Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-11
VAST EXPENSE OF BASEBALL
AND OTHER PAsTIMEs
BIG SUMS EXPENDED ON HORSE
RACING
Amateur Athletics Conducted at Great
Cost-Heavy Backing Is Re-
quired in AlF Forms
of Sports

bleachers, gallery and rlngside, observa-
tion train and boat from one end of the
year to the other, there Is, in all probabil-
ity, only a tiny percentage that ever stop
to consider the vast expense attached to
any of the sports they attend
The fact remains, unconsidered though
it may be- that every baseball or football
game, every rowing or sailing race, and
every other phase of physical achievement
Represents the outlay of sums which to-
tailed would go a long way toward reliev-
ing the national debt.
But it may be said, "That may be true
enough totaled, but each sport individual
ly means but little expense" Don't de-
ceive yourself with any such idea Each
sport, particularly the leading attractions,
both professional and amateur, requires
heavy backing to get it on it's feet
OF course professional baseball and pu-
gilism, like horse racing, are now nothing
more or less than business propositions
standing on the How much proft?" has
sis. The ownership of string of race
horses, once a gentlemans pleasure, has
now come to be a speculation in which
the goal is the winning of many purses
and success at beating the bookies."
In like manner baseball has grown from
holiday and Sunday afternoon games be-
tween the Invincibes and the Victors in
some obliging friends lot to regular in
dustry. Players, after being bought
back and forth at wonderful prices are
given Still more wonderful salaries, con-
sidering the work they do, and are also
taken south when winter still holds sway
in the north and boarded at the clubs
expense as they learn new deliveries,
work the kinks out of their arms and
clear the notes and beams from their
batting eyes.
% Money Making Proposition
Is all this simply to give the pubic
summer excitement over the chances of
the Giants, the Cubs or the White Sox?
Not so you could perceive 1t with the ma
ked eye at any rate. The men behind
the teams have it figured out so that bar
ring some unwarranted misfortune they
will come out ahead at the end of the
season.
So it is with the glove wielders There
isn't a pug from the pillers of the boxing
club to prefix their names with strange
and awe inspiring adjectives, up to the
real classy fighters, who hasn't got MS
eye on the almighty dollar. But they, too'
must have financial backing for training
expenses and for the posting of forfeits,
and as few of the general run of fighters
can lay claim to many good dollars at a
time they have to persuade some good
man with the coin that they will be good
investments and will bring down the long
end of the purse.
Such methods of persuasion generally
cause an exchange of harsh words be-
tween the defeated and his "angel, but
that too is part of the game. AS for
horse racing the one time sport of kings.
has now become the sport of the prole-
tariat and the items of the attached eX-
pense account are not all entered py the
owners of the horses. The public pays
and pays dearly, to see the ponies WHIT
around the tracks.
II is not only the professional sports
that cost however The colleges expend
thousands of dollars each year in order
that some chosen rival may be doWned III
football, baseball or on the water. Inc
carly games of the season are really LOT
the purpose of getting the men In trim for
tbe final struggle such as the Yale-Har-
,,ord football game the Princeton-Yale
maetine on the diamond or the 1ntercol-
leeiate regatta at Poughkeepsie, ana each
of these preliminary workouts addS 10 the
lief an the debit side of the ledger. There
-is some return it is true, but only rarely
do those returns balance the expense
Annual Expense Great
The big athletic clubs too, such as the
New York A. c. and the Irish-Amerlcan
A G.. which maintain stairs OF amateur
athletics. providing athletlc grounus'
training tables and trainers for the men,
hr;ne IN the sum of money expended up
IN athletics. When given any consldera-
zion the figures which present themselves
are amazing. -, ,,
some of these figures may be given
inst as an example. Take rowing as
college sport for instance. For the IN
tercollegiate regatta on the HUDSON aloiie
the cost of sending three crews, varsity
and freshmen eights and varsity four,
together with the substitutes md boat
1,eener. averages about $1,000 Tor tne
crews coming from colleges near py' In
the case of crew coming from loi,s
distance the cost is correspohuinsiS
greater. and this it must be remembered,
is but an item in the yearly expense lor
the department of athletics.
The average annual cost OF malIte-
nance is $4,000 of which the prlnclpal
items are coaching, equipment, training
table and transportation. A minimum
estimate of a coach's salary is $2OOO al
though this, of course, varies senerousiS'
The equipment means coachlhg launchSs
and new shells, and as several ne" sheiiS
are bought each year 1t entalls consiu-
erable outlay, which is nowhere nearly
met by the sale of the old shells The
returns from this sport are but small
AS an example, the report of the gradu-
ate treasurer of the athletics at Harvard
shows receipts of the University Boat
club as nearly $4,000, whereas the expendi-
lures amounted to $l1 1266.5l. Ana SO II
runs in all the rowing colleges"
AS for football and baseball, there is
first of all the expense of securing and
maintaining a proper field to be consid-
cred. Cornell has recently provided for
a new athletic field which when complet-
ed will represent an outlay of $3.50 900.
Syracuse has an immense stadium near
ly finished, and the other big colleges
have their fields and stadiums which
must be kept in condition year in and
year out.
Coaching Expensive
Coaching in these sports as in running.
is the next largest entry, and there are
generally the services of at least four
coaches and trainers to be paid for dur,
ing the short season from September to
November for football and from Febru-
ary to June for baseball.
The receipts from the football games
are as a general thing, the biggest figures
among the receipts, for no matter how
much brutality may be eliminated from
the game the savage in us exults at the
shoulder to shoulder struggle on the grid
iron, and there's no indication that 1t will
be otherwise until the end of the chapter |