Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-12
addition to the trio which had already

addition to the trio which had already
been discovered. who had played the
game of base ball before and who were
willing to play again il given the oppor-
tunity. were unearthed In London. Most
of these men were British born. having
learned to play during visits to America.
With these men the six clubs were
formed. care being taken to put a GER
tain number In each organization to in
struct the green men who were necessary
to make I'D the mines. The clubs took
their names from the foot ball organiza-
tons that fathered them. and were the
Clapton Orients, Legion. Fulham. Tot
tenham Hotspurs and Woolwich Arsenal.
In addition to these Ave an independent
club was formed, called the Nondescripts
who used the grounds Of the Ilford Foot
Ball Club. a prominent London amateur
organization.
Invitations were sent broadcast to all
who wanted to try the new game, and
practice games were played during April
and May on the various grounds. In this
way the green ma terial was whipped into
some kind Of presentable form For the
purpose of giving the general public a
taste of what was about to be served up
by the new league an exhibition game
was played between the Rhodes scholars
of Oxford University and a team repre-
sehlng all London al the Woolwlch Ar
senal grounds. The Rhodes scholars had
Walkover. winning by 10 to =
The league games began early in June
and. from the first. Caught on" The at
tendance grew from a mere handful Of
700 half-interested spectators to ..aO
Wildly enthusiastic rooters. exhibiting all
the earmarks of the real genuine Amerj-
can original. The final game for the
BRUSH cup-one of the two trophies-be-
tween the Tottenham Hotspurs and the
Nondescripts. was witnessed by inward
or 4,Wn spectators. and Il was evident
mat pase ball had made a lasting place
for itself in English sport To be sure,
It's public was still very limited burt a
start mad been made and in those DAYS
Cook wore smile that wouldn't and
hasn't come off,
Beaten at Their Own Game.
During the same summer-that of 1905
In addition to the major league. various
Junior clubs were formed and knocked
into playing form, and the season of 1897
opened with sixteen clubs in existence
And while the clubs were Increasing and
the attendance growing the players were
adding considerably to their skill. Cook
regards the Englishman as the best raw
base ball material in the whole world.
and the results he has obtained seem to
bear him out. The feature of the season
of 1897 was a game between an all
American team made up Of men who had
played the game in the United State and
an a1l-British team made up of men who
with four exceptions had never seen a
base ball game before the season opened
And the all-British team won in a rather
tight match. The natural supposition is
that the all-American team were a lot
of dubs at the game, but such is not the
fact. for they were very snappy bunch
of ball tossers.
The casual reader can have very little
of no
surmounted by Nelson Cook In planting
base ball in England His has been in the
best sense of the word a labor of love- for
the organiza tons that have been brought
into existence by his efforts are strictly
amateur. He gets no pay for his work
as organizing secretary and he expects
none. If the truth must be known he
has expended out of his own pocket more
than $1,000 to forward the interests of the
sport. When he first started people said
ne was in it for money. When that i'm
preston cleared away some said he was
millionaire with a hobby. Later 1t was
rumored that he longed to bask in the
blaze of the limelight; but he kept stead
lily in the background and in time this
idea went the way OF it's predecessors.
Gradually it Is beginning to dawn upon
everybody that Cook Is doing it because
he cannot help it: in short, because he
Is the greatest base ball fan in the
world
SGoh himself refused 10 tell this story
in the first person. He has a sense of
modesty that covers him like the hide of
a rhino. twentymule team would not
draw personal tale like this from him.
But he did tell the writer some of his
experiences in introducing the game over
here that will illustrate better than any
thing the writer can say the enthusiasm
of the man.
Suspected ''Con" Game.
I'm do Ia
from the captain Of one of the league
teams that three of his men would not
be able to play the coming Saturday