The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-02
What Is AM This About Pennants; What Are They?
By WEsTBRoOK PEGLER (Lenscd Wire to The Age-Herald.)


 NEW YORK, Oct. 1-The Rumpus begins in the training camps in March and continues gloud and en- thusiastic until late in September, when certain mathematical tablets, which only expert statisticians can understand, become "set."
 Then it is said that this club has won the pennant' in the National league and that one has won 1t in the American. A few days later these two clubs play series of ball games for another pennant and tne whole land is supposed to hang on every click of the mechanical sending bugs in the world series press box, to hear who is winning the world series pen nant.
 What are these pennantsP How big are they? What are they made of, and who has the privilege of stitching such priceless souvenirs.
 The world championship pennant, as it is called, which now sags from the flag mast on the center field wall at the Polo Grounds, was made in Chicago, but the truth is that no- body on the team of Giants ever thought enough about 1t to wonder where it came from. When a prin cess marries. the peasant girls are honored to stitch her rousseau and weave the laces, and the papers print their pictures. But apparently it is no such honor to run the sacred baseball pennants through the sew ing machine or to mark out and cut the letters which are the theoretical first cause of all the summer time comme ton and world series hero ism. Factory workers do it. draw their pay and consider themselves not unduly honored.
 There is a price limit on these pen nants, $150, but no other considera ton limits their size and the Giants flag this year is the largest of all. It is too large, in fact, like some paintings which mean no more than some tiny, by 10-fnch sketches. A two-foot pennant would mean as much as the 36-foot spread of wool bunting which dangled from the Giants mast and which never yet has been stiffened in the wind with all it's letters visible, because it would take a hurricane to hoist it's weight And that Of course, would snap the stick
 Remnants don't mean much. They fly for a season of triumph and by the time the ball club has lost it's title or won a new one, the old pen snant has pretty well Tapped itself to shreds. The club owners usually preserve them for souvenirs, but the bonds and stock certificates sprout ing dividends in the safe deposit box
 
 bunting. In this respect, pennants, although made of the same material, are nothing like football letters, the only reward-and a reward would almost any sacrifice-that most col- lege football players are given for playing the game. They draw heavy gate receipts, too, like the bah play CTS, but the varsity letter means much more to most of them than the pay envelope means to Babe Ruth.
 The International league pennants which John Dunn of Baltimore has been collecting for several years, are of a standard class AA league meas ure. g feet high and IS feet long, They are made by. Spalding, New York, who also makes the league pennants for the National and Amer ican leagues in varying sizes. The average length of major league pennant Is little less than 30 feet and it takes a bullying wind to whip the wrinkles out of it.
 The leagues pay for the league pennants and the advisory board of the big leagues pays for the world series banner. The pennant which is to be awarded this fall to the win ner of the third annual series be- tween the Giants and Yankees will cost about the price of Judge Lam dls's hotel bill here during the se- ries, if he doesn't order lot of fancy food.
 These arc the pennants you've 0n Q