Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-14
A REVIEW OF SPORTS.
Opinions About the Local
Players on Their Trip,
SMITHS GOOD QUALITIES.
McAulife'S Offer 10 Fight Carney
in Europe.
SEARLE'S CHALLENGE DISCUSSED.
The Proposed Races Between Teemer and
Jake Gaudaur.
BASE BALL is NOW A LIVE TOPIC

From now on we may prepare ourselves
to hear almost nothing but baseball talked
about. The king of American sports and
pastimes has reascended his thrane and will
undoubtedly reign supreme until next Octo-
Der. The local club returned home yester-
day and will remain here until after the
opening of the championship season. Be
tween now and the commencement of the
championship struggle there will be a
game almost every day, providing there
is fine weather. The players, at least
many of them, need all the work they
can get. To put it as mild as possible they
have made very sorry show during their
Western trip. Their only creditable vic
tory was the one at st. Louis. Taking the
trip as whole it only bears out what was
argued in these columns last Sunday, viz:
that it would be far better for everybody
concerned if the team was kept at home
during the spring practice. Manager
Phillips is tolerably well satisfied with the
trip. This may seem .singularly interesting
to many people, for it means that the genial
isfy. 1t would be hard to
imagine a more inglorious tour than the
one made by the local players, and it is en-
tirely correct to say that the trip has done
nothing at all toward arousing local en-
thusiasm in the national game. In this the
club cannot be other than a loser. Of
course, the old remark that the series has
been one of exhibition games only will be
made, but even an excuse of this kind does
not mend matters. Defeat invariably has
a discouraging influence and the local
club has suffered more defeats already
than ought to fall to the share
of any club that expects to make a good
show in a pennant race. From whatever
standpoint we may look at matters we can
not well come to any other conclusion than
that which means the clubs trip has been
very unfortunate one.
X
About the Home Players.
None of US for a moment will contend
that we have seen the home players at their
best yet. 1t is fact just as clear and forci-
BILE as the sun at MONDAY that they can
play better than they have done so far this
season. The question is, however, how much
can they play? Nobody can say, and only
the championship struggle will tell 1 am
free to confess that my hopes of the clubs
buCC6Ss are uOG as Dfl8nL as U06y were. NOW
and again / have fear that the old failing
of weak batting will again show itself, and
If it does we can prepare ourselves for the
usual place near the bottom of the list. 1t
is strange for anybody to have misgivings
like the above when the players OF the club
are considered one by one. Taking them
seriatim they appear to be Just as good as
any other aggregation, but they fail to show
good results. How the team will be made
up is a problem not yet settled but one
thing seems certain, that is, Smith will be
the local shortstop. After all the faults and
foibles OF the old man are considered the
actremains that his equal is very hard to
find. Certainly Allen will not fill Smith s
vacancy this year. Allen is an admirable
young gentleman and may be tutored into a
hrst-class ball player, but it would be un-
reasonable to expect him to be a fit substi-
tute for Smith this season. We may, there
fore, rest assured that Pop" will be at his
old stand except now and again when
Allen viii be given a trial. 1t seems ab-
surd to think that personalities would cause
Smith to be put on third base. Whatever
the personal difference between Smith and
Dunlap or anybody else may be, there is no
reason why they should Interfere with the
playing or arranging of the team. 1t cannot
be that old and tried players like those in
question are yet so much linked with child
hood and its ways as to carry their little
squabbles on to the ball field. They are
not paid to do that. Manliness is one of the
best essentials of frst-class ball player,
and it is to be hoped that every member of
the local team will act the part of man, so
much as to work together on the ball field
for one common end-that of victory.
n
The League and Association,
The exhibition games so far this season
have demonstrated the fact that the Ameri-
can Association is not that insignificant
body many people think tbs. The Associa-
tion clubs have more than held their own
against the League members. This ought
to and must convince those who are eternally
clamoring about the Leagues superiority,
that there are other important people in the
world. Of course 1 know that this will
sound like treason TO some people, but there
is truth in the statement nevertheless. The
prospects of good ball playing in the Asso-
citation are just as good as those in the
League, while the prices of the former are
much less than those of the latter.
4 X
spaIdinE's Teams.
On Tuesday we will have Spalding and
his teams with us. Their visit will doubt
less be an interesting one, because since we
saw them last they have travelled round the
world and supped and dined with kings,
dukes and lords. 1t is to be hoped that
their contest here will be well patronized.
Spalding certainly deserves all the patron
age that is possible. 1t is dimsy to say that
he has simply been round the world to ad-
vertise himself and his business,
Granting he has, he certainly is worth
ali the advertising he gets after paw
ing so handsomely for it. I have
vet to be convinced that baseball will be-
come popular among the natives of any
country he has visited, but this is no fault
of Spalding. He has introduced the ma
tional game of America to quarters of the
globe that would never have seen it had it
not been for his remarkable enterprise. If
for nothing more than this the American
admirers of the game ought to give him a
hearty welcome wherever he and his teams
appear.
About the ScuIlers.
The declared intention of Henry G. Searls
to visit England next month and challenge
anybody or everybody for the worlds scuIl-
ing championship, has undoubtedly revived
the interest in acquatics. None of US can
say or think other than that it is a pity
that professional sculling has been under a
ban so long. There are many interesting
chapters in the history of sculling, chapters
that take us back to the exciting times of
Hamil, Chambers, Clasper and Kelly. In
those days there was a rivalry existing in
almost every household in behalf of the
various chaninions Matters have changed