New-York tribune., 1921-06-18
Books ueyv.sd 1' B,.uo


ton Of the good loser as an Indifferent
person who seeks to rob the victor of
his proper triumph (there is something
of the sadist in us all, you know, we
spoke of poker and were somewhat less
than frank. Our chief objection to the
man in poker game who sings and
whistles and tells funny stories as he
loses is that he always creates the fear
in our mind that when settling times
comes he is going to say sI'm sorry /
can't square this up now, but I'll send
you check by the first Of the month" :"
dissent from the bookish opinions here
expressed. "a few days ago." writes
F. A. Slovenian jr., "you lectured the
sport writer's of our fair community
on good craftsmanship in writing about
Carpenter. To-day you find fault with
the Angio-Saxon attitude toward sport
the nice little distinctions and codes
and things that make sportsmanship
good. You seem to prefer the rasp-
berry ethics Of the bali field to the
game s-the-thing style of the tennis
court. On the one hand you ask that
Carpenter be treated with becoming
grace. On the other you can hear the
fans boo Tyrus Cobb when Bambino
hits homer over center-unashamed
''The fact sticks out of this contra
diction that we are nation of bam
sports. Many folks here and abroad
have succeeded in coating sports with
veneer of good taste. They have done
to. polo and golf and tennis and croquet
about what II. G. Wells urges US to
join in doing to this daily life of ours.
They are the nice people, and their
games, even when these games become
popular, reflect their niceness. The
gentleman whose hardest task in life
is to dfive golf ball straight and true
finds little trouble in being generous
with his opponent. He convinces him
self and folks like himself that good
sportsmanship and sport can go hand
in hand And a whole library Of ethics
of sportsmanship follows as a matter
of course.
"But when the proletariat takes to
sport they have none of this pedigreed
tradition to guide them. Sport ethics
with us common folks grow naturally
out Of the ethics of our daily lives.
The kid who grows up in an orphan
asylum will carry the kind of sport
ethics with him for long time that
are closely related to his orphan asy-
lum training. (The lad who joyfully
Chambers the asylum fence and runs
away may even live to be caught speed
ing another day.) His idea of fair
play is to treat himself with unfail-
ing fairness. He knows in advance
that the other kids in the asylum and
the players on the other team are all
out to trim him; which determines
his sport ethics for him.
Baseball, of course, is the game of
the common people. 1t would be an
uncommon person indeed who would
expect Babe Ruth to turn traitor to
his whole environment and say, Par
don me, Tom; that home run was foul
by inches Let's play it over
Moreover, there is little practical
advantage in observing all the fine
distinctions between muckerism and
good craftsmanship. If the seed of
good craftsmanship could be sowed in
the minds of all of us deeply enough
to take root and grow without con-
slant cultivation it would play havoc
with our nationalism. We should be
constantly turning the other cheek
inviting Mexico to go as far as she
liked; refusing to play the Yap de-
cision over if Japan was sure she saw
the ball hit the white chalk, etc. We
who are bum sports are ready and
willing to fight fair or foul, and no
questions asked. Justice to US, as to
Liliom, has suspicious sound. We
spark of meekness and Righteousness
within us into flame any more than he
could with Liliom. We may safely put
it down a s an idea akin to Bolshevism
that the other fellow is ever entitled
to 81 per cent of the breaks.
There is no danger of good sports
manship growing too far into our souls
just yet. In England, where Mr.. Wells
lives, a tennis player will urge his
opponents across the net to accept a
disputed point. But the veneer still
rubs off. He need only shift his gaze
from across the net to across a bit OF
water to Ireland, and"---
Mr.. Slovenian is, we take it, ten
MS player rather than a golfer, or he
could hardly speak so lightly of the
man "whose hardest task is to drive s
golf ball straight and true.'' For the
rest his point is we'll taken. We plead
guilty to the contradiction.
Captain F. N. Hitler, "late Roya
Field Artillery" writes to the editor:
Surely no man can ever have beer
Halr, Russia CopoaLoxA,