Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-28

ne may pcCOE,e OLneE Sports O1
course, have their good points, too,
as well as their enthusiastic followers
but the grip docs not seem as lasting and the
devotees to o large extent sooner or later lose
interest, and many entirely diff away from
their particular pastime Of former years. But
not so with base ball-never! Indeed the en-
thusiast when he becomes too old to hobble to
an occasional game will at least read the score
in the newspaper, and especially SO the
Washingtons are anywhere near the top. 1t
is certainly the king OF American sports, and is
about as secure in its position as IS the Consti-
tuition itself.
Natu. ally, the oldest inhabitant looks back
to his early days of base ball and sees much
regarding the game worthy OF repeating. Above
all Others Of course, he sees the teams Of his
own city and the boys who used to line 'em out,
and those who scooped In about everything
that came their way when 1t was their time
to field the ball. And the pitchers and the
catchers, too, he has praises for. for the battery
In the early days was just as important to the
success Of a team as it Is today.
But while the old stager may be justified in
praising the ball tossers Of old, he must confess
that the Washington aggregation, at least for
the last IS years, Is q great improvement over
anything we ever had before that time. Indeed,
professional base bah seems to have never been
taken seriously-or to have had the right back
ing here-untn early In 1905, when the control
of the team-then in the American League
WAb bdACA OSCL Wy W. IA ndPE~yp OCObt W oOACs
Thomas C. Noyes. Henry L. West, Benjamin S.
Minor, Henry p. Blair Corcoran Thorn and
E. S. Walsh. and who met and elected Mr..
Noyes president, Mr. Minor secretary and busi-
ness manager, and w. H Fowler, treasurer.
OF course an effort had been made from
1901, the first year the Washingtons played in
the newly formed American League, to bolster
up the club but no one willing at that time
or before to dig deep enough into their pockets
for the wherewith to purchase a team Of first
class players Indeed In 1904 the washington
team was so poor that it distinguished itself
by making the rotten record Of winning 80
games and losing 113, an undesirable record,
which is believed still holds good in the Ameri-
can League.
no not misunderstood the writer as init
- mating that the Washingtons never had
any good players until within the last few
years. for this he does not mean. But the
thought he does wish to convey Is that the
Washingtons until within the last decade
always had big holes in the lineup that could
have been closed or strengthened If the right
players had been purchased, and that there has
never been a time when such players could
not have been secured for proper considera-
ton in cash. Today we have a team that Is
worth money, and probably not one of our
general lineup would not be quickly purchased
at good price If the management wished to
sell. But why do so when the team Is being
properly supported the stockholders are receiv-
ing just dividend, we have a winning team,
and everybody is. happy.
OF course base ball in Washington goes back
long way, and there are some bright spots
well some dark spots in its history. On
November 4, 1859, The Star published an ac-
count Of what was probably the first base ball
club organized in Washington. It says:
"A base ball club has just been formed in this
city and promises to prove an efficient organi-
zation. It is called the Potomac has Fl mem
bers, with McLane Tilton as president, Leonard
G. Gunnell as vice president and Richard b.
Irwin as secretary. 1t is a good sign to see
such health-promoting exercises taking the
place of insipid enervating amusements."
The National Club could not have been far
behind the Potomacs, for in The Star of May
z, 1860, we find recorded q contest between
these teams, and the reporter was good enough
to tell us what part of the city the clubs hailed
from-the National Club from Capitol Hill and
the Potomac Club from the first ward, which
subsequent to 1920 included the area west Of
Fifteenth street to Rock Creek
In the early days of the sport the teams that
made 81 runs first won the game, but this one
was allowed to 60 to the score of IS to is, as
the following account states:
Base Ball-A game of base ball was played
on Saturday last on the Mall between the
Potomac Club Of the first ward and the National
Club Of Capitol HILL in which the latter club
was worsted, IS to IS, in seven innings. The
Potomac Club has challenged club in Balti-
more to play match game here on the 9Th