New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-08-05
COMMENT AND CRITICISM.


The foreman at the stone quarries
reports the loss of over q dozen large
sledge hammers since Sunday and the
local blacksmiths are seriously consider
ing claiming some of their tools to their
shops in order to prevent more thefts.
From the remarks heard around town
most of the sledges have found their
way into the hands of some of the local
fans. Honest criticism is appreciated
by every fair-minded person, but what's
the use of mere knocking? 1t does not
help matters any and gives the town
bad reputation.
If the object of the local management
were merely to win games they could
attain their object in easy fashion with
the present team by scheduling games
with teams like Nicollet, Gibbon, Fair
fax, Kasota and so forth. But that is
not what the fans really want. They
want to see good ball games and that
is why the Management makes every
effort to get the very best semipro-
fessional teams in the state here for
games. With three fourths of the team
made up of local players we cannot
expect them to win game after game from
all-salaried aggregations.
x
New Ulm has mighty good team,
one that is a credit to the entire city.
They have shown their true calibre by
defeating such teams as the Chicago
Union Giants and the Marshall team and
just because they have lost five of the
last seven games played is no reason
for starting the anvil chorus. When
team is losing is the time for the fans to
get behind the boys as one man and
boost with such boundless' enthusiasm
that the team will play harder than ever
It is the inalienable right of every fan
in the country to shout whatever they
please at ball game. He can call the
umpire thief and robber, plague a
player for pulling ''boner', or just kid
a player for no reason in particular
But some things are noticed by visitors
and bring an unwelcome reputation to
the fans in general. It therefore be-
hooves some of the New Ulmites to be
more careful in their remarks at times.
In the Sunday game with the All
Nations the fans were loud in their
praise of Sheldon's playing at first for
New Ulm during the first six or seven
innings. He handled chance after chance
without skip and pulled off several
plays which no other first baseman New
Ulm has had could have pulled off. In
the last few innings when the game was
already lost he slipped up on couple OF
chances and the hammers were i'm
mediately taken from their hiding places
and used by some of the so-called fans.
Cries of Get first baseman" and ''Put
Burk on first were heard from several
directions.
Sheldon is. catcher and not a first
baseman while Burk has played first base
for several years. Nevertheless, we
would be willing to wager that Burk
would never have reached the pop foul
which Sheldon caught off Blatnier's bat
in the second inning And the probabi-
lities are that Burk would not have
reached a number of the balls which
Sheldon grabbed between first and second
Certain fans are too prone to forget a
players good plays when he muses. up
an easy chance.
Any enterprising firm in the city that
wants some mighty good advertising
at comparatively little expense could
obtain it by erecting some kind of
scoreboard at the backgrounds. A score
board is almost necessity at the park
and would certainly be blessing to the
fans, players and especially the scorer,
who is compelled to answer countless
questions as to the score and inning of
the game. Permission from the city
council would no doubt be necessary but
there could hardly be any objection to
such an improvement.