Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-18
BASEBALL PARK $ REAL STRONGHOLD
 OF FREE SPEECH
Citizens Can Express Selves There to Hearts Con-
 tent

that isn't strange, for you ca even llnd people who don't like apple pie
 One never has to wonder just why he is glad the season is here. for the Joy of baseball is an in-grown Amer lcan trait. Nearly every lad in the land has played it from the time he got his first freckle. And once you have played the game, there is al- ways desire to see others play it. There is no game in this country which so many people know so much about as they do baseball.
 Z The lure of the sport plays no flaw orites. It's appeal is universal The crowd which jams the grandstands at ball game constitutes the most informal assemblage in the world. This crowd is 110 proof democratic and unconventional. Judge, subway guard, doctor, banker, baker, news boy, clerk, clergyman, laborer-they can all sit in the same row of seats in the grandstand, and all feel per fectly at home. No introductions are necessary at the ball game. All you have to do to get acquainted with the man next to you is to make some remark against some player he hap pens to admire. Then you will re- member him for life.
 The ball park is the open forum of free and untrammeled speech. It is the one place in the world where you can speak right out loud and get away with it. This freedom of thought and expression, together with the love of the game and the spirit of contest and rivalry, appeals to the majority of Americans.
 A~1 a1. with a tired brain. Once interested and the Brooklyns, all other thoughts vanish. The game gets man out in the open air during the best time of the afternoon. A pitching battle, a rally of heavy hitting, sparkling gems of skillful fielding and daring base running all these things are likely to happen in any ball game, and it is the joy of the unexpected which keeps the spectators on edge for nine innings.
 The sport has cast it's spell on women as we'll as men. There is no public place where a woman gives vent to her enthusiasm quite as she s does at the. Polo Grounds.
 The ball park is a graveyard for grouches. A man goes to the Harlem playground with sad face and heavy heart, and before the game is two innings old player has grabbed the ball out of the air with one fin and this same grumpy citizen is on his toes yelling like fifteen -year-old kid. You can't carry many worries lin your top-piece and follow an ex- citing baseball game at the same time. A fan isn't thinking about the high price of smoked herring when Babe Ruth socks the ball out of the yard. Many man goes to the Polo Grounds with a heart as cold as a landlord, and if the home club wins goes home to his dinner wearing grin which leads his loving family to believe that he is able to deliver Stutz motor.
 In the Polo Grounds a man may speak his mind. In the grand stand seat, safe distance from the dia- mond, he can tell Del Pratt or Larry Doyle just what he thinks about him refer to Umpire Bill Klem as a DOT tion of Lobster Newberg any time Klem happens to disagree with said mans opinion.
 An individual who is so meek that at his home or his office he never raises his voice above whisper, can go to the ball park and deliver a loud, scathing philippic against ball player when he strikes out. It is one thing to sit across the table and argue with your family, but it is quite a more delightful thing to sit in the grand stand and merrily pan ball player who is fifty yards away in, front of wire screen. Baseball fans turn loose more excess steam than an overloaded boiler.
 It is the sovereign right of every man to argue. In the ordinary walks of life one must be careful about his opponents. The ball park is the one place where you can argue with any body and everybody. The millionaire and the clerk may sit side by side and can tell each other just what they think about each other when they happen to disagree. The digni fled banker from Wall Street may casually remark that Benny Kauff is pitifully rheumatic if he fails to catch fly ball, and if the street car conductor who sits in the next seat happens to be an ardent admirer of Mir. Kauff, the banker is liable to hear things about himself that no
 
 Polo Grounds would dare tell him.
 Where, outside of ball park, is it so easy to borrow match? No one would ever dream of refusing to give his neighbor a light at a ball game. The spirit of democracy which takes possession of baseball crowd would not permit of such unheard of snob- bery If one happened to be sitting in that crowd of Bronx natives which inhabit the grand stand back of third base at the Polo Grounds and did anything which didn't meet the approval of the overwhelming major ity. he would have to square himself immediately or move. He'd probably move.
 It is a great place to learn to con trol your temper. If one happens to wear straw hat too early in the sea son and some one removes the hat and kicks it full of holes, a display Of temper is inadvisable. One may be boiling inside, but it is best toI grin and look as if you enjoyed the joke, for if you go up in the air and try to protect your property rights you are apt to lose your collar and necktie in the bargain. The spirit of play is apt to get bit rough in these cases, but fun. wins out in the and
 Another reason baseball is so pop l,la Y IS because the public knows so much about the players. No one in the world gets as much publicity as ball players. The baseball reporter ,andles the most intimate affairs of if.s | lon