Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-06-25


sporting columns, full of base
LII ball activities, prize fight bat
ties, and other classics of sport
| carried not line of it. 1t was game
that staggered the imagination. 1t
was played in the most unique OF
stage settings and on scale that
would dwarf the combined activities OF
the big leagues, the bush leagues and
all the sand-lot contests of the dia-
mond rolled into one eleVen-inning
match.
The playing ground was at sea and
it's boundaries Tapped over the c1rcu-
lar rim of ocean that stretched to ev-
cry point of the compass when, with
the most powerful glass, you swept
the horizon from ship in its center.
Take the Polo Grounds of the New
York Giants, the white-ribbed grid
iron of Soldiers field at Cambridge,
the race track at Latonia, KY, the
polo field at Narragansett and the Ma
tional golf course at Shinnecock Hills.
Multiply them by thousands and toss
them into the center of this deep sea-
field. The resultant ripple would die
leagues away from its outer rim!
Modest Prize.
The game was the record battle
practice of the Atlantic fleet. The
field was the southern drill grounds
of the United States navy, seventy
miles out to sea from the Virginia
capes. The prize, modest bit OF
bunting. From the deafening roar
of the first twelve-inch gun, aimed at
the half-submerged hull Of the old
Texas in Tangier sound, to the last
S70-pound steel projectile, that tore
with the noisy rush of hundred run
away freight trains through a NOV
ing target six miles away, the days
piled up to a total of ten.
There we're dozen ships In this
unique lineup, first-class fighting bat
tleships all, and on each was a team
ranging from 700 to / 900 men. For
the war-worn hickories Of Tyrus Cobb
and Honus Wagner they substituted
the gray steel tubes of twelveinch
guns, and for the horsehide-coyered
baseball they rang in shells weighing
$40 pounds. The base lines were lanes
of dark green sea, fathomS deep and off
soundings, churned into fury by the
quadruple screws of dreadnoughts
steaming at lively rate.
The home plate was a screep-cov-
cred target the size of the painted
sign advertising cigarettes in your To-
cal ball park. The home plate trav-
eled due north, and now due south,
dipping and curtesying to the lazy
swell and at times careening to the
wind. 1t was not always a well man
nered home plate, and it was never
still. Between it and the pitchers box
10000 yards of sea! For your favorite
sport on shore substitute miles for
yards, tons for pounds, thousands for
each single man at play, and you will
grasp some significance of this big
game.
There were no bleachers and tower
ing grandstands packed full of straw
hated, shirt-sleeved humanity to
cheer the brilliant plays or to urge on
the under dog in this match. Every
man of the 10000 played his part be-
fore gallery Of only wheeling sea-
gufls and handful of observers. The
yesss of the bleacherites were missing,
szt in their place was gigantic roar
that would have drowned the vocal ex-
plosions of worlds series contest.
No Gate Receipts.
Again there was no division of fat
gate receipts at stake, no hero-wor-
ship, no great increase of salaries and
no vistas of vaudeville contracts In
their places was a plaque of bronze to
be held for year, but the incentive
that spurred them on was the knows-
edge that, if Waterloo was won on the
fields of Elton, then truly the next
great American naval victory will be
won by the annual game that the
navy plays on the southern drill
grounds.
The big game is vastly more scien-
tific than football. It's thrills are IT,
tanic even when compared with a
ninth-inning rally No golf course
ever boasted so unique a beauty of
surroundings. Racing stables in their
palmy days never entailed such ex-
pense or represented so much invested
capital. No other game was ever
p,oyed on such scale or by the
United States government, and, final
ly, there Is no other game whose for
! tunes so directly affect the 10000, 600
! people of this republic.
| You have seen the Yale bulldog and
the Princeton tiger grapple on the
| gridiron? Substitute the Delaware
| and the Utah. You placed your wager
on the Red Sox or the Giants when
! hey met to fight out the worlds Sc
| les? For the Giants send the Flor.