The Washington times., 1930-03-29

assn ASH hsnnened to mention that
t,ore R we're is different natlonan'
ties represented on tne 1.d;an aro'
;rcluding one native-oorn u ~ ,,s
nhot cot some of the rest on GS -
- = 10y cnecking up, and durneo -
49, ~ ore not q lot Of natlolian
@ tileio re@nresented @ on most every
club in the majors. .o- instance.
Take the Yankees 1or n2S Sonss
We've got Germans 1rlSn' .,ades D
Itsuans. NorwegianS' oWeOTs' =;
snanish. English, Swiss anu a+,on an
thnanian players-not 70 men|tEa tsa
Inua o11 t;noe Americans. And the
Ut wo,Loes are no different tnan
the other clubs. It usea 70 .,'e Se
that the O'Learys, the kelASS' S CraS
McCraws. the Ten1ys, ano
Cisncvs and names like that mace
,,.1 most of the box scores. NOW
ogavs ~ there are as many Sweolsn
and German players as there atS
irish, and as many 1tanans anu
Portuguese and Swiss and Eng.
nsh as there are Swedish ana
German. 4Lo+
THE answer, Of course, Is tnat
kids of foreign born parents PICK
up baseball almost as fast as tney
do English. And what used 10
be strictly an American game is
becoming a world game. l was
talking to a school teacher one
day and he said to me that ne
considered baseball one OF the
best things in the world to make
good American citizens. And he
pointed out that at the hlgn
school where he taught. fully 10
per cent Of the kids were chill.
dren of foreign parents, many OF
whom didn't even speak English.
Baseball, he said and I be-
Iieve him, made the common
meeting ground for all OF
them. And he pointed out
that once q kid got out there
on the diamond it didn't
make any difference what ma
atiOnality he was or who his
parents were. So long rs he
could play the game he was
aces up with all the others.
The point, however, I started to
bring out was that every big
league club has a variety of ma
tionalities, and that's another
thing which will help make base
ball a great game. You know how
all the Italians crowd to a siX-day
bike race in New York to chez the
Italian riders. Well, the same
thing is true in baseball. The
minute Tony LaZzeri, for instance,
came to New York-it made q lot
Of italian baseball fans there. And
all the other people are the same
way. A French player makes
French fans. A German player
makes German fans, and between
the lot of them they're making
more and more fans every day.
A lot Of people say baseball is
slipping. They say there isn't the
interest in the game there used to
No AAnO 0A WAOLISs i BCJ
around quite a bit In a year. and
I see more Sandlot and corner
street games going on today than
I ever did. More people are play
ing and more people are interested
than ever before.
But about that league Of ma
tions team. Here's the one we've
got on the Yankees; and I guess
it will stand until somebody else
tops it: Bill Karlon' is Lithuan-
ian, and Lou Gehrig is German;
Tony Lazzeri is Italian; Mark
Koenig is Swiss, and George Pip
gras is Danish. Art Jorgens is
Norwegian and Jimmy Reese is
Jewish. Charley O'Leary is Irish
and Lou McEvoy is Scotch. Yer
non Gomez is Spanish and Van
Pelt is Of Dutch stock. Hoyt is Of
English parentage and Bubbles
Hargrave is Welsh. I guess that's
an aIl-nations layout alright. and
every other big league club can do
almost as well.
(Copvright. 1880. bv The Christy
Walsh Syndicate)