, 1891-12-29
BASEBALL SENTIMENT.
1t Is What Has Kept the Game
Alive and Flourishing.
THE MAGNATES' BIG MISTAKE.


National Pastime.
There are many contradictions in base
ball. Viewed from one angle nothing is
seen but the sentimental side of the game,
and in the days when that issue was para
mount prosperity was greatest. All that
the race Of enthusiasts desire is "A return to
the old ways when matters of business
and finance Were crowded far to the rear
and discussed but briefly in the public
prints. Interest in the game itself has
simply been chilled by the unseemly quar-
rels Of a lot of selfish magnates, who hold
in their hands the immediate destiny of a
national game that las been debascl by
their ~chicanery. No one party-League or
Association-can be asked t shoulder the
responsibility of dragging the game from
its place in the unseltish affections of the
people.
1t is a divided responsibility. The enthu-
siasts loved baseball for its own sake alone,
and the magnates with them cut very lit
tie figure in the matter. They were impor-
tant factors, developing a game which
pleased Americans, but when they subor-
dinated that game to their own selfish de
sires then the revolt came. Gossip of the
players was s%upplanted by war bulletins
founded mostly on falsehood and issued
with n ~braggadocio not appreciated by
'AANFN " nv AtAiA bttA . II
ever loyal patrons of a noble sport.
Press and public nave called upon the
maguates TO get together and sink their
quarrels at once, II they do not, their
quarrels will sink them in a sea of bank
ruptcy. Without sentiment baseball can
not thrive. What is n baseball champion
ship Simply n sentimental scramble for
"A flag and honor, with local pride for its
foundation. Take away that pride and
HIaH T. If q "
that pride is fed with victories, only the
old guard, who are as true in the hour of
defeat as they are when Queen Fortune
smiles, file through the turnstiles. 1t is
the idea that the boys are nobly battling
for r place that makes the cranks rally
round their standard.
No matter how fine the game or exciting
the play, a dozen consecutive defeats, even
by the narrow margin of a run or two, will
sour the milk of human kindness in the
breast of the ordinary crank, n he will
chide and deride instead of encourage the
home team. That is the history of the
game whose corner stone is sentiment.
Give a city two clubs and you at once di-
vide the enthusiasts into cliques. They
are bound TO become partisans. Not long
ago Frank C. Bancroft said to me:
There is no city in this country that can
support two clubs. Boston has two pen
nant winners, but the business of neither
was phenomenal. Wait until one of them
strikes a bad year and money by the keg
will be lost. They talk about Philadelphia
and its long experience. Let me say tina l
am in a pretty good position to respond to
some of the arguments on that line. Name
me a year when both the Athletics and the
Philadelphia made money. One club has
always come out ahead and the other
dragged behind. Dc you know that if it
had rained on Decoration Day in 1887 that
the Athletics would have died Immediate
ly? was managing the team then, and
we did not have enough mOney to get home
from the west, let alone meet our bills
salary day. The angels had found their
bank empty, but Old Sol smiled on us that
Memorial Day morning and the grounds
were black with people. The money we
took in saved US from going to pieces. A
storm would have driven the Athletics off
the earth"
While sentiment has been as beauteous
as a red, red rose, and as carefully nursed
in the Players garden, it has always been
considered as a member of the genus weed
in the councils of the magnates. The de
scription of William H.. McGunnigle at
Pittsburg the other day recalls one of the
most cruel swipes the Association smoker
snee ever made. That was three years ago,
and Wheeler c. Wikoff was the victim.
President Wikotf was never meant to be Il
leader of men, but he was a careful, con-
scientious officer-faithful to the end. He
had offended some of the ruling spirits,
and they cut off his official head and sent
it in to his bride as the Associations we'd
ding gift to the man who had never be-
trayed his trust. Wheeler Wikoff was
spending his honeymoon in New York at
the time, but that fact did not stay the
hands of his eXeCutioners and he was sac
rificed.
One story of the varied experiences of
the ex-Association chieftain in that never
to-be-forgotten first week of a new life has
been carefully hidden since the incident oc-
CURED. Mr.. Wikoff went into the Empire
State for his better half, and he married a
pretty jamestown girl. With the usual
determination of young people who have
just made the plunge into matrimonial
waters, they essayed to put on the airs of
'old married folks" and were succeeding
admirably, to their own way of thinking,
until their trunk arrived at their hotel in
the metropolis. Concealment of the truth
after la revelation was impossible. Fold
after fold of beautiful white ribbon had
been tied around the capacious Saratoga,
and with silken knot a muddy old shoe
one Of the largest ever made-had been
carefully fastened to the handle. Some of
their mischief loving friends had paid
them this delicate little attention.
The City of Smoke has always been able
TO keep baseball affairs pretty well loud
ever since the time the '~'farewells'' were
said to the Association. j. Palmer O'Neil
has joined w. A. Minick as a Pittsburg
has been" and w. C. Temple, the new
president of the club, is a thoroughbred
crank. He is one of the variety of en-
thusiasts who give jewelry to players who
find favor in their eyes. A. c. Bucken-
berger, who has fallen heir to Manager Nc
Gu%nnigle's shoes, has handled more than
one team of champions. His last engage
ment was at Sioux City, where his Corn
Huskers gave Uncle Arson and Captain
Comiskey such an awful series of surprise
parties.
The western champions AVE been pretty
badly scattered since they trounced both
Chicago and st. Louis. Pittsburg has
taken their old manager and Phil Ehret-
better known as Red" St. Louis picked
up "Parson" Nicholson, Will Van Dyke
and Frank Genins. Washington has Frank
Scheibeck, and did claim Billy Earle, while
the Chicago Association has viii Hart.
George Meekin, the third pitcher of the
club. is under cover somewhere, and at last
accounts he was nibbling at Ansonian bait.
rem MULFoRD, JR.
Whooping Cough.
There Is no danger from whonping
--.