The Washington times., 1921-02-26


Baseball. we are told. IL a game
played with a bat and ball named
for the four bases or bounds each
runner must take. STARS of the
Diamond" "Chips from the Diamond"
we read from the baseball. "Dia-
mond Dope is all bunk.
The Diamond" is a square. ninety
feet on side, and not diamond
at all. AS matter of fact. recent
court developments leave us In
quandary as to whether the ma
tional game" is either ION the
square" or "on the level" But we'll
pass on.
LITTLE KICKING NOW.
One might imagine that football
on the gridiron was a kicking game
yet in Intercollegiate football, kick
ing is the smallest part of it. pass
ing and rushing being the most i'm
portant part of the game. And they
are talking of eliminating the kick
ing of goals after touchdowns to
further remove what little football
there is in II. Most of the kick
ing" isn't done with the feet in
football these days.
Basketball got its name from the
fact that in 1892 game was de-
vised for indoors to serve as a means
over tHe ptTIou Dct~ceh
football and baseball. Peach baskets
were put at opposite ends OF hall
and a ball thrown into them. There
are no baskets in basketball now.
Iron rings from which cord nets arc
suspended take the place Of the
baskets at present
Games with names like squash,
racquets. Bennington, roller polo,
equestrian polo, lawn polo, ring
hockey, garden hockey, soccer.
wicket polo, lacrosse, field hockey.
and quoits mean little upless you
know exactly what they are.
RING is SQUARE.
In boxing for instance you read.
both men entered the ring and shook
hands" 1t isn't a ring at all but
roped square. In lawn tennis not one
per cent of the matches played in the
world are played on the lawn but on
clay. concrete or composition courts
on the other hand. IL you say "a
horse race. yacht race. a boat race,
a cross country rum" games II you like,
you know exactly what Is being dealt
with.
In the main the major sports or games
are misnomers and participants are
bound down by iron-clad rules which
neglect TO tell the competitor what he
can do, but waste thousands Of poorly
connected words in telling what Is for
bidden
One great trouble with the football
code is that It Is poorly worded. 1t is
ambiguous and requires pictures to IL
ustrate legal and illegal playing. Basket
ball rules require all sorts of interpre-
tations. Aside from the fact that many
OF the games are misnamed they suffe,'
from too many rules, which In the main
are either not enforced or are over
looked.
EXCEPTIONS FREQUENT.
According to our way OF thinking
rule is n rule. IL agreed upon II should
be lived up to. II bad rule It should
be abolished. AS a matter of record in
sports at present, rules are either over
looked or exceptions are made 20 fire.
quently that the rule Is rendered use
less.
Some time ago we were going to
send up to the football solons some
suggestions as to football rules and
their enforcement with a recommen-
dation as to standardizing officiating.
We watched with considerable in
terest a game here in which three So
called high-ciass officials worked.
We saw great many infractions
OF the rules which we're overlooked,
and wondered at one stage OF the
game II interference with the for
ward pass" would be called when
Bill Kenyon, a Georgetown end. was
deliberately tackled before he caught
tho ball behind the goal line in the
Bethany game.
The officials failed to see the i'm
fraction OF the rules. but Carl Thouer.
The Times demon camera man,
snapped IL and II was printed in The
Times.
whereupon we concluded that we
had best plgcon-hole our suggestions
and recommendations.