Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-12-04
BASE BALL Is A WONDER.
Game Is Peculiarly American Rnd
Every City Has It's Team.

Game Is Peculiarly American and
Every City Has It's Team.
Quite number of persons, were they
asked what is the eighth wonder of
the world, would answer-baseball.
And the vogue of the great American
game is truly wonderful. The national
sport of England is cricket; of Ger
many, target shooting; of Spain, bull
fighting, but compared with the univer-
salty with which baseball is played,
discussed, understood, witnessed, raved
over and fought over by the 100000
that form the great commonwealth Of
the American people, these other ma
tional games sink into insigpifcance.
At the local ball yard one day last
season a man remarked that he knew
comparatively nothing about the game
nor cared very little about witnessing
an exhibition of the sport. The state
ment seemed almost preposterOus and
impossible. The auditor seemed inclin-
ed to doubt tile fellows word.
But, upon inquiry, the mystery was
solved; the man was not an American,
he had not been raised and nurtured on
this peer of all sports, he hailed from
poor, benighted England, where only IN
the past few years have the inhabit-
ants been able to taste the joys of base
ball, root till the blood is curdled, feel
the spine creep when a particular
hair-raising play is pulled off and adore
the star fielder or champion slugger to
a small degree, as learned from their
children of the United States.
There is scarcely a person man,
woman or child-in the United States
under 40 years and over 10 years Of
age that does not know the general
rules of the game. They know the
stars of the game, the champion clubs
and the clever plays. They can with
judgment applaud good play and
with equally good censure one of the
"bone-head" variety. Every city, town,
village and hamlet must have its team.
The place is not quite civilized ac-
! cording to American ideas if it does
not
But probably the most remarkable
feature of the national game is the
enthusiasm demonstrated by the spec
tators Substantial business men, re-
served men of learning, lawyers, physi-
clans, ministers, professors, decorouS
ladies, stolid shopkeepers, lively boys
and girls and merry children can all be
transformed into a wild, shouting, hys-
terical, thrilling mob by close game
and a splendid play or a singing home
run. In a street car, train, home or
club one can often hear men of large
affairs discussing by the hour the re-
spective merits of favorite players. And
in no light or transient spirit are these
discussions held, but seriously, earnest
! ~, almost as if it were 4 matter Of
the greatest import. A citys prestige
is often the result of her standing in
/ baseball.
It is a game for everybody rich,
the poor, the well-to-do; for the smart,
the dull, the Indifferent; for the good,
the bad, the ordinary. And it Is a
clean, healthy sport. 1t requires the
maximum GOODNESS, nerve, skill and re-
sourcefulness. 1t takes quick thinking
and quick acting. These are some of
the reasons that baseball is far the
greatest national game, for it's uniVer-
salty in America and for its invasion
of some of the other countries Of the
globe.-Houston Post.