The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-19
TY COBB WRITES
OF BASEBALL FANS
BY TY COBB
Detroit Outflelder.)

study playing with one of the big league
teams. On first thought person VINO
had not had any experience would say
that baseball fans, east and west, north
or south, were as a general rule all alike
BY this l mean to say that the average
fan In Chicago would follow just about
the same course of action as the average
fan in Detroit or Boston, given the same
conditions But such Is not the case. The
baseball fan in the different cities differs
as much as the slow, easy-going inhabi-
tant of a hot country differs from the
hustlng, nervous native of the land where
the mercury is always well down in the
glass; In some cities the fans will be
fair-minded. cheering good plays regard
less of who makes them, and giving credit
for victory where credit belongs. In an
other city you will find them just the OPP
posite. They will not applaud a play by
one of the visitors unless it be something
entirely marvellous When their team
loses a game they ascribe it invariably to
luck, never to the superior work of the
winners. In some towns the rooters will
stick with the home team winning or
t''N-AA
day after day, in the hope that some time
the worm will turn, and victory rest on
their banners. Then again, in another
place, IL the home boys do not lead the
league and win almost every day there
will not be more than a handful go to
watch them, and these few will be there
only to knock.
As a sample of the city where the
crowds can see nothing but the home
team | would cite Chicago. The Chicago
fans will fight tooth and nail for either
the Cubs or Sox, and never think of COM
mending the work of their rivals When
their team loses game they will call
It hard luck or blame the umpire; in
fact. l think Chicago is the worst city
on the circuit, from the umpire's stand
point. When a game is over they will
follow a visiting player, who has made a
star play or secured hit that has pre-
vented home victory, to his carriage
and jeer and boot him all the way. OF
course, l do not say that every Chicago
follower will do this, for there are as
many honest baseball lovers there as any
where, but l refer to the class that the
ball player is most likely to come in con-
tact with
As an example of a fan who wants
nothing but victory the New Yorker takes
the palm. In Chicago, while they root
hard for wins, they will not desert the
team If it happens to slump, but in New
York, let either the Giants or Highland
ers hit the toboggan, and watch the way
the crowds will fall off. With the people
there it's case of victory or nothing
Philadelphia has long been known as
Slow Town. and the sobriquet holds
good as far as baseball is concerned
The people will turn out to watch the
games all right, but it takes something
mighty classy to get them excited. I'm
less pennant is depending on the result
of a game, or there are three or four
dozen unheard of plays, they will sit there
and cheer perfunctorily. But once they
get going, look out. Then they are the
widest crowd that one would care to
meet, and they will stop at nothing to get
a game The fan then will take any kind
of a chance, and, doubt not would even
run out and try to prevent player from
fielding ball If 1t were not for the fear
of the law. At that, even the guardians
of the law will join in the feeling, as was
evidenced by a well-remembered incident
In a Thinning game we played there a
season ago, when the winning of a PEN
nant was very doubtful question with
us.
In Boston, 1.-THE City of Culture" as
1t is called, the baseball followers live
up to their name. Nowhere does the
visiting player get the same show and
encouragement as In the Hub. It
would seem that the people there are
satisfied If they see good fast base
ball, whoever may win. The umpires
rarely come in for censure there, and
when they do, it is very mild, and you
never hear of them having to be es-
corted from the field by the police.
The man who makes a good play is
CHI eered to the echo, whether or not
he wears a Boston uniform. Do not
imagine that the Bostonians are not
real fans-they are; and they support
their team in great style. Why
couple of years ago, when the team
was at the foot of the race, and made
the awful record of IA straight defeats,
there used to be 1000 or 5000 in at
tendance at every game. No other
city in the county would be able to
boast half that number under similar
circumstances. The good spirit dis
played by the fans Is the reason that
Boston is such a popular place among
all ball players.
The national capital Is cosmopolitan
in every sense of the word. The
local pride that we find in all the other
towns is to a great degree lacking
In Washington, owing to the fact that
the population of the city Is made up
of people coming from such widely
scattered places. Why, at a game
there, you are likely to have just as
many people roofing for your team as
for the home nine. The people there
have acquired the habit of taking
things easy, and while they wish the
Senators town, they do not take 1t to
heart enough to start any trouble if
their hopes are not realized.
The Cleveland baseballists are salts
fed at a good exhibition Of individual
playing, and do not set much store by
teamwork. They have become SO used
to having the chances of their teams
blighted by accident that they seem to
have lost much of their enthusiasm,
and developed into a mild manner Of
ever happens.
At st. Louis, the fans are sort of
comb nation Of the Chicago and New
York rooter. II their team Is losin g
they will wreak wordy vengeance on
the visitors and, If the losing habit be-
come cronic, will desert their team
entirely.
In Detroit the folk are very loyal
to the home team and stick by it, no
matter how things are going on. They
appreciate all the good work of their
willing to applaud and give credit ia
the other fellows.
OF course my experience deals only
with American league followers, but
/ suppose that the adherents of the
other league exhibit the same charac-
teristics to the observant ball player.