Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-19
DOWN THE LINE
by W. o. MCCLELLAN

known on the market, Is at very low
level. The attempt to corner the COM
mercialized sport Of America failed
Rickard, the sports plunger, DIED poor
man.
Rejecting the Growth.
THE American newspapers reflect the
i growth of American sport. First
It was the sport page (singularl I,
| then it grew to two pages, at wnlcn
limit 1t remained until about 10 years
ago. Now that this set limit was passed
there are sport pages to the number
warranted by the rush OF sports news
and interest Obviously 10000 editors
cannot be wholly wrong.
Some time ago I was looking over
some faded files of the paper with
which I have the honor to be asSoci-
ated. There were three scant columns
of sport news. In these three columns
there was one interesting stick that
caught my eye.
II was all the space that was given an
account of a base ball game involving
the New York Giants Of an earlier
! period 1t seems that there was a
! peculiar incident in that game, accord
! ing to the item.
The pitcher, one Christy Mathewson
had pitched a ball to the batter. The
batter hit line drive which MathewSor
tried to block. but 1t struck him on the
head and knocked him down. The
runner started to first base. Mathewson
rose to his feet unSteadily, CROPPED for
the ball and threw 1t to first base, put
ting the batter out. Then he collapsed
Here was a melodrama of the base
ball diamond that would have taken
columns to tell in these days and 1t
would be interesting reading, too. But
in those days 1t was dismissed with a
stick under a heading that read
Strange Base Ball Incident" or some
thing of the sort.
Perhaps American sports are overdone
as far as the modern newspapers are
concerned, but do not think so. The
country thrills to the big foot ball game,
the heavyweight championship fight or
the final of the American amateur golf
tournament.
The Rise Of Foot Ball.
A T the current writing some of the
"A American sports have passed their
peak, others, as the late Charles
H. Ebbets, former Brooklyn base ball
magnate, said, ARE still in their in
fancy" Just now the matter of inter-
collegiate foot ball seems to be passing
through a period of hysteria, due, so
the Association of American College
Professors maintain, to "overemphaSis. u
In this game we have some weird
happenings on the side. The United
States Military Academy and the United
States Navay Academy have severed
athletic relations. congressman and
generals and admirals say that this
little quarrel has affected relations be-
tween the two branches of the service
to an alarming extent. Great universities
which preserve their balance and their
sense Of humor in all other matters are
warning over questions Of sport.
It seems that we are a trifle mad in
the matter Of sports, much madden than
we are in the matter of business Com
mentators from other countries insist
that it is because we take our sports
with too intense seriousness and that
we are not naturally nation Of sports
men.
All of which may be true, but in spite
of the depression the national sports
bill mounts. When its full extent reaches
Congress some Congressman will be sug-
costing that tax on the national sports
would go long way to pay the expenses
of government.
It is my personal whim to attempt to
sketch first the rise and decline of
prizefighting in the United States, be-
cause that branch of professional sport
reached its peak so recently and because
it was the first phase in the attempt to
corner the great American sport market