Imperial Valley press., 1915-12-23
Where's the
Support Asks
Baseball Fan

care the people of the valley eo-
ing to sit back and let winter base /.
ball die because there aren't enough
fans TO pay paltry 80 cents to see
real game?" demanded an excited
fan this morning. 81 believe the 80 /
is the big thing with a lot Of them. =.
The last time the Barristers played
at the fair grounds diamond the fence
was lined with more spectators than
there were in the grand stand.
"You can't keep 'em off" he pur-
sued, heatedly. "They drape them
selves over the fence; they perch ON
boxes and on the roofs of shacks up
against the fence and cheer the game.
"Why, lot of so-called fans began
to howl that as soon as Brawley with
drew from the league winter baseball
would be killed deader than a picked
herring. Brawley didn't withdraw and
| actually believe a lot of 'em were
sorry because they didn't have any
thing to howl about. But it didn't
make bit of difference. The gate
receipts didn't grow any when Braw-
ley stayed and they didn't shrink any
when Brawley stayed They lust
stayed couple of points above nothing
and lowered there.
$50 the fans can't blame Brawley
for the bum houses. And they cant
blame the Barrsters for queering the
attendance on the statement that the
! people won't turn out to see FL Cen
tro win.
, ayes, I know they say, We'll, the
season is gettin' along and the league
IS all cut up so a cross-eyed man can
see who's going to win and who's go-
ing to lose But it doesn't make any
difference if they do know. Every
body, or most everybody. said 'Finep
when somebody suggested winter
baseball. You bet wen support itp
a lot of them went so far as to say,
but I'll bet the directors of the DIFF
ferent clubs will need a telescope with
strong lens to detect any support if
1T keeps falling off like it is now.
"They don't seem to know they're
getting real baseball down here. These
players aren't bushers. A lot of em
come from the big leagues and the
rest of them come from the Coast
League or some league in the vicinity
of California which has the reputation
of signing real players.
"The men are willing to plav down
here. They take certain amount of
pride in the work they perform and a
lot of pride in the standing their team
makes. But you can't expect 9 men
to get out on the field and cheer them
selves hoarse when a handful of spec
tators sit in judgment in the grand
stand. The players can't get any en-
thusiasm into their work if there are
only a score of persons present, count
ing the umpires and the scorers and
If the people who stay home complain
of long scores and bum games and all
the rest Of it, they have themselves
to blame. If they'd get out and let
their team know that they're back OF
them, win or lose, the players would
get into the spirit of the thing and
go out on the diamond with a deter
mination to win.
"Now, don't want you to quote me
as saying all this, but you know it's
true and the players know it's true,
and, worst of all, the directors who
are trying to give the people the real
thing down here, know it's true when
they go to check up the club finances.
A club will stand so much rotten sup
port before they lose interest. Let's
get together and help the thing along
before it gets to that point. We put
in the directors of the club, we agreed
to help the league by going to the
games, and it's up to US to do it.