Evening star., 1942-07-16
Interest Of britons
In American Game
Becoming Keen
Australia, With Cricket
On Wone, Hos Numerous
Diamond Leagues
BY JOHN LARDNER,

Special Correspondent of the The Star
NEW YORK, July Is (NANA)
British sports editors are urging
their reluctant disciples to show an
interest in baseball and get to know
something about the game. This,
as any one can tell you who has seen
a Briton at a ball game, Is easier
urged than done, but I have de-
tected certain signs lately which
indicate that we may be able to
get foot inside the door.
For missionaries of baseball, the
most hopeful omen is the decline
of cricket in recent years. You can't
arbitrarily dispose of cricket by call
ing it rich mans game, but there
is no doubt that it got its strongest
impetus and backing from public
schools Gas the English define pub
lie schools"D, from the more ex-
elusive universities and from citi-
zens with plenty of leisure time on
their hands.
In England, the peoples game
Is football. Prizefights are popular
when they can be had. The British
sailors and flyers I've seen since this
war began have been interested
almost exclusively in football and
fights-but those who visit this
country in the summertime and
become exposed to baseball are apt
to cotton to it.
British Must Have Games.
My hunch is that the crowds at
ball games have something to do
with this. Mob enthusiasm around
you is apt to ignite your own en-
thusiasm. The British at home, nat
urally. are not in a position to be
infected In the same way.
Thus, it is easier to convert
Britons singly over here than to
trap them en- masse In their native
habitat.
But the trick may be possible. If
cricket falls in England-as other
expensive and leisurely pursuits
have fallen-there will be an OPEN
ing for summer game. War or no
war, the British must have games.
and baseball. which the Tories have
described in the past with con-
descension as "glorified FOUNDERS"
Is adapted by its nature to wartime
play.
With thousands of American
soldiers in the British Isles, and mil
!ios OF potential players and Spec
tators to join them or watch them.
there Is chance for Doubleday's
1olly to catch hold-though I have
seen things in past years which
would chill the bravest miSsionary's
heart, such as the English specta-
tor who shook his head and said.
TOO bad, out of bounds" when a
touring White Sox player hit
home run with two aboard,
Australia Takes to Game.
For confirmation of the Lardner
theory that cricket will yield and
baseball will gain under the proper
conditions, give you Australia.
Baseball was played in Australia
before the war, without too much
help from American preachers of
the word. 1t is played there now.
chiefly by amateurs in city leagues.
1t is lucky for us, in way, that
the Australians practice this vice.
Tor our soldiers down there, with
practically no equipment of their
own, have been able to make use of
native Australian baseball equip
ment. The Australian ball differs
little from our own big league
models. The gloves and bats are
better than adequate.
The point Is, the decline of cricket
IN Australia came sooner than 1t did
IN the British Isles, and serves to
illustrate the pattern. Australia pro-
ouced great cricketers; the name of
Don Bradman was almost as uni
VersaLy famous once as Babe Ruth's.
But Australia is a peoples coun-
try" with farmers and workers in
firm control of the national life.
Racing and football and fights are
the peoples sports.
Cricket Is on Wane
The totalizator, monument to the
tWo-buck bettor-the three shilling
bettor, to get down to origins-was
born there. And cricket, a holdover
from the old social ties with the
motherland, is dying fast in Aus
tralia.
: don't say that baseball is any,
thing like national pastime there.
It isn't. 1t still is small-scale stuff,
But the fact that cricket waned and
baseball came to be played more or
less OF the Australians own volition
is hint and hope for the cause
IN the British Isles.
The motherland daily is becoming
more and more like her homespun
daughter In the Southwest Pacific.