Evening star., 1916-05-07
HOW CUBANS HAVE ADVANCED
IN BASE BALL IN PAST DECADE
Game Is Played Year Round, in Winter
by Professionals and In Summer
by the Amateurs.

I smaller than Dick Rudolph. but a
pitcher for all he is worth.
! Cuban papers devote lots of space 20
sports. such as base ball. lawn tennis,
polo. soccer. rowing. and other sports
are cultivated here. We have several
champions, like De orc, Soia, Narga =
mas. Font. Capa blanca. etc. showing
that billiards, chess. fencing. etc. is
nothing new. Cubans love sports and
lately they have taken very kindly to
, horse ra cling ard boxing. When Will
lard and Johnson were here sporting
goods stores had to wire the United
States factories to hurry shipments of
! boxing gloves and suits, etc. We also
/ had runner. carvajal, WHO ran at
Madison Square Garden several times.
I He is retired now.
| Cuban fans take rs much interest in
American base bali as their own. Ha
ivana dailies get cable returns every
day. on all the games. ~ a rate OF .
| cents pc" word tp"ess rate), the resu-
| lar being Is. Evening dailieS give
American and National league runs,
: hits errors and batteries, then the
morning papers give details of the
game, they tell the Cubans who won
! the game, how many hits COBB got. and
: Cuban sporting editors attend all the
| world series. since mary years ago.
and men like Victor Munoz of FL
Munda. Pepe Conte of La Noche. cam'io
Perez of La Discussion. Joe" MassaGuer
| of La Nacion and others are we'll
known in the states Some of them are
members of the Base Ball Writer'S As
| sociation of America.
Fans Follow Game.
| Let man come here from the L. s.
| A. and tell a newsboy that Ty Cobb
plays for Jacksonville. That street boy
will soon tell him he knows better, and
| he'll prove it. Fans here follow the
game, the players. their averages, and
| they know it by heart.
! Professional ball has always been
played on the cooperative system. the
PLAYERS dividing among themselves the
| receipts. The clubs were run by cor
| porat tions, like in the states. during
! three years. but the hackers lost money
and dropped it. Last winter the ola
| system was tried again, nut IL proNeu
| a failure Now the fans and players
demand corporations. teams operated
| on a salary basis. and it is hoped that
! some locals or American magnates VIII
| be interested in 1t. There is big
chance for some Senior Sinclair or Senior
Weeghman or Hampstead TO 20 some
| thing during the winter.
If American magnateS got hoid OF
base ball in Cuba it would be the best
thing that could happen. They heeo
| and details, and the first thing needed
are American experienced managers
| that is one thing lacking.
| The biggest crowds here at Almen'
| dares park have been $4,000 fans. When
| the Detroit Tigers were here with
| George Mullin. Cobb and Crawford as
many as 14,600 paid admissions in one
| Sunday game. Week day games hall
! that much.
| Cubans like Americans and there Is
| every reason to believe that our base
| ball and every other relation Will be
| better and better every day.
| When they had organized ball here
| they paid salaries of from s75 to $500 q
| month. 5000 being the limit.
| The corporations lost money, as there
! are no turnstiles and as a result about
| 1000 fans enter free, that dead-heac
army killing the game.
| There is also another winter profess
| sional league. with four clubs, repre-
| senting the following inland cities
! Cerfuegos, Sa qua, Caibarien and Rene
| dos.
| They pay about 800 a month there
i the clubs operated by corporations
| They play only Sundays
| Talking about other sports, Cuba ms
| are also good in aviation, Their bird
| men Rosillo and Gonzalez. being the
! best Rosillo is the man who flew from
u. Key West, Fla, to Havana, Cuba.