New Britain herald., 1928-04-21
$ pc king of Sports

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 While the lull in sport is on in thls city. the weather being just too warm Tor indoor attractions and just 100 chilly for outdoor fun, the young. sters of the town are losing no time III getting into real form for the baseball season.
 Daily junior teams arc staging world championship games between each team. The Cmp streets are meeting the Blah streets and the former is winning through the great hitting of some ycungster whose an cestors were stalwarts in the nations ail over the globe.
 winch reminds us that there has been vail for a long time from the thcRly populatcd centers where the maJor baseball league teams have their homes, that there is a scarcity of sand lot baseball players.
 Whether it is because the men who direct the destinies of the major leagues cannot See beyond their noses or not. is more than We can tell but the fact is that there is cer- tainly no scarcity of sandlotters in this city.
 Take any warm day and walk Through any one of the local parks which boast baseball diamonds. Take stroll or d ride on the outskirts where there is an available lot for baseball diamond and the future greats Of the baseball world can be seen doing their stuff with all the sersousness Of major league players making final drive for the pennant.
 one question that remains un- answered. for us anyway, is "Where do these youngsters go to when they start to grow up." Many boys who nave showed wonderful promise around the ages of 12 to II years, entirely disappear from the field of sport as they start 10 reach the age of maturity.
 In this city. the work of the Eo. i tary clubs, the city playgrounds, the American Legion. the public amuss- 1ncht commission and several other | agencies, has kept baseball not only alive but to the forefront and .lany good players have been developed in | tho intervening years. 1
 But except for ono or two isolated l cases. these boys pass on and are 1 heard from no more. Whether ii is | because they have lost their ambition 1 to become baseball players or wheth- CT il is because they cannot get q chance in faster company as they 1 grow older. is the dilemma that con- fronts all those who are interested in the sport.
 We nave often wondered what with all the facilities for baseball l. that this city offers to it's youths. that there are so few who later on In life become league players. A person can count on his fingers al- most all of the men who have gone out Of ihic city in recent years into league baseball.
 Other places don't pay much at- tention to the development of dia- mond performers and yet they have turned out men who have. in later years. become some of the foremost stars of the game.
 New Britain leads in all lines of sport in which the youth of the city are interested but none of them seem to get so very far along the paths that lead to fame.
 One good reason for the lack of !, players beyond q certain age is the high finance of baseball now. Pub licity given to the highly paid stars of the game has imbued boys with tbe idea that their service is worth something if they are to play.
 In days gone by the game was played for sports sake. In the pres ent, one doesn't throw a baseball without expecting a monetary return for the effort expended. Players cannot be secured on baseball teams now on the basis of splitting evenly at the end of the year. Therefore. there are very few semi-p pro teams or professional teams ill this city.
 The same holds true almost every where in this section of the country. Not so many years ago several teams were in existence whose players re- ceivcd nothing but tho joy of the ( game. for playing. Until there Is , whole hearted return 10 this. there will never be much sport in any thing anymore.