The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-06-18
SPORT.

If we and the Americans really pos
sessed a national game in common we
should not have been at the pains to
reduce Lord Brassey to absurdity."
says London paper. But in point Of
fact the American conception of sport
is antagonistic 10 ours at every point
What we call 'Unsportsmanlike' is
hailed as smarness by the proletariat
Of the United States, and the games
they have acquired from US have been
twisted and garbled into pursuits which
We should not recognize. Cricketers
who have seen a baseball match know
how wide and deep is the gulf which
separates the two games. In itself
baseball is a really fine game, but there
is no conscience in it. The fielding side
are allowed to yell at the man with the
club i'm order to rattle or put him off
his sWipe, the spectators have the right
TO make a diabolicaI din for the same
reason, and the unfortunate umpire
who gives a decision against the field
ing side is lost i'm a circle of yelling
gssticulating forms clad like acrObats.
ball match would cause even the Aus
tralian 'barracker,' who is spelling Aus
tralian cricket by slow degrees, to re-
treat pallid and aghast from the sight
of the diamond and its votaTies-"
The attitude of our sedate English
contemporary is alone enough to prove
the two nations have no national game
IN common. with the possible exception
of yachting, and we incline to the be-
lief that the outcome Of the recent race
for the Kaiser's cup inspired the arti-
Gle reproduced above. There has been
much Of an "UnspUTtsmanlike" chaTaC-
ter in the international yacht races of
the past, yet We believe there was
nothing "unsportsmanlike" about the
recent race, and that the paper re-
ferred to is merely piqued because of
the victory of the American boat
4 better understanding of the ma
tioual traits of Americans would help
the London paper to appreciate Why
baseball is so unlike cricket. AmeTi-
cans make work out of their sports.
while the English do not. That's the
difference. A somewhat intimate &C
quaintance with baseball during many
years past has not taught US just what
putting the man with the club of his
swipe" means. but we infer it means
''rattIing the batter" which has come
to be not only legitimate but highly
CommendabIe from the standpoint of
the American spectator. It is done
everywhere and contains no element Of
unfairness because both teams get the
benefit of il. our friend in London viii
have difficulty in persuading the Amer
lean baseball fan that he has no right
to express his opinions of the players
as they come to his attention And he
Will find il scarcely less difficulty to
persuade Americans that the game of
baseball as played today is not sports
manlike." It is. perhaps, more nearly
free from faint than any other form
of recreation.
The English writer undoubtedly has
been spoiled by long beholding the
solemn cricket matches of his native
land. OF course the gulf which sep
arates the two games IS wide and
deep" Just as wide and just as deep
as the gulf that separates the British
character from the American charac-
ter Ne believe that if our friend across
the water could once saiu a proper
appreciation Of baseball and would
then endeavor to remove the taste of
that by attending a cricket match. he
would revise his views of the American
national game