Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-26
AREVEW OF SPORTS,
General Features of the Ma
tional and Local Base
ball Situation.
ERIE SCULLING REGATTA.
Prospects of Local Association and
Rugby Football Playing.
THE DIXON AND JOHNSON BATTLE,
ohm L. Sullivans Interesting Threat to
Demolish the Man in the Moon.
ERIE SCULLING REGATTA.
THE DIXON AND JOHNSON BATTLE.
XEXT SATURDAYS LOCAL FIELD DAY

been very quiet. Generally speaking, there
has been nothing outside the routine. The
contest for the first pennant" is getting
close, and that has served to keep crank.
talking and guessing. The Philadelphis
team are making things lively, and it would
be quite surprise, if, after all, the Bos.
tons are downed at the finish. More un
likely things have happened
There has been quite little stir in local
baseball circles over one or two matters.
Vice President Kerr has sold out of the
club bag and baggage and retired from base
ball except being spectator at the games.
Mr.. Kerr was a fine and genial gentleman
ard a very worthy member of the clubs
his retirement If everything goes right it
seems sure now that Manager Bucken berger
will be President of the club.
The team are beginning to look better
than they have done during the season. !
am sure that on paper they look powerful
team, and if they could only get down to
the work that they are capable of doing
they would soon be TAR up the list. Captain
Burns has strong hopes that Ehret from
now on will be winner, and If it turns out
to be the case, and Baldwin and Terry do
well, the team will be as good as anybody IS
team.
The Genins affair has caused considerable
talk. While the PLAYER is not worth all
the noise the stubbornness of the Western
League in holding him ought to be CEN
sured. Mr.. Brush apparently has been
playing a very discreditable part, and his
League colleagues who love fair play
ought to call him down.
Professional ScuIlers and Erie Regatta.
During the week we have had one more
proof of the decline of professional sculling
in the United States. There has been a
professional regatta at Erie, and the facts
and features of it only remind us of the
great difference between such regatta now
and one few years ago. There was time,
and not very long ago, when a regatta in
which all of our best scullers took part was
considered very great sporting event, and
an event which was given very great prom
inence in the newspapers all over the coun-
try. There were also lots OF people in those
days who were always ready to subscribe
toward purses for regatta, and as a result
there were purses sufficiently big to attract
all classes of scullers
But We don't find that enthusiasm and
popular interest in the sport now; in fact, it
ested in the regatta at Erie. All the best
scullers in the land were there. OF course,
it is quite easy to know how this change of
public feeling has been brought about
Everyone of the four sculIers who rowed at
Erie, won't saw contested, has done his
share toward running the popularity of
sculling. Hippodrome races and dishonest
contests were for long time so much the
rule among our scullers that the public
l-5.o r. Ca, tl1y,.
would have no more OF it.
If anybody can show me how the recent
regatta at Erie was anything more than a
hippodrome 1 will feel extremely thank
full The affair was promoted by the row.
ers, ard Just what each man would and
could do in the way of rowing was fore
gone conclusion. Teemer did not feel in
clined to come to this section of the cou1-
try, and at the last moment Gaudaur was
engaged to fill his place regardless of
whether or not Gaudaur could row 20 yards
or 20 miles. The truth is the published re-
ports from Erie told us that Gaudaur had
been engaged simply to make the requisite
number up for the double scull race. That
is what L call hippodroming pure and
simple, and the foul on the part of Hanlan
and Gaudaur in the single scull race,
doubtless was part of the arranged pro-
gramme to cover up the defeats of lack of
condition of the two men.
am not opposed to regattas. / am an
ardent admirer of them but only when they
are Of the genuine class Mark, l don't
contend that there was ANYTHING dishonest
about the Erie regatta, what I do argue is
that il was nothing but business and that
kind of hippodroming business that has
helped to ruin sculling. More than ever
l am satisfied that we must have a new set
OF scullers before we cah hope to see the
sport proper again.
That Proposed International Amateur Race
A week or so ago there was strong hope
of an amateur eight-oared race, between the
best crew otthe English Universities and the
winner of the Yale and Harvard race; but
these hopes have vanished considerably.
Yale may take up the callenge of the
Britsbers but it. is not likely that
Harvard will. During a recent conversa-
ton on the matter the weIl-known Captain
Cook said: 81 suppose it is only the same
old story that turns up every year before
the race. Personally, am not very en-
thusiastic on the subject The crew that
Yale or Harvard would meet in England
would not be the regular crew of the last
Oxtord-Cambridge race, but picked crew
from all over England.
They do not row there as we do here
In England, when men get out of college,
they remain in the boat clubs and keep on
rowing for their health. We can't afford to
do that in this country, for we do not have
time. 1t would be an eight made up from
this kiEd of men that would be put up
against the American crew, and conse-
quently not representative crew of the
late race. 1 understand that Harvard is
enthusiastic over the idea, evidently think
ing that she has fast crew.
GAS for Yale, she has her hands full at
present and had better keep her thoughts at
home"
There are two very important statements
in the Captains talk. One is that the Eng
lish crews are better than those in America
and the other is that the British will put
a picked crew against the winner of the
Harvard and Yale race. When Cook says
or intimates that the English amateur crews
are better than those in the United States
/ fully endorse his opinion and that is one
of the few things in amateur sport wherein
the Britishers have a little the best of it.
1t is quite true that the best of English
rowers continue to row long after they have
taken part in the Oxford and Cambridge,
or any other big special event just the same
as Psotta and other American rowers do.
We find the same custom among the anna
teur bicyclists Of the United States and that
is one reason why they are so far ahead Of
the amateur bicyclists of other countries.
But what 1 would like to ask is: Why
can't we have race between the best eight
amateur rowers in the United States and
the best eight in England? Let both crews
be picked and in my estimation that would
be much more important race than a race
between the best crews Of any two partic- |
ular universities. What the majority of us
would like to know is on what side of the |