The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-18


people witnessed the games OF the ma
Jor leagues and the total attendance
on all kinds of ball games in one sea
son is roughly estimated at 10000 600
, or half the population of the country
If they should have turned out one day
Baseball is the one great American
game, 1t has its origin and It's devel
opmcnt In the United States, and il
has gone through the same series OF
ups and downs which have character
lzcd the progress of the great American
Industries of today, Baseball was first
a. purely amateur game played for the
diversion of the players. Spectators
were attracted and there was a coop
erative organization. The consolidation
idea went on, as in all American bust
nesscs, and uniform rules came into be-
ing. Then came n S'trust, After
the trust came tho Strike Of the
players. Then there were clock outs -
against outlawed players Then the
whole business was put into a merger.
which is consolidation of trusts. and
now. five men control the entire pro
fessionnl baseball world If these
things are not enough 10 give baseball
title to purely American history,
then let it be remembered that Thomas
W. Lawson, author of Frenziod III
nance, has written book about base.
ball and the question will be settled.
Mr.. Lawson s book was entitled
'Kranks' and was published in Bos-
ton nineteen years ago. 1t was bound
in horsehidc OF the kind that wraps
the 'ftwirled sphere" and was printed
on the finest of parchment paper, Mr..
! Lawson begins with a definition of the
| word krank, a work for which he
may be more or less fitted. He says:
1.-The krank is n heterogeneous cor
pound of flesh, bone and base ball,
mostly base ball. He came into ex-
istencc in the early seventies, He came
to stay The Krank is purely Ameri-
can, He is found in no other country
The krank has shell into which he
crawls in the month of November, He
does not emerge from IT until April
While in his shell his only article of
food Is stray newspaper articles on
Z deals. During the season from April
to November he subsists on air, and
wakes strong. His first Characteristic
is knowing it all;' the second, telling
1t all. Times has changed the Krank
to Fan, but it is a change in name
only. IN the year 1883, when that
little book appeared, baseball had
reached for the first time its present
status us the absorbing sport, diver
sion and study Of the Americans sum
mer mind. In that year Boston paid
Chicago $4,000 for the release Of John
6. Clarkson, the star pitcher of tho
time, and the days of millionaire
ball had dawned. To what dizzy
heights salaries of ball players might
have scared had it not. been for the
combinations which prevent contract
jumping, can hardly be guessed at.
The game Of baseball was evolved
some time in the early fortes of the
last century from the old games of
"rounders and townball. ~ A regu-
lar code of rules was published IN New
York as carly as 1S45. The first news
paper report Of a game Of baseball sp~
pcared in the New York Sunday Mer-
curry in July. 1858: "The Gotham and
Knickerbocker clubs played a matched
game on the grounds of the latter at
erbocker won. Gotham. Is outs, II runs;
Knickerbockers, Is outs, Fl runs-2l
runs constituting game y Contrast
this with the pages devoted to the post,
season championship games last year.
Just after the Civil war the game
began to be played for the amusement
of spectators quite as much as for the
diversion of the players. In 1867 the
Washington Nationals a team made up
OF clerks in the departments at the
capital, and of which Arthur P. Cor
man, afterward Senator from Maryland,
was one of the promoters, made the
first grand tour of the country to play
ball. The trip cost $4,000 and there
were no gate receipts, for baseball was
still az free as air, The team Won
beaten in Chicago by the Forest City
team of Rockford, ILL.,, for which A. g.
Spalding was pitcher.
Then came the organization of the
Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first pro-
fessional team, which soon forced rec.
ognition from the organization of ANA
teur players. Once professional base.
ball was born, it soon pushed all other
varieties into the background, and as
sumed the place at the head Of Ameri- !
can sports, which it probably will hold |
always. The history of the early or
ganizatlons and Of the many tribula-
tions which beset the game before the |
present National Association of Base
ball Leagues came into existence would |
require volumes.
The League of Leagues, which came |
into existence with the beginning of |
the twentieth century, now controls |
practically all of the professional base
ball of the country. II has thirty one
leagues under its management, and |
works in harmony with the two major
leagues, the National and the Ameri-
can. No player may 90 from club to
club without permission of this central
organization, which last year recorded
400 players contracts. Men are draft
ed from small leagues to larger ones
or assigned from place to place at the
will of the central body. Thus has
baseball reached the apex of the in
yentlve genius of the American busi-
ness man, the centrally controlled COM
binntion of combinations, in which the
"little fellow" no more dares to talk
back than does the cog on the wheel
attempt to ''argify" with the steam
engine
In every city Of any size there are
local leagues, modelled after the pro-
fessional organizations, made up of from
four to eight clubs from various bust
ness houses or Offices or churches. These
amateur championship races are excit-
ing i'll tho extreme TO local lovers of the
game. The boys play from the time
theY arc { Years old and the hn,sI