Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-27
BASEBALL IN ENGLAND.
A Thick-Headed Criticism in the Londo
"Truth

a Thfck-Headed Criticism In the London
Truth
The following from the London Truth
illustrates the cheerfulness with which the
average Britisher admits that anything
good can come from America;
The confidence of Uncle Sam in the
limitless gulhbility of John Bull is really
touching In his opinion anything is good
enough for the despised j. B., and when
ever a Yankee has good, healthy swindle
! to float, which his own countrymen are far
too clever to adopt, he launches it upon
the guileless Britisher, and, to do him Jus
tice, he is successful about nine times out
OF ten. Railway shares in bogus railways,
companies for extracting milk out of Gu
cumbers, tenth-rate muSic-hall artists
actors who cannot act, singers who can not
sing, champion shots and champion run
ners who-well, to put it mildly, who do
not always perform up to their reputation
=" nutmegs made of wood, and clocks
that won't tigger," Buffalo Bill and whist
! ling women, they all find their way some
how or another to England. The railway
shares are eagerly bought up, the compa-
MES are foated with the money of confid-
ing dupes, the actors, singers and dancers
command gigantic salaries for doing moth
ing, Buffalo Bill retires with a fortune.
boom succeeds boom, humbug and sedu-
lous putting wins the day; and when by
rare chance a really sound performer of
some description or another comes across
to try his or her luck, or a really good en-
terprise is mooted, it is more likely than
not that the performer returns to America
/ 81,
| doomed TO failure, for the best men do not
always make the most noise
Bearing the golden rule in view, had
my suspicious not only about the game of
baseball itself, but about the proves of
the individual players, simply because
both it and they had been pulled, belauded
and advertised in such fragrant and I'M
blushing manner for weeks before their ap-
pearance in England. And ] may say at
once that my suspicious were amply iusti-
fed. First, as to the game itself. 1t is
not bad game, but to compare it TO
cricket is about as reasonable as to COM
pare an average American railway to the
London and Northwestern. 1t is game
for boys, not quite so good as FOUNDERS, and
inferior to hockey, but as played by the
famous " athletes" of New York and Chi
cage 1t is, generally speaking, duh and oc-
casionally descends to mere Glowing.
| Will not infiict description of the
sport on my readers, but at the Oval, and
at Lords, the batsman did not hit the ball
more than once in four or five tries; when
he did hit ball he rarely got further than
the second base, and then ensued a vast
amount of tomfoolery, the man at the base
! pretending to run, and the man with the
ball throwing it to the baseman, and so
forth. This was repeated ad nauseam, the
only variety being when batsman really
got hold Of a bail and drove it to the deep
field, in which case, willingly admit, he
was generally caught out. For, to do the
baseball teams justice, they catch ex-
tremely well, and throw in with consider
able force and accuracy.
The opinion of cricketers is practically
unanimous, and it is simply that, having
once seen baseball from curiosity, they
have no desire to see it again. 1t is dull,
stupid game for grown men, good enough
for school playground, but absolutely
out of place at the Lords or at the Oval.