The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-05-17
BASEBALL PLAYED
 IN ENGLISH ARMY
Baseball Magazine.)

They are playing baseball in Eng land. What is more, they are playing it with a zest and enthusiasm such as
 the game has never known before. What the people of America long thought impossible is now an accom- plished fact. The great American
 game has spanned the Atlantic and
 taken firm root in British soil. The war has taught England, among other things, a wholesome re-
 spect and growing fondness for the sports of other nations. Baseball is a
 great game. In the opinion of those who know it, no other sport can rival it. But a sport has to be understood
 before it can be appreciated. No
 matter how great it may be people must know it, have seen it, played it and understood something of it's rules, before they can appreciate it. That has been the great trouble in England.
 The people did not understand base ball. They had no opportunity to understand it. Spectacular tours like that of the Giants-White Sox, are all
 very well as hippodrome features, but they are nothing more. A large, good natured crowd turned out to see the
 well-advertised event. Most of the
 crowd didn't know two bagger from | a base on balls. And naturally they didn't appreciate the game. They wanted to see what sort of sports ap- pealed to Americans just as Americans would turn out to see a Spanish bull fight from curiosity and little else. The coming of the war completely upset athletic sports but the general effect has been to stimulate interest | in baseball. This has been due pri- | marily to the presence of a great num- Der of Canadian and American sol diers who were either convalescang
 from wounds received at the front or
 were being whipped into shape at the
 enormous camps established for that
 purpose. The leading people in Eng | land have been quick to appreciate 1 the need of wholesome entertainment for these men And as baseball seem
 ed to be the thing they most craved,
 why baseball became the order of the day.
 l It must be understood that thirty
 thousand Americans and several hun
 dred thousand Canadians have en- I rolled in English armies since the be- ginning of the war.
 Practically all these men have been
 devoted followers of baseball and
 many of them amateur players of no l small ability.
 1 Baseball in America is a growth
 People have played the game when l they were young. They have read
 about the game for many years. They l have absorbed the game. They feel
 it, live it. But without that fifty years | of preparation baseball even fin Amer ica would not be the game it is. l Efforts have been made by the mill itary authorities to increase the gen eral scope of baseball this summer and I look for a bigger season than ever
 before.
 Most people, who are unfamiliar | with the situation in England, look upon cricket as the great English sport. But cricket is a game fro the leisure classes. It requires several days to play cricket match and while the game Is good one for the partici- pants it is rather tedious from the spectators standpoint. The great mass of the English people have not the time even if they had the inclina- ton to attend cricket match.
 Football, which is the popular sport, and which attracts crowds of 150,0O0 people or more, is immensely popu- lar but it is played from September to April, during the winter months. The summer, the ideal time, has no really popular sport to occupy the at tention of the people. Baseball
 would fill this gap and in combina- ton with football would give England a continuous exhibition of profession
 al sport all the year round.
 There are now twenty baseball clubs | playing around London. There are six at Liverpool. Baseball has caught on in other cities. The time is ripe
 for a great expansion of baseball in , terest. A campaign is being conduct
 ed to provide suitable trophies for a large number of schools so as to get the younger generation instilled with a knowledge of baseball In this way
 the game can secure that foundation
 in the love of the people without
 which it can never flourish. The flu ture of baseball in England is, of
 course, problematical. But the game has made a good start. And a good start is half the battle.