Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-04-24
BA SEBALL AND BRITONS

and although ignorant OF the DONNA
ting idea when he sits down to follow
the sport, you may he sure he will
know-or give the impression of know
ing-all about it in his story Of the
game. On the contrary, the London
sporting writer, an expert In n line
baseball suffered from cricket ex-
perts!), seemed rather proud Of his ig-
norance Of the primary rules OF base-
ball when he sat down at the Chelsea
grounds. If confronted with his igno-
rance, no doubt he would ave replied:
OF course l know nothing about 8
ball-why should L."
Before the king arrived and the
game began the experts critically ex-
amined a baseball. 1t was taken fresh
from it's tin foil wrapper, and the red
and blu stitching ON the snowy white
cover stood out prominently. One ex-
pert Immediately discovered the "se-
ret of the curve." He told me so plain
~, and nothing l could say was suf-'
ficient to dissuade him from exposing
the secret In his paper. appeared
next morning this astonishing ex-
posure: 18th ball, by the way, Is
about the same size as an English
cricket ball. but it is White and scanned
quite differently. 1t is evidently from;
this fact that the players derive their
extraordinary powers to swerve and
The armour" worn by the catcher
annoyed the experts from beginning
to end of the contest. I tried to ex-,
ing the speed of the pitching. No i'm,
preston! Then l ironically said that,
the only good feature Of cricket graftedi
on baseball. and that a very recent de-
parture, was the wearing OF shin,
guards by the catcher. This was re-
utnn I got my answer from the per OF
one of the authorities, Moss by name:Y
IAN English wicket keeper would not
have a chest guard, q wire guard for
his face. n a left glove that pract-
cally prevents injury to n hand. I
fancy Gregor McGregor or Percy Sher-
we'll would act catcher with cricket inn
plements."
Will Gregor kindly 'act catcher for
Christy Mathewson and Persy act
catcher" for Walter ~Johnson-and then
will the sporting writer's Of England
please omit flowers of rhetoric?
The truth is these experts a no
idea of the speed or science of the
pitching. l know you won't believe
this, but Charles A. Conliskey will pear
me out when 1 tell o that q cricket
authority, with a camera man in tow.
game and seriously proposed to take
snapshots for his paper of the outdrop.
the jump ball, the fade-away. and the
spitball. When Mr.. Comiskey, hiding
his smile as c~!everly as a catcher con
ceals his signals. advised the enterprise
ing sporting writer that his would not
be an easy undertaking, it was with
great difficulty that the enterprise was
halted. Evidently the expert had in
mine that Il curved ball began to de-
scribe an arc from the m it left
the pitchers hand-something that
could be photographed as readily as
a balloon drifting idly down to earth. L
confess 1 am not an exper on ''bowl-
ing" but if it is anything like an Eng
lis experts idea of pitching, it's a won
der to me that u clever batsman ever
%retires save from fatigue or ennui.
The king stopped" as they say in
England, throughout the IL innings.
Yet, odd to relate. there was no i'm
terval." This may explain why the tea
thirsty expert on my left concluded his
analysis of American baseball in next
mornings APE with these words:
The game is sadly lacking in
variety. Not a bad game to play, per-
haps, but a little tiresome to watch af-
ter cricket, particularly good club
cricket"
Who but an Englishman and a life
long resident of England could have
made that observation?
not what else to say in
cfltlclsm OF Americas national pastime
all Of the experts agreed in describing
1T as the old English game of FOUNDERS
p4oyO0 WAGA 1lCW rules anC a bigger
stick"
English Games We Borrowed.
1t was unfortunate. I think, that the
idea was ever suggested Of trying to
or better, plant, baseball on
Engllsh turf. Especially unfortunate
was the impression created
that the purpose of our visit was to
drive out cricket with baseball. That
was not IN any sense the purpose OF
Comiskey. McGraw. or Callahan. They
are far too sensible for that.
Besides. it is not the American idea
Think a moment. John Bull. W. took
your Rugby football. introduced it in
70 our colleges, deformed and then re-
formed 1T. We took your game of
tennis and lately have beaten you at it.
We took polo, and ultimately proved
your vlctors; we seized upon the
has made u fathers young and our
youngsters the peers of seasoned ex-
perts. II this strikes you, John Rmll.
as a trifle exaggerated, remember
Oulmet and a in conjunction with
Warden n Ray.
Why Not Beat Us at Our Own camen
We know that we couldn't club
cricket to death with a baseball bat.
a am we haven't the slightest desire to
changing age, it will survive. If it Is
not to survive. it must die a natural
death-and, naturally, it will be a slow
death. So far as anybody knows. 10
years from now the survivors of us
may see cricket-playing England corn
pletely surrounded by her baseball-
loving colonies-and still fighting a
cheeky American invasion!
Get this into you noodle, John, Bull:
American idea is to take any good
game: become expert in 1t, and then,
out or pure deViltry. heat tho NOV, VII