Daily Kennebec journal., 1899-07-11
The National Games Decline.

and popularization in this county, and
millions have enjoyed it, But the New
York Tribune contends that we have
no national game at the present time.
though it admits that base ball has held
this distinction until recently. 1t says
that until few years ago base ball
was as surely the national game of the
United States as cricket was and is of
England The all but universal inter-
est taken in it, the thousands that
crowded to see the games. the other
thousands thronging about the bulletin
boards, the special editions of news
papers with reports of games. the
adoption of the terms of the game into
the standard vocabulary of the people
these and innumerable other indica-
tions testified to the national character
of that fascinating game. But those
conditions no longer exist. In some
localities a certain degree of attention
is still paid to the game, but in the
country at large we suppose 1t Is safe
to say the interest in it is not more
than ne-tenth as great as 1t was ten
or fifteen years ago. There are fewer
leagues and much less interest taken in
the great leagues. There is even less
interest than formerly taken in anna
teur and college base ball, though the
reasons for this are different from
those which account for the decline of
professional ball in popular favor. The
growth of other sports is mainly the
cause of the decreased interest shown
by collegians and their friends in the
contests on the diamond.
But the reasons for the lamentable
decline of professional base ball are of
a different nature. Rowdyism and ruff
fianism have too often taken the place
of bali playing, and greedy managers
in their zeal for the biggest gate re-
| ceipts have brought about conditions
which have much diminished the gate
| receipts in most of the great cities.
! Base ball magnates have made the
game a great financial venture rather
| than a clean contest between skilled
athletes for the publics entertainment.
Too many games have been Won and
lost by other means than ball playing.
| HoodIums. both on the field and off,
have been given too much encourage
ment The game in itself is just as in
teresting. as fascinating, as attractive
in all respects as ever when it is right
Iy managed and played. There are
plenty of men able to play it as well as
ever The public is as ready as ever to
patronize it. But when good playing is
sacrificed to sordid cheeseparing, and
when the actual game IS turned into
an exhibition of rowdyism, the public
turns away in disgust. Not every team
in the league is as badly managed as
that of New York, so perhaps the Trib-
une puts unnecessary stress on this
point. 1t admits that some are ad-
mirably managed but declares that the
cheap ruffianism that has characterized
the New York management is a sort of
serpent's trail that is over the whole
game.
Yet, despite the decline of base ball,
no other has taken its place as our
national game, or seems likely to Dc
so. There is great interest in bicy-
cling, but that inspiring sport is not d
word. at least for the present purpose
Golf has it's myriads of devotees. and is
well worthy of them. But neither is it
a game in the sense requisite to uni
versal popularity, and it is, moreover
in no sense national in this country
but is purely an import from Scotland
Lawn tennis is popular. but it is en-
tirely but of the question as sub
stitute for base ball. Foot ball has
tremendous vogue, but can never be
played generally and continually, as
base ball has been. Cricket is a fine
game, but too protracted to suit the
American taste, and it, moreover, is
exotic. So we may go through the en-
tire catalogue of games and sports
| There is not one of them that can pos
[ sibly fill the place once filled by bast
r ball. There is not one of them tha
5 can ever hope to rank as the nationa
t game of the United States. 1t is bas
$ ball or nothing.
| And the Tribune goes to the length
to declare that the average sclf-re
specting American would rather hav
it nothing than base ball. if base bal
is to be what it has so largely becom,
in recent years. When brawls and fis
;. fights take the -placetof batting an.
:, base running, when decent men an
women are forced to flee from tn
grandstand to escape storms of pro
fame and obscene shoutings, when con
tests are decided not by the merits o
' . nnrATrQT