command in 1888 that they may be
trusted to make good use Of their men in 1889,
and there is no reason why The pennant so
proudly won shall not be as proudly retained
in the metropolis where it properly belongs.
The most serious check to the progress of the
club and to the popularity of League games
will, however, be felt when the irresistible de-
velopment Of the upper part of the city, with
its rapid entertainments on unOccupied spaces,
compels the opening of a street through the
Polo Grounds, and the consequent destruction
of that unsurpassed ball-held. There is no
other area of sufficient size IN Newly ork so
easy of access from all parts of the city as the
Polo Grounds are II the club is forced to go
above the Harlem the attendance upon It's
games will be greatly diminished for time;
nor can it indeed probably secure any new To-
cation which will serve the convenience of its
friends and patrons so well us the present field.
But baseball, popular as it is, and distnctively
the National sport as it undoubtedly is, has to
give way to the expansion of such centre of
population and wealth, and as year by year the
city goes forward in its imperial stride it will
so improve its methods of transportation that
even if in the next century the New York Ball
Club, still the holders of the ensign of the cham
pionship, shall have their games up in the
vicinity of Wilamsbrdge, the Newly ork of
that time, which will have exceeded London in
population, wealth and Importance, will send
TO the contests for the pennant hosts of spec
tatOrs many times greater than even the armies
that have poured into the gates of the Polo
Grounds.
For baseball is not merely the fancy of an
idle hour. It's attractions are enduring. In
outlay il is modest in comparison with racing,
yachting and other expensive sports. For
crack players it will draw on a constantly
widening circle. OF spectators and supporters
it will attract to its gates tens of thousands in
the future for the thousands that now go.
Quick, sharp, lively, unremitting in interest.
it must always remain the favcrite game Of
the American people, and when its good quail
tiles are thoroughly understood it ought to
drive out altogether from the affections Of the
Anglo-Saxon race the cumbrous, clumsy, slow,
procrastinating and antiquated game Of cricket
The English people are too deliberate and
dilatory in this day and generaton-as they
have been for centuries past-to appreciate the
rapidity Of movement, the swiftness of change,
the sharp contrasts and the sudden diversity
of incidents which attend baseball. But with
the progress of human affairs a new snap, a
new stir, new vivacity, may be infused into
the English temperament and in time it may
seem as absurd and grotesque to the English
man to engage in such game, as cricket. which