The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-11-10
BASEBALL MAKING
STRIDES In FRANCE
Game May Become National 2
Pastime Across Seas as
Here i'm America.
is OFFICIALLY ADOPTED
ny sHORTsTop.

ny sHORTsTor.
That baseball will take hold in France
within the rext 1--WE years as 1t did In
Cuba following the Spanish-American
war Is the fond prediction by Ameri-
can soldiers who have returned from
tho war zone. In fact an officer just
back from France has made the pre-
diction that baseball will get n much
hrHer hold in France than in England.
where the game seems to be making n
strong appeal.
Oddly enough. while the American
soldiers seem to have taken a strong
dislike to professional ball players. they
remain baseball's greatest boosters. and
1t still Is the game of games In the
army.
The French army has taken up base
ball officially both as course OF train
ing for recruits and rs n means OF
recreation for the tagged soldiers at the
rest centres. Johnny Evers, the former
infield star OF the Cubs and Braves, has
been giving lessons to French Officers
in base ball, and through them Il will
be introduced into the army
But where the game really 10 being
rooted into the very life Of the nation
Is among the youth OF the repub-
lie. Americans are now so numerous
in France that they are quartered all
! the way from Marseilles TO the front
line trenches. Next to their own be-
loved poilu the French urchin thinks
there is no one in the world like the
American soldier. Ii is true there was
time when the Partisan gamin wasn't
sure whether or not the Yankee trooper
was just n blum, but all such doubts
disappeared with Chateau Thierry and
Belleau wood
, To-day the American soldier is n sort
| # a demigod to the French younsstcr.
The stature OF the Yanks and the fact
! that they have come from across the
sea TO fight for France has fired their
youthful imaginations. and boylike they
try to initiate the Americans.
A Safety Valve.
Tor this reason they want to play
| baseball Just because II is an American
game. In many places back OF the lines
baseball is the only recreation for the
| soldier Mary Of t,ese men chafe under
their non-corlbatice Jobs and the officer
/ says baseball IS the only safety valve
for these men.
vi they couldn't play bali don't
know what we would do with Them"
! he said. I'VE often have them do the
! dirt!est kind Of work ten, twelve hours
|
! glamour 70 1t, either, just grind, grind.
! grind But baseball relieves the ten
| sion"
| 1t Is around these camps that base
ball Is winning its young converts.
| Many OF thcse boys are far back of tho
average American country lads OF their
| age. Their parents are simple peasant
folk who still do their farming with
the crudest implements. Yet these boys
taking ia In q
, broadening and educating them. At
first these Youngsters are scared at tho
tall Americans and keep some distance
away, but finding the YanlSs very
friendly they draw near and before long
are initiated into real Yankee sport.
Football was brought over to the lead
ing private schools from England and
quite bit Of 1t was played in Paris.
Boxing also was making quite a strong
Roadway in France previous to the start
of the war. but France had no real
sport Of the masses.
Appeals to temperament.
1t is confidently believed that baseball
will nj this want The games speed
and dasl. should be particularly appeal
ing to the French temperament, which
ikea acton For That ason cricket.
playeI Oh the other side of the Channel
for several hundred years, never made
any Progress in France. There was not
,eLough action in cricket to satisfy.
That baseball already has "A flrm foot
hold in England is an established fact.
The game will spread there. and as in
America should find its leading converts
in the big manufacturing centres among
factory hands, skilled laborers and men
of similar pursuits, 1t is the men In
these lines who were the real dyed in
the wool fans in America, the men who
talked baseball at work and played II at
lunch time.
There il net so much likelihood OF
baseball becoming the national sport OF
X. taln The Brit.sher seems too fond of
his cricket and football to exchange
Them for the sport of another nation.
The sports of England are part of the
nations traditions and are embedded
> in its history. Compared with cricket
; al d the popular football of the English
masses, our American BASEBALL is a mere
infant. For that reason events will
, likely prove that Franco will be our
greatest convert to baseball.
: Italy Likes 1t Too.
Much that has been said of sport con-
ditions in France Is true of Italy, where
; baseball also is finding its way, though
not az speedily as TO France and Brit
ain The American force there Is a small
one compared with the immense army in
FtanCe, but the Italians are greatly in
terested in baseball, and the army Is
anxious to follow the example of tho
, French and have baseball introduced
among the soldiers
Perhaps the Yanks on the Thurman
! coast G,9C are doing their missionary
work dmcnG the Bolshevii. When OK
: President Taft was Governor-General 81
! the Philippines he found baseball his
I nNENH IA .