The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-03
WHEN OLD YUCATAN WAS BASEBALL MAD How Sport Was First Intro
 duced BETTING A FEATURE The Match Games Were Wonderful Affairs and Thousands of Dol
 lars Changed Hands on
 Each Contest
From the Kansas City Star.

fTOIn lDe hdIodS Slly kotdl Yucatan-you have listless picture oi
 hammocks, cigarette smoke and midday slumbers. And if you can imagine the
 inhabitants stirring themselves to any
 thing it Is bull fight, where the hired matadors, bulls and horses do the eXer- csng. A baseball game. with the frenzy of fans, would be too stirring pastime for Yucatan There would be too much running around, too much standing in your seat and pounding the head of the fellow in front of you for the indolent temperament of the natives, you imagine.
 Nevertheless, baseball is the national pastime of Yucatan, travellers say. The unlimited possibilities for betting on the game made it appeal to the uopic mind that has as it's sixth sense the intuition for gaming.
 Following the Spanish American war, Yucatan enjoyed a period of remarkable prosperity. Curtaiment of the manila output in the Philippines sent the price of hennequin, the Yucatan staple. soar ing Every plantation owner imagined he was a millionaire. One result of this sudden wealth was that score of pros porous planters sent their sons north to the American schools and colleges. The young men, returning to their southern homes, brought with them culture, American customs and socks. They also brought baseball and 1t bore the trans planting surprisingly we'll
 Beginning with a crude nine formed of returned students and an opposing club made up of chance Americans, the first games were played in vacant city lots. Immediately the natives caught the baseball fever. The llisty American mi crobes brought about an epidemic in no time few of the delicate points of the rules of the game were lost In trans mission but the natives, unaware Of these minor details, enjoyed the play as much as they did later. when the Ameri- can rules became part Of the sport
 It was the last half of tho ninth that was to decide the victory for one of two contending teams one day in Merida, the capital city, when the game was young in Yucatan, The customary thousands of dollars had been placed on the teams. A fly rolled down an old we'll on the out skirts of the field, and during the consid- erable interval that necessarily elapsed while the outfield obtained ladder, de- seconded into the well, secured the soaked sphere and relayed 1t home, several things happened The resourceful bats man not only had clrcled the bases for a home run but urged by the frantically cheering thousands. had kept right on until he completed five more circuits By this clever play his nine won the game by a score of 20 to 21, his team being six points behind at the time of his going to bat. And the umpire was sup ported in his confirmation by both hines and the crowd. Baseball literature and supplies pouring into Yucatan closed the score books to this method of run get ting. The game took on real American aspect. A Yucatan league was formed of the business men, railroad. students and heterogeneous clubs, with the rules of the big American leagues employed. Me- rida, a city of some S000Q, supported practically all of these clubs. Three frst- class ball parks were built.
 Young MT. Molina. son of the governor of Yucatan, spent s170,000 of his personal funds in building 8 park. He was mana ger of the "Fenix," the crack club of Yucatan Now, Father Molina was not pleased with the sons investment, as he owned a big share of the city bull ring, which attraction hitherto had been the Mecca for Merida's Sunday pleasure seekers. The one best bet in the bull ring was that a horse or bull that one had never before seen would be gored to death And at the ball park there were IS live men one bowed to on the street every day; nine (perhaps) fellow trades men and nine (perhaps) of those Grin gos." And there were nine innings with a hundred chances of wagers each inning. The great bull ring had to be closed, Sunday no longer sufficed for the fete cay, league games were played Thursday afternoon. All the stores closed for the contest Games between amateurs were held daily. The usual crowd was from 12,0O0 to 15.000.
 At the of Progresso, main port of the country, lived young man named Marine, Mexican by birth, he was Amer ican by education and business methods. Marine opened large importing and ex- porting house, and controlled line Of steamers running to Mobile. Marine was as mad fan as any, He went uD to