The Alaska citizen., 1910-09-26

Baseball. the great National pas. time of this country. is going ahead with wonderful strides in Australia, and now is reckoned on an equal foot. ing with cricket, which has been the prevailing summer sport since ath- Ietics were introduced in the Anti. . podes.
 Many years ago. A. G. Spalding, the great baseball player of former years. took an aggregation of ball l players to Australia and gave many awhile il looked as if the game would hold. but the poor support that 1t re ceiyed from the public soon discour- aged the few men that were boost ] ing the game. with the result that 1 it dropped out of existence. However. many Americans in the land of the i Kangaroo were not content with cricket and through their efforts games were arranged. in which many of the Australian cricket players were induced to take part They found that the game was a wonderful con ditioner. and with this thought in view the game for many years has been played during the winter months.
 1 The visit of the Columbia Park l Boys club to Australia last year. and i the number of exhibitions and games ] that they played in the centers they visited resulted in baseball receiving the greatest impetus ever known in the Antipodes A new interest was aroused in the game, new clubs were formed and added prominence given to existing ones. The boys of the local club continually coached the different teams that were organized with the result that many of the hines even al that time were playing a fine article of ball,
 Australians Field Well. The Australians are wonderful field CTS. and some of the plays that they pulled off were remarkable. No one with the exception of the catcher had ever used glove and after they were taught to handle the proper paraphernalia their play improved ac- cordingly However. their greatest 1 I,,.,.,, n.il h., t, In I ney are so accustomed to using q stiff arm in cricket that they hardly get the necessary power behind the swing. They have good batting eyes and strikcOuts are rare. Their throw ing arms are also foo much adapt ed to cricket, and though they are aC- curate. the force with which the in fGldcrs throw the ball across the diamond does not carry the ball on a line and their rainbow throws give fast base runner every opportunity to reach the initial sack in safety.
 However, it is not so much on the old cricket players that the work CTS in the movement are Centering their endeayors, but the school chil- dren are the ones that they are most interested in. To get them to grasp the finer points of the game when they are young, and let them grow up with them. is their aim. And that they have fairly succeeded is the news that has come from time to time to this country. All the metro politan schools in Melbourne have for the last eight months played the game and great enthusiasm has been shown on all sides.
 Australians are great sport lovers, and if they can be shown that any game is a good one and worthy of their energies and support, it will go ahead with rapid strides. At one of the games in which the Columbia Park Boys played the picked team of Victoria, 25,00O people were in at tendance and the applause that greet ed star plays and catches would do honor to crowd of fans in this country.
 The senior teams are reported to have played games as close as 1 to 0, ? to 1, and 3 to weekly, and this is the lest evidence that they are grasping all of the brilliant features of the game.
 Western Australia lays claim to having organized the first interstate nine. During the summer of last year the Young Australian League, which is composed of schoolboys and tours the Eastern colonies annually for educational purposes, Lad team that played the Columbia Park boys in Sydney, and the boys of their own country in Victoria and New South Wales.
 James Caveney, one of the Colum- bia Park boys remained behind the rest of the aggregation and for three months coached the teams in West ern Australia with wonderful sue cess. Games were arranged between the different school hines, and even among former scholars of the differ ent schools.
 The game existed in Western Aus