The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-07-18


Since the first OF the year George
H. Maines has organized and is
supporting the greatest and largest
kids league in the whole country
Ia league ten times as large as
any big league, with twenty times
as many players And every one
Of them signed up to contracts to
go through the season, just like the
major leaguers. And that has all
Happened right here in Detroit.
Won't some one please page the fell
low who said that baseball interest
among the kids was & thing of the
past?
During the last two months
Mains has organized more than 400
sandlot teams among kfNs from ten
to sixteen years of age. They call
the league the School Extension
Baseball League, and any kid be-
tween ten and sixteen may organ
ize his NoWn. club. The minute he
signs up all Equipment is furnished.
free of charge. including masks;
shin guards, catcher equipment,
gloves, bats and balls.
Each team is allowed to carry
fifteen players. and they're all
divided into divisions with ten
clubs to a division. The clubs
that finish first and second in
each division are given uniforms
as well as other equipment. /
gsIess that's making baseball pos
sible for the kids all right.
The best part of it is that all the
n
Names in all he does, giving him
all sorts Of space on the sports
page and encouraging the kids
every way they can. Why, in q
single week here I'll bet there were
at least five pages Of space devoted
to these kids, and their games, and
the things they were doing. You
can't heat that sort of stuff. And
you can't think of any other way
to put baseball over in better style,
either.
OF course there are a lot of other
interesting points in the plan. But
the big ones are that they're got
400 teams playing right ROW, and
every one of them outfitted and
equipped without single penny of
cost to the kids. That's the big
thing. Any time kids can get hold
of equipment and find people enough
interested in them to provide a
place TO play. They'll do the rest
themselves.
From what l can learn from the
newspaper men here they're given
away more than S15, 900 worth of
equipment already. And the years
just about half finished. Il guess
that's proof of the success of the
~1Rn oil snE1 nd
proof in the fact that every man
on the Tiger club has begun to
get interested in the thing. Ty
Cobb was talking to me about it
q few days ago.
We were watching a couple of
kids do their stuff and Ty said:
Fright there are the fellows who
will have to keep the game going
when we're through and forgotten,
Babe. You and me and the rest
of us can only go about so far and
then we're through. But the game
has got to go on-and these kids
that are playing with broken bats
and worn balls today are the fel
lows who will make up the big
league teams tomorrow"
And then Ty told me about this
clubs that are fighting for the pen
nants in the various divisions. And
believe me lump came up in my
throat when he was talking about
it, and deep down gave three cheers
for George Names and the other
boys who are putting it over. There
was never a kid who loved the
game more than 1 did, when was
younger or than I do now for that
matter. And the very thought that
these kids are getting equipment
furnished and are being helped to
play the game and getting the ad-
vantage of lot of things>I wanted
when 1 was a kid, makes me happy
all over. AS 1 said before it's the
biggest baseball news I've heard
all week-bigger than anything that
has happened in the majors.
Copyright, 1925, by the Christy