The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-03-28
BASEBALL GOING TO "SPORTS."
Principal Richards Talks on Ten
denotes of Professionalism.
side Betting n Very Common Thing
Ladies' NOt In Attendance-Ab-
soIute Amateurism.

Mr.. EDITOR: The subject OF
baseball interests the general pub
lie. 1t should do 80 as long as our
boys are participants or spectators
It will do 30 as long as the play is
spirited and "on the square"
eyes, but let the management OF
the game, the makeup OF the
teams, and the wrangles over the
7 results be left with the players"
With all my heart. If only as a
superannuated player, the writer
needs no apology for the apparent
inconsistency of appearing in print
on this subject, and submits the
following:
First-The players of Honolulu
will have baseball in their control
in direct proportion as "the sports"
do not. For "the sports" to control
is to reduce the results of a game to
a mere matter of dollars and cents.
Such a rnling element means
diminution of those few players
who can resist the "price" offered.
Il means, too, a thinning out of
those who can hold their NERVE"
throughout a game, not having,
forsooth, "the sand to back their
team with their dollars" In short,
the "sports" are interested In prop
agatiug professionalism with some
Of It's worst but necessary features.
Second-It is the opinion OF
many who have watched the game
in Honolulu that the ''sport" ele-
ment is on the ascendency. The
following facts are significant and
serve az "signs Of the times: :" 1)
Our ten-year-old boys knew and
talked as fuently about the "odds"
given and taken on the grand-stand
last season, as they did about the re-
suits of the games-ssk them and
see. " ouldn't you be willing to
venture a prophecy (based on the
foregoing) as to the probable
"clean hands" the future has in
store for ball and business ? (2)
The ladies in the grand
stand became fewer in attendance,
not as yet recoDciled to sport
ing" methods. (3) The league
made no effort to even lessen the
publicity of what the writer under
stands is contrary to statute,-the
open bandying of bets. Neither
did the league make any
effort to expel the MEM
bers of teams known to have bet
heavily on the games in which
they themselves played but on
the other hand received in. good
faith protest lodged by such play
ers whose ingenious desire for fair
play thus manifested itself. (4)
The opening wedge of profess
sionalism was made when q pitcher
was hired. When he furnished
the usual and natural spectacle of
accepting more to lose than he was
paid to win, people seemed to fail
in locating the blame and attach
ing it to the act of hiring him-as
utterly un-amateur as was the uni
versal betting.
What are the remedies-reme-
dies which will both save q noble
sport and preserve the next genera
ton for ordinary business integ-
rity ?. One answer is-absolute
amateruism in sports strictly en-
forced. At present, with more
hired players in sight and the same
kind of management insured, the
outlook Ia bad.
One step in the right direction
will be to open the old grounds at
Makiki. A league formed to play
there, and with police assistance,
strictly amateur has some support
and ought to have.
Yours in the interests Of educa-
cation and public morals,
THEODORE RICHARDS
t''Kamehamehs," Mar. n, 1895.
1