New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-07-09
THE NATIONAL GAME.

We ought TO have National game. mat, we
suppose. is a proposition no true lover OF sports
Will contradict Whether or not we have one Is,
however, question fairly open TO dispute.
There was no doubt about 1t a few years ago.
Baseball was as surely the National game or
the Tinted States as cricket was and Is OF Eng
land The all but universal interest taken In II.
the thousands that crowded to see the games,
the other thousands thronging about the bulle-
Tin boards the special editions of newspapers
with reports OF games the adoption OF the terms
Of the game into the standard vocabulary OF the
people-these and innumerable other indications
testified to the National character OF that fasci-
mating game. But those conditions no longer
exist. In some localities a certain degree OF at
tentIon is still paid TO the game, but In the coun-
trv nj large we suppose II Is safe 10 say the III
terest In It is not more than onetenth as great
ms II was ten or fifteen years ago. Nor are the
reasons for this lnmentable decline In the least
obscure In this city they are succinctiy eX-
pressed in a single wOrd-Freedmanism for
that word every other place has some one or
more local synonymes. The game Is just as In
teresting as fascinating, as attractive IN all re-
spects as ever when it Is rightly managed ana
PLAYED There are plenty Of men able to play II
as we'll as ever The public is rs ready as ever
TO patronze IT, But when good playing Is sac
riflced to sordid cheeseparlng, and when the act
ua game is turned into an exhibition or rowdE
ism. the public turns away in disgust. Not every
team in the League is as badly managed as that
of New-York Some are admirably managed
But the cheap ruffianlsm that has characterized
the New-York management Is sort or serpents
trail that is over the whole game.
Yet despite the decline Of baseball, no other
has taken it's place as our National game, or
seems likely to do So There Is great interest in
bicycling but that inspiring sport Is not game
I'm the essential meaning of the word, at least Tor
the present purpose. Golf has its myriads or
devotees. and Is well worthy of them But
neither is II game in the sense requisite to uni
yersal popularity, and 1t is, moreover, In no
sense National TO this country, but Is purely an
import from Scotland. Lawn tennis is popular
but is entirely olt Of the question as subst-
tute for baseball Football has tremendous
vogue, but can never be played generally ana
continually, as baseball has been. Cricket is
fine game, but too protracted TO suit the Ameri-
can taste, and it, moreover, is an exotic. so we
may go through the entire catalogue OF games
and sports. There IS not one of them that can
possibly fill the place once filled by baseball
There is not one of them that can ever hope 10
rank as the National game of the United States
II is baseball or nothing.
Doubtless the average self-respecting Amerl-
can would rather have II nothing than baseball
If baseball Is to he what 1t has so largely be-
come in recent years. When brawls and fist
fights take the place Of batting and base rum
ming when decent men and women are forced
TO flee from the grandstand to escape storms OF
profane and obscene shoutings, when contests
are decided not by the merits Of the players, but
by skill in manipulating or brutality In denying
the umplre's decisions the game Is not 10 be
called National without lbelling the Nation
Whether or not baseball can be reformed and
rehabilitated Is now the question. 1t ought TO
be possible to do II. The pecuniary selfnterest
Of the managers ought to dictate 1t II nothing
else That decency and good playing do pay. in
gate money as we'll as in other respects, has
been abundantly shown this season by crowded
seats in Brooklyn and ut the same moment
empty seats in Manhattan. With the manage
ment and the playing Of years ago. the game
would we are confident, be restored TO the rank
in popular favor which IL then enjoyed. With
out some such radical reform It will remain in
disgrace and the greatest sport loving Nation In
the world will remain without National game