The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-13
BASEBALL IS THE NATIONAL GAME IN THEORY ONLY NOW
Football, Golf, Tennis And Swimming Really More
 Popular, Says Miller
By HARLAN s. MILLER Geased Wire to The AEc-HeralD

NEW YORK, Aungust 12-Recently a certain highbrow with a dissolute love for intoXicants was heard in a theatre lobby assailing the youngest and stormiest of the amendments as an "illegitimate parasite on our glori- ous constitution" There were two policemen, captain in the army ordnance corps, and several who looked like plain clothes men within range of his somewhat high-pitche1 voice. not to mention several Amer ican legion buttons on the lapels of dinner jackets. And yet to our in tese disappointment, this certain higbrow was not arrested for treason. On the contrary, three bystanders ap- plauded his spirit by offering to poison him with three different brands of virulent corrosive beYer- ages from their hip flasks.
 But had this superciioUs vege- table ventured to deny, in any tone above a whisper, that baseball is the great American game, and as sym bolic of these rampant United States as the Yodel is of Swiss athletics, the plain clothes men would have beaten him with blackjacks, his three \ dumped him soundly with their sil- yer pocket containers, and the police men would have trundled him off to the nearest dungeon.
 After which the captain of ord nance would have declared martial law until the marines arrived to quiet the angry mob of fans who had probably not attended ball game this year, and eventually this bene- diet Arnold would have been kicked out of the KiWanis club into outer darkness.
 Symbolic Of Athletics.
 All this violence would not, how ever, gainsay the palpable fact that baseball has become about as simob bile of American athletics as Nah Joling is of Chinese. As everyone knows. Jewish travelling men eating lunch at Chop Suey dive in Pekin, H., after they had become bored with Pinochle, which, in turn. was first played on the Mayflower.
 Baseball audiences are becoming anaemic. Perhaps the popularity of concrete grandstonds has something to do with it. There Is no lasting en- joyment obtainable by pounding a pop-bottle against concrete ledge, and it is historical fact that base ball crowds have never found any save this subtle method of giving vent to their emotions. Not since the insurance companies began subsidiz- ing the local police force to protect the umpires, and sending armed guards along to protect the police Far more enthusiasm Eliminates the landscape at a turnverein exhibit, a gymnasts' carnival, of a stock judg- ing contest.
 Didn't Play B0sebaI.
 During rest cure just ended in the heart of Ohio, that state which motered George Sisler and Roger Peckinpaugh and Hank Gowdy and Rube Marquard, not once did we see the village youths play at baseball on the village common. True, they went swimming in a modern con crete tank at the Country club. no boggy swimming hole. They played tennie, no bucolic games of horse shoes. They gathered around to watch us play the only game of horseshoe.s that was played all sum- mer They played painstakingly at golf: The paraphernalia of the Scotch game was on sale at the drug store But not even one game of "one old cat"
 What great athlete would you rather be-" we queried of youth on d bicycle, wondering whether it would be Ty Cobb or the more mod ern Bambino.
 Bill Tllden IT." he replied with deadly accuracy.
 And you?" we asked in despair Of freckle-faced boy
 Jess Sweetser," he responded 
 Perhaps basebalrs mistake has been its failure to annex the youth of the land during the years in high school. The boys emerge with definite flair for golf or tennis and football Most of them take to swimming ana skating and canoeing, and, once in the grip of a sport in which they can capture the zest of being participants, they are lost to this game, which reduces them to onlookers.
 They All Like Football.
 It would be interesting to com pare the country's attendance fig ures for football and baseball. We are inclined to believe that many more spectators watch football in the brief eight weeks season in au- tumn than see baseball games in the six warmer months. As for partici- pants, d comparison would be over whelmingly in favor of football. which is d sport played annually by some 250,000 and more high school and collCGe youths on teams with l t;Xed schedules and coaches, while l baseball provides some 5000 or 6,000 athletes with a meal ticket. Semi pro and amateur baseball, while at times it has blossomed out lustily l IS overshadowed rically by the | who pIa, golf and tennis regularly,