South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-08-24
DISQUALIFICATION
tOSuCCeed Olympic
and Army Games

In connection with the tntroduc-
ton OF baseball into many nations
whose soldiers learned the game
while fighting as the comrades OF
Americans ia France. and with the
novel suggestion OF a magazine
writer who asserts. Il am ready TO
urge the claims OF international
baseball as capable OF arous!ng FAR
more international fervor than the
more monotonous game o. arma-
ments and war" the National Geo
graphic society has issued the fol-
lowing bulletin. based on com
munication from J. r. Hidebrand,
concerning the great American
sport:
BY j. II. Hildcbrand.
Some historians assert that the
Greek games formed the foundation
for the lucid thinking and the lofty
art concepts that made her product
classic. Yet the Olympian and the
Pythian games at their best afforded
no such spontaneous, yet intricate,
interplay of muscle and mind as
baseball.
Baseball needs no advocate. A
game which holds sway
among highly civilized
people is it's own defense. Still 1t is
interesting TO compare baseball with
the Greek games in two points
wherein baseball is criticized.
Some hold that professional play
ers of today reap rich re-
wards in comparison with
the garland Of wild olives often
thought to have been the sole prize
of an Hellenic champion. Others
argue that professional baseball af-
fords exercise for Is paid players
and mere amusement for thousands
Of inactive spectators in the grand
stand.
The first objection is based on a
misconception. III hope Of reward
robs baseball Of its sporting merit,
the Greek festivals also must lose
prestige. An Olympic winners
wreath was only his service badge.
He was banqueted for weeks, taken
back TO his native city in a chariot,
and sometimes the walls were torn
down for his triumphal entry. Usual
" he lived thereafter at public ex-
pense. He was showered with cost
~ gifts by friends. Cicero complain
that a Greek champion won more
honors than a Roman general.
Pride of Home Town.
While the competitor got no share
Of the gate receipts in the ancient
world series, his home town was
bound TO heap fortune upon him,
in addition to the tributes of ad-
mirers. His fame was good NUM-
cipal advertising at time when bill
boards did not mar the landscapes.
Athens regarded an Olympian visitor
worth a standing reward of 800
drachmas, and free rations for the
rest of his life
The reason for these material re-
wards is not far TO seek. Greek
could no more train 10 months to
compete in the games, and continue
his normal pursuits, than can a mod
ern baseball player.
The second objection, that Of too
few participants, applies only to the
professional game. whereas base
ball still would merit claim 10 being
national pastime since it is played
by practically every American boy
who has full use of two arms and
two legs
In the light of modern psychology
there is much TO be said for the
mere spectator. One need not even
enter into the highly technical
studies which show that he who
watches any human exercise with
sympathetic interest-and there is
nothing unsympathetic about your
baseball rooter-gets the same physi-
cal reaction, in modified form, as
the actors in the play drama Spec
tators at a prize fight assume most
/ belligerent attitudes. Ii is sufficient
ly obvious that the sense Of relax
alton, the release of mental tension
! the open air and sunshine 10 be had
on grandstand and bleechers, is bene-
| fetal
Indeed the man who buys his
! granstand or bleacher seat prob
ably benefits more from his muscu-
! lar inactivity. plus lung exertiops
than the Turner who goes seriously
] about his arduous exercises with
| horizontal bar and other cOntrap-
/ tons that make sorry work of his
play