The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-24
Baseball National BenefactiOn
Adding To Years OF It's Vofaries
By c. e. VAN LOAN

| new 1OIk, kApt1l NOW 10 TIC N4iAeN'
OF our dscontent-'' Who would have
thought that B. Shakespeare was base
ball bug? Yet that line goes straight
10 the hearts of the fans the country
over.
Cold weather isn't so bad, people. Snow
is no calamity. Zero weather puts life
into the blood. The only thing about
winter which may not suit the majority
is that it stops the baseball games. In
every town in the country there are
people who never get enough baseball
people who could spend every after
noon of their lives watching two we'll
matched teams fighting for runs. But be
this as it may, the winter lay-off serves
to make the baseball bug hungry; makes
him appreciate the national game more
than he would if he lived in balmy souuh-
ern California where teams can play the
whole year round and where some OF
them do
And all this preamble and this loose
talk to lead up to the statement that
the big league seasons are beginning once
more and soon the two major pennaht
races will be on full blast.
Get ready for a recrudescence of the
slain grandmother joke; get ready for
the cartoon which shows the entire Office
force getting away one at time on
various pretexts, and the final picture
which shows the boss meeting the strayed
ones on the bleachers at the baseball
park. | know one cartoonist who has
been putting that picture over three times
year for the last five years and he still
lives.
Prepare yourselves for the fine line of
tall which will be handed out by the
team managers who happen to get away
badly in the scramble for the bunting.
You will learn all about the crpples on
the team and the pitchers who worked
too hard. in spring training and the bush
league lemons who broke all the fences
in Texas and can't break an egg north
OF Mason and Dixons line.
And. of course, some of the umpires
will be good and some of them will be |
good and rotten, and they should be |
lynched. and Ban Johnson oughtnt to |
stand for it, etc. But go back in your
memory and name the umpire who has
been murdered on the diamond and you |
will readily see that there is no real
cause for alarm. The accident insur-
ance man is perfectly safe in taking an
umpire but we never got anywhere, and
ance man.
We're always talking about killing the
umpire but we never got anywhere and
come to think of it, l never heard of
dead umpire and neither did you.
Baseball is a national institution. It's
about the only sporting game we have
left in which the people have absolute
confidence It's almost the only game
which the betting has not spoiled. IL
is the only professional game In the |
world where the players-hired men,
every. one of 'em-play with the spirit
and the snap and the dash of amateurs
who really want to win. When base
hall takes on the faint of the gam I
bler's money Its days will be num-
bered, but the game has come out clean
so far and long may 1t continue IN
the same way.
Baseball is a national benefactlon.
1t takes a lot of men out OF their OF
fices these stuffy afternoons and makes
tn en- breathe fresh air and get lit
tie healthy exercise for their vocal
cords. A man was meant to yell once
In a while. He was meant to jump
UP and down and bang his neighbor's
straw hat down over his ears and let
out a few healthy sentiments when the
umpire-poor, blind old man-misses
that third strike by mile and calls
1t a ball when every man with eyes in
his head knows the batter Is out.
Since men will not take exercise.
being too lazy to chase golf ball
over the hills or too fat to play ten
mis- or too equity to follow bird
dog over the fields, We must have
something like baseball to get 'em out
into the fresh air. These pennant races
have added thousands and thousands
of years to the lives of the men who
sit on the bleachers, and incidentally
thousands and thousands OF dollars 10
the owners of the clubs.
What is going to happen this year
Ask me!
II is about time for the blowout.
Hughey Jennings and his wildcats have
nailed the American league pennant
three times in row and If they get
1t again this year they will make base
ball history. The Cubs had their chance
last year to win fourth pennant In
a row and they fell. Since there have
been big league remnants no tea.n has
been able to do better than three In
a row, and this season Detroit has
chance to do something which no 9TH
er team has ever done. The odds are
against the Jennings outfit. Il hasn't
been luck that has kept the teams Of
the past from winning four times as
much as the gradual disintegration of
the fighting machine. the wearing out
Of few cogs here and there. 1t is
hard to keep Is or 20 men at the
top Of their physical prime for four
years In a row and when a team be-
gins to weaken 1t begins to lose games
and the other fellows slam away re-
lentlessly at that weak spot 1t is
about time for some of the stars OF
the Tiger lineup to show signs of
the wear and tear of the last five
or six years.
remnants, like poker chips, have no
home. 1t. would be a good thing for
the sport If some town which has 10y
ally been supporting a second division
team for years could come through with |
a winner this season. 1t would destroy |
the idea that any one club has the
pennant patented.
Now. how would 1t seem to have |
old Brooklyn come back to life and
win the bunting in the National, and |
say Washington beat out the Tigers |
and the Sox and the Blues for the |
American league pennant? Oh, all right |
Laugh IL you want to. Stranger things
have happened-maybe.
High School Victorious