Omaha daily bee., 1909-09-19
NEW YORK LEADS IN SPORTS
Every Kind Of Pastime Enjoys Great
Popularity.
GOOD OLD GOTHAM IS THERE
Base Bail holds Palm, with Horse
Racing and Boxing in High Fa-
vor-AthIetics Booming and
Yachting on Top wave.

NEW YORK, Sept. 1S.-'New York
is the greatest sporting city in the
country today. Wonderful progress has
been made in all ranches Of indoor
and outdoor pastlmes here during the last
twenty-five years" A former promoter
of all kinds Of sporting events made this
comment a few days ago while New Yorks
supremacy in the patronage and interest
shown in many contests was under dis
cussion.
Nobody can say how many thousands
Of New Workers are interested in profess
sional and amateur base ball, he con-
tinued. "The Giants, H~ighlhnders and
Brookfyns. when winning, are supported
by armies Of enthusiastic fans. More than
5000 spectators have been counted by the
turnstiles at the Polo grounds, while prob
ably every man and boy in town who
could not see the Giants or the High
landers play here have looked over the
scores Of the games in the evening news
papers or on the bulletin boards and ticker
tame. In addition to the big league games
there are thousands of persons interested
In the amateurs. Hundreds of amateur
games are played within the city limits on
Saturdays and holidays and they are
largely attended. From the street urchin
to the millionaire the base ball fever RACES
until It may be said that there are more
dyed in the wool fans in the metropolis
than anywhere else in America.
New Workers will pay more money to
see an important base ball or foot ball
game, a horse race, boxing contest or
some other classy event than the residents
Of any other city In the world. Yet the
big town has always been one Of the best
- - 49, utn continue IN
grow in this respect until nobody can pre-
dict a limit.
while Boston and Philadelphia have
been base ball hotbeds for many years,
they have nothing on New York. The old
Atlantics of Brooklyn were organized long
before the civil wal and were the cham
pions for many years, up to about 1870.
The Atlantics and the Mutuals Of New
York used to play before some Immense
crowds on the Union and Capitalize
grounds on the other side of the East
river back in the sos and COS. They used
a lively ball in those days and runs, like
hits, were plentiful.
Horse racing mas always been a ia
vorite sport to New Workers., going back
to the time when they held the great trots
at Union course, the Deerfoot track,
Prospect Park Fair grounds and other
famous places in the city, where Flora
Temple, Goldsmith's Maid, American Girl,
Constitution, Lady Thorne and other noted
~trotters showed their speed. From trot-
ting attention was turned to running
horses after Jerome Park was opened by
Leonard Jerome, Pierre Lorillard and
other wealthy turfmen. Up 10 last year,
when the Agnew-Hart law, prohibiting
~bookmaking went into effect, the tracks
did a phenomenal business, with crowds
ranging all the way from 10000 to 10000
persons. Even under the present adverse
conditions, there are some good sized
crowds at the races nowadays, more than
5000 being in attendance at Sheepshead
Bay on Labor day. while many more
awaited the results of the various events
in town.
There are six race tracks supported by
the patronage of New Yor~kers-Sheeps-
head Bay, Gravesend, Belmont Park,
Jamaica, Aqueduct and Empire City. This
is going some with a stiff law against
open plumbing. 1t isn't a new state of af-
fairs, however, for turfmen have been up
against anti-race track laws before, al
ways winning out in the end. You can
never prevent a New Yorker from putting
his coin on a favorite race horse. Look
up the history of race track betting for
thirty years back and see II I'm not dead
right.
Maybe Philip ]. Dwyer knows more
about local horse racing than any other
man in New York. He certainly ought TO,
for he's been following the game for nearly
forty years. Phil and his brother, Nike,
who died several years ago, started out
with a string of t~rotters, among them the
famous Constitution, but they finally
turned to the runners and won a great
fortune with them. Mike was a plunger
and lost practically all his. wealth, but
Phil, more conservative. is said to be
worth nearly 6,OOO.OOO All the local race
track owners have made big money In
years gone by because of the remarkable
sporting proclivlties of New Workers., and
some Of these days they will be enjoying
the same prosperity.
Nobody will deny that boxing is i'm
mensely popular here. New York has pro-
duced some famous pugilists. Among
them were Tom Hyer, the first recognized
American champion in the heavyweight