Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-09-25
Baseball the Great American Game

Baseball the Great American Game.
Despite so-called umpire batting,
occasional clashes among players and
fans and a fistic encounter once IN
"a great while on the diamond. the
great national game of baseball IS
clean. 1t is the great American game.
The present season is drawing 10 4
close. Hundreds of thousands of men
and boys have been engaged in play
ing the game either as amateurs or
professionals. Millions and millions OF
people have witnessed the games dur
ing the season. There has been in
tenSity of feeling, keenest rivalry,
.terceness of combat for pennants. yet
the number of accidents has been
small. infnitesmal in fact, when one
considers the vastness of the number
who have played. In the city of Chi
cago alone, it is estimated there is m
average of 1000 baseball games every
Sunday when the baseball season is 1T
its zenith. That would mean from
10000 to 10000 persons actually play
ing the game. in that one city in one
day To say that in the United States
during the baseball season the average
daily number of persons playing anna
teur and professional ball is 100000.
would certainly be to underestimate
rather than to Overestimate the aver
age Yet the casualty list is almost
nothing. The report recently of bail
! player being killed at Dayton. Ohio.
| by being struck by ball, was com
mented upon by students of the game
as being very unusual indeed Such
! accidents are not expected in baseball
as they are in football. The players
! and fans alike. for the most part en-
courage cleanliness of the game. They
abhOr brutality and bloodshed. Re
! Gently the Springfield State Register
| drew a comparison between the
| bloody, death-cOntrOlled automobile
races at indianapolis in which seven
/ persons were killed, with the old Ro-
! man gladiatOrial contests But what
difference indeed between those old
sladiatorial contests and the great ma
: tionaI game of today in America-the
! baseball game.
| IT, in a baseball game. one player
spikes" another unless through UNI
| avOidable accident. the offending play
er is hoOtCd and KISSED and pilloried as
a coward. At a recent game in Phil
adelphia 10000 fans rose in indiena.
/ ton when bloodshed was caused by
/ the "spiking" of one player by an
other. Had it not been shown that #
was through accident that "Ty'' Cobb
! spiked" Barry in the game between
| the Tigers and Athletics Tuesday last
Cobb would have been roughly handled
/ by an Infatuated mob
! The multitudcs of fans who witness
, ball games. unlike the Roman audi
/ ences Of old, deplore bloodshed. laud
those who lend their best efforts 20
/ keeping the game clean and honora-
/ bic, and are quick to rise in condem-
nation of all who purposely or through
! failure to exercise every possible care
/ 10 prevent bloodshed violate the writ
ten and unwritten laws governing the
great game of baseball
Baseball. too, is a great asset to a
city. apart from the amusement it af-
fords. Rock Island has found that out
! The Islanders have advertised the city
day after day for five months during
nine years. They have brought glory
TO the city in two pennants.
All praise to the great American
game and all praise to the champion
! Islanders