The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-04-17

,.,,,,. believe they are
e chni Ally
called.
Fortunately that part of the in
auguration which is least exciting
has passed into the records. The
league presidents have issued their
formal statements. I do not know
whether you have followed these
statements from year to year or
not. If not you have missed a
stern lesson in consistency.
THE president of the National
l. League willard I imagine
with no little reluctance-permit
himself to be interviewed; and
then, in effect, he will announce
that: Cd the race will be very
close; % the teams generally are
better; 90 there is every indica-
ton that baseball is still the game
Of the people. and "a may the best
team win.
Under similar circumstances the
presidenet of the American League
will, taking a few moments out of
a busy day to talk with the press,
allow himself to be quoted along
the following broad lines: Cd that
the race will be very close; (2) that
the teams generally are stronger;
90 that there is every indication
that baseball is still the game of
the people; and az that he will be
altogether desolate if the best team
should fail to win,
Well, as 1 say, that is out of the
way and now that it is out of the
way we can proceed to enjoy, it
is to be hoped, the lyrical beauty
of the Ruthian swing and the
staccato flashes of the Hubbell de-
livery. There is nothing about
baseball that is so eloquent or per-
suasiVe as the laundering base hit
or the curved third strike, and
nothing so deadening as the
mouthtngs of the games stuffed
shirts.
ASEBALL is the only profess
ID sional sport in our country
which enjoys the patronage of the
President. That is why the Wash
ington team always opens the sea-
son a day in advance. On this
day the President leaves behind
the problems of state to sit with
the fans.
There have been some Presidents
who were genuinely attracted to
baseball. But I have been told by
some of the Washington CORE
Spondents that with some of the
Presidents their interest in the
openings was not always grounded
in deep affection; that on the con-
trary it was calculated gesture of
good fellowship
AS to that I wouldn't know.
There is something about the spirit
of the openings that should appeal
to Presidents as Justify as the man
in the street. 1t is symbolic of a
new hope, the guarantee of another
chance. On opening day all teams
start from scratch. The eighth
placer stands as high in promise
and possibility as the world cham
pions.
I saw one President at a ball game
for whom I felt a deep sympathy.
This was Mr.. Hoover. He made a
special trip from Washington to
Philadelphia to see a world series
game. The great foolishnesS had
come to end. Men were out of
work Breadlines were forming.
United States Steel had hit a new
low, Panic had become a five let
ter word in small homes, meaning
disaster, distress and disease.
ON this day the sun beamed with
" a golden brightness. There
was the zippy tang of an early
autumn in the air. Only nature
seemd to be ignorant of the grow
ing misery. Through two lines of
uniformed officers a stopped portly
man walked Almost mechan-
ically, it seemed, he lifted a hard
black derby to cheers that did not
come. BY his side walked a gray
haired woman, his wife.
After a period of strange, shaky
silence, during which the stopped,
portly man and his wife took their
seats in box, low, rumbling
shout rolleed across the field. 1t
was community shout of derision.
In short. it was full throated boo.
In these few brief seconds all
thoughts of the bali game, the
intercity. interleague rivalry had
disappeared. In their place had
come a regimepted antagonism, an
uncontrolled public indignation.
To this gathering-a typical
American gathering-Mr. Hoover
represented the nation and perforce
he must be responsible for all the
evils and ills with which the coun-
try was beset; he and he alone was
responsible for the fact that John
Jones, sitting out in the bleachers,
didn't have a job; that Mr.. Smiths
dry goods store had failed; that
the Cohen family had been evicted.