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twg_000000050200 | pre-eminently fitted to perform this service, his connection with the game having been contemporaneous with its development, as player, club owner and league director." _Washington_ (D. C.) _Star_:--"This work appeals with peculiar force to the public. Mr. Spalding's name is almost synonymous with base ball. He has worked to the end of producing a volume which tells the story of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050201 | the game vividly and accurately. Taken altogether, this is a most valuable and entertaining work." _New York American_:--"One of the best selling books of the season has been 'America's National Game,' by A.G. Spalding. The first edition of five thousand copies has been sold out (in two months) and a second edition of five thousand is now on the press. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050202 | As a Christmas gift from father to son, it is most appropriate." _Cincinnati Enquirer_:--"As a veteran of the diamond, well qualified to do so, Mr. Spalding has committed to print a professional's version of the distinctly American game. This well known base ball celebrity has a store of familiar anecdotes embracing the entire period of the game as now played | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050203 | and the reader will find it most interesting." _Teacher and Home, New York_:--"Every live father of a live boy will want to buy this book. It is said of some of the 'best sellers' that they hold one to the end. This book holds the reader with its anecdote, its history, its pictures; but it will have no end; for | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050204 | no home--no American home--will be complete hereafter without it." _Buffalo Times_:--"A.G. Spalding, with whose name every American boy is familiar, has been prevailed upon to commit to print events which were instrumental in guiding the destinies of the National League during the trying period of its early days. To write upon base ball in a historical manner, and yet not | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050205 | fall into the habit of quoting interminable statistics, is a feat that few could accomplish." _Cincinnati Times-Star_:--"'America's National Game,' A.G. Spalding's great book upon the diamond sport, is now upon the market and receiving well merited attention. It tells the story as Mr. Spalding saw it, and no man has been in position to see more. When 'Al' Spalding, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050206 | sinewy pitcher of nearly forty years ago, came into the arena, the game was young, and through all the changing seasons that have seen it mature into full bloom, its closest watcher and strongest friend has been the same 'Al' Spalding." _Cincinnati Time-Star_:--"The s at once a history, a cyclopaedia and a most entertaining volume." _New York American_:--"'America's National Game' | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050207 | tells for the first time the history of the national game of base ball." _Portland Oregonian_:--"The s of rare interest and has such personal value in the story line that one hardly knows where to begin in making quotations from it--all the stories told are so admirable." JOHN T. NICHOLSON, Principal Public School , New York:--"It's a great book." REV. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050208 | W.A. SUNDAY, Evangelist:--"No one in America is better qualified to talk of base ball, from its inception to its present greatness, than A.G. Spalding." WM. L. VEECK and ED. W. SMITH, of the Chicago _American_:--"We have found much enjoyment in reading the book, and it is very valuable in our work." W.H. CONANT, Gossamer Rubber Co., Boston, Mass.:--"I have read | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050209 | the book with great pleasure and it produced a vivid reminiscence of the striking events in base ball, so full of interest to all lovers of the game." JOSEPH B. MACCABE, Editor East Boston (Mass.) _Argus-Advocate_, and ex-President Amateur Athletic Union:--"I want to express my gratitude, as a humble follower of manly sport, for the compilation of this historic work." | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050210 | JOHN A. LOWELL, President John A. Lowell Bank Note Company, Boston, Mass.:--"I have read the book with great interest and it certainly is a valuable compilation of facts relating to the history of base ball, the great national game of America. I prize it very highly." WM. F. GARCELON, Harvard Athletic Association, Cambridge, Mass.:--"I think 'America's National Game' is not | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050211 | only intensely interesting but most valuable, as giving the history of the game. Better still, my nine year old boy is looking forward to the time when he can get it away from me." GUSTAV T. KIRBY, President of the Amateur Athletic Union:--"Not only as a historical sketch of this great national game, but also as a technical dissertation on | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050212 | base ball as it was and is, this book will not only be of interest but of benefit to all of us Americans who are interested in sport--and what American is not interested in sport?--and being interested in sport, chiefly in base ball." EVERETT C. BROWN, Chicago, ex-president of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States:--"It is very seldom | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050213 | that any history of any sport or anything pertaining to athletics approaches the interest with which one reads a popular work of fiction, but I can truthfully say that I have read the story of the great national game with as much interest as I have read any recent work of fiction." THOMAS F. GRAHAM, Judge Superior Court, San Francisco:--"'America's | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050214 | National Game' contains matter on the origin and development of base ball--the greatest game ever devised by man--that will be of the utmost interest to the base ball loving people, not only of this, but of every English speaking country; and I am sure it will perpetuate the name of A.G. Spalding to the end of time." SPALDING'S OFFICIAL ATHLETIC | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050215 | LIBRARY SPALDING'S OFFICIAL BASE BALL GUIDE Thirty-seventh Year EDITED BY JOHN B. FOSTER AMERICAN SPORTS PUBLISHING COMPANY Warren Street, New York CONTENTS A Remarkable Base Ball Tournament A World's Series Problem American League Averages, Official American League Season of Base Ball Writers of the South Base Ball Worth While? Base Ball Playing Rules, Official Index to Playing Ready Reference Index | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050216 | to Base Ball Playing Rules, Spalding's Simplified-- Ball Ball Ground Balls, Providing Balls, Soiling Base Running Rules Bat, Regulation Batting Rules Benches, Players Coaching Rules Definitions, General Field for Play, Fitness of Field Rules Game, Regulation Gloves and Mitts, Regulation Ground Rules Innings, Choice of Players, Numbers and Position of Players, Substitute Pitching Rules Scoring Rules Scoring of Runs Umpires' | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050217 | Authority Umpires' Duties Uniforms Club Rosters of , Official Diagram, Correct, of a Ball Field Editorial Comment Elementary School Base Ball Tournament Introduction John Tomlinson Brush National League Season of National League Averages, Official National Association of Professional Base Ball Leagues-- American Association Appalachian League Blue Grass League Border League Canadian League Central Association Central Kansas League Central League Cotton | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050218 | States League Eastern Association Illinois-Missouri League Indiana-Illinois-Iowa League International League Kentucky-Ind.-Tenn. League Michigan State League "Mink" League New York State League New England League Nebraska State League North Carolina League Northwestern League Ohio and Pennsylvania League Ohio State League Pacific Coast League South Atlantic League Southeastern League Southern Association Southern Michigan Association Texas League Tri-State League Union Association Virginia League | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050219 | Western Canada League Western League New Faces in the Old League Notes Schedules-- American League International League National League Northwestern League Southern Michigan Texas League The Spalding Base Ball Hall of Fame The World's Series of The Umpires NOTICE--To give adequate representation to College and School Base Ball Teams, which heretofore has not been possible in the Guide owing to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050220 | lack of room, "Spalding's Official Collegiate Base Ball Annual" will be issued in February. It will contain complete college records, pictures and information exclusively pertaining to College Base Ball. Price cents. INTRODUCTION In preparing this issue of SPALDING'S OFFICIAL BASE BALL GUIDE for the season of , it has occurred to the Editor that the season of , and the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050221 | period which followed its completion, have been filled, with a great deal of unusual and uncommon vicissitude. In the first place the personnel of the National League, the oldest Base Ball organization in the world, has been greatly changed by reason of death and purchase of one franchise. New owners have brought new faces into the game, and when the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050222 | National League starts on this year's campaign there will be some younger but equally as ambitious men at the heads of some of the clubs. The players have effected an organization. That, too, is an incident of interest, for it is well within the memory of the Base Ball "fans" of this day what happened when another organization was perfected | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050223 | in the past. For this organization it may be said that the members promise that it will be their object to bring about better deportment on the part of their own associates and that they will work their best for the advancement of Base Ball from a professional standpoint. If they do this they will be of benefit to the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050224 | sport. If they work from selfish motives it is inevitable that eventually there will be a clash, as there was in the past. The last world's series which was played was the greatest special series of games which has been played in the history of the national pastime. There may have been single games and there may have been series | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050225 | which have attracted their full measure of interest from the Base Ball "fans," but there never has been a special series so filled with thrills and excitement as that between the New York and Boston clubs. The GUIDE this year enters into the subject thoroughly with photographs and a story of the games and feels that the readers will enjoy | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050226 | the account of the contests. Some innovations have been attempted in this number of the GUIDE which should interest Base Ball readers. Attention is called to the symposium by prominent Base Ball writers which brings up a subject of interest in regard to future world's series. There are other special articles, including something about the Base Ball writers of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050227 | South, who have decided to organize a chapter of their own. The year was one of progress and advancement on the part of Base Ball throughout the world. To-day it not only is stronger than ever as America's national game but it is making fast progress in other countries because of the attractiveness of the pastime. The Editor of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050228 | GUIDE wishes its thousands of readers an even more enjoyable Base Ball year in than they had in . This publication is now one of worldwide circulation, and carries the gospel of Base Ball, not only across the Atlantic ocean, but across the Pacific ocean as well. One of these days it may be its province to report a series | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050229 | for the international championship, and then Base Ball will have become the universal game of the world, a place toward which it is rapidly tending. THE EDITOR. EDITORIAL COMMENT BY JOHN B. FOSTER. PROGRESS OF AMERICA'S NATIONAL GAME Two more nations have been conquered by the national game of the United States; a whole race has succumbed to the fascinations | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050230 | of the greatest of all outdoor sports. Both France and Sweden have announced their intention of organizing Base Ball leagues. That of Sweden is well under way. Indeed, they have a club in Stockholm and there are more to follow, while the French, who have gradually been awakening to the joys of athletic pastime in which they have hitherto chosen | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050231 | to participate in other ways, hope to have a new league by the expiration of the present summer. There is no doubt as to their intention to play Base Ball. They are making efforts to procure suitable players from the United States to coach them and the French promoters of the sport are determined that their young men shall be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050232 | given every opportunity to take advantage of the game of which they have heard so much, and have seen so little. Last year in the GUIDE it was the pleasure of the editor to call attention to the fact that the Japanese had so thoroughly grasped Base Ball that they were bent on some day playing an American team for | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050233 | the international championship. It is not probable that such a series will take place within the next five years, but not improbable that it will take place within the next decade. When the Japanese learn to bat better, and with more effect, they will become more dangerous rivals to the peace of mind of the American players. They have grasped | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050234 | the general theory of the game amazingly well, and they field well, but they have yet to develop some of those good old fashioned "clean up" hitters in which the "fans" of the United States revel. This season it comes to the attention of the editor of the GUIDE that more progress has been made in China in regard to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050235 | Base Ball than in any fifty years preceding. True, there was not much Base Ball in the fifty years preceding, but now there is. There is a league at Hong Kong. There are Base Ball teams at Shanghai and other cities. Dr. Eliot, former president of Harvard, who recently returned from a trip around the world, holds that Base Ball | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050236 | has done more to humanize and civilize the Chinese than any influence which has been introduced by foreigners, basing his statement on the fact that the introduction of the sport among the younger Chinese has exerted a tremendous restraint upon their gambling propensities. It is a rather queer fact that where the civilizations are older in the countries of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050237 | Occident there is a greater tendency to gamble, especially among the young, than there is in the newer America. Doubtless this is largely due to the lack of athletic pastime. The young of those countries know little or nothing about simple amusements which are so popular in the United States, and acquire from their elders their knowledge of betting and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050238 | taking part in games of chance, two evils which unquestionably have done much to degrade the race as a whole. Base Ball has caught the fancy of the younger generation and the boys. Once they get a ball and a bat in their hands they are better satisfied with them than with all the gambling devices which have been bequeathed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050239 | to them by a long and eminent line of forefathers. So it would appear that the introduction of the national game of the United States into China is likely to exert a humanizing influence which shall go further than legislation or sword, and if only the missionaries had grasped earlier the wishes and the tendency of the younger element of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050240 | the Chinese population, the country might be further along than it is with its progressive movement. In the Philippine Islands the younger generation simply has gone wild over Base Ball. Progress has been noted in the GUIDE from time to time of the increase of interest but it is now at such a pitch that the boys of the islands, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050241 | wherever Base Ball has been introduced, simply have deserted everything for it. They will play nothing else. The cockfights and the gambling games, which were also a part of the amusement of the younger men, have been given up. The little fellows who wear not much more than a breechclout play Base Ball. They have picked up many of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050242 | American terms and one of the most amusing of experiences is to stand outside the walls of old Manila and hear the little brown boys call: "Shoot it over. Line it out," and the like, returning to their native language, and jabbering excitedly in Filipino whenever they arrive at some point of play in which their command of English fails | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050243 | them. Twenty years from now a league including cities of the Philippines, China and Japan, is by no means out of the question, and it may be that the introduction of Base Ball into all three countries will result in a better understanding between the peoples and perhaps bring all three races to a better frame of mind as relates | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050244 | to their personal ambitions and rivalries. In connection with the widespread influence which Base Ball is having on both sides of the world, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean and on those of the Atlantic Ocean the editor would like to call attention to the theory which has been advanced by Mr. A.G. Spalding, the founder of the GUIDE, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050245 | as to the efficacy of Base Ball for the purpose of training athletes, that has a worldwide application. Mr. Spalding contends that Base Ball has lent no small assistance to the athletes of the United States in helping them to win premier honors at the Olympic Games since their reintroduction. Mr. Spalding was the first American Commissioner to the Olympic | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050246 | Games appointed to that post, the honor being conferred upon him in , when the late President McKinley gave him his commission to represent the United States at Paris in . Mr. Spalding, with his analytical mind has reasoned out a theory which is undoubtedly of great accuracy, and which is further corroborated by an interview given out in London--strangely | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050247 | enough on the same day that Mr. Spalding gave utterance to his ideas in Los Angeles--by Mr. J.E. Sullivan, American Commissioner to the Olympic Games at Stockholm last year, while returning to the United States after witnessing the triumphs of the Americans. Mr. Spalding said: "I cannot say that I am at all surprised at the result at Stockholm. History | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050248 | has been repeating itself in this way ever since the celebration of the Olympic games was inaugurated at Athens. America won the victory there in ; she triumphed again at Paris in ; our athletes defeated the contestants at St. Louis in ; the victory was ours at London in , and it was a foregone conclusion that we would | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050249 | win at Stockholm. "But there is food for thought in this uninterrupted succession of triumphs. Why do our athletes always win? All other things being equal, the contestants in the country holding the event should naturally come to the front. Their numbers are always greater than those from any other country and the home grounds influence is strong. However, that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050250 | advantage has not in any case prevented American success. "Therefore there must be a cause. What is it? Measured by scale and tape, our athlete's are not so much superior as a class. The theory of 'more beef' must be discarded. We may not lay claim to having all the best trainers of the world. We must look to some | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050251 | other source for American prowess. "I may be a prejudiced judge, but I believe the whole secret of these continued successes is to be found to the kind of training that comes with the playing of America's national game, and our competitors in other lands may never hope to reach the standard of American athletes until they learn this lesson | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050252 | and adopt our pastime. "The question, 'When should the training of a child begin?' has been wisely answered by the statement that it should antedate his birth. The training of Base Ball may not go back quite that far, but it approaches the time as nearly as practicable, for America starts training of future Olympian winners very early in life. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050253 | Youngsters not yet big enough to attend school begin quickening their eyesight and sharpening their wits and strengthening their hands and arms and legs by playing on base ball fields ready at hand in the meadows of farms, the commons of villages and the parks of cities all over the land. Base ball combines running, jumping, throwing and everything that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050254 | constitutes the athletic events of the Olympian games. But above all, it imparts to the player that degree of confidence in competition, that indefinable something that enables one athlete to win over another who may be his physical equal but who is lacking the American spirit begotten of base ball. "An analysis of the Olympian games shows that the American | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050255 | showed to best advantage in contests where the stress of competition was hardest. In the dashes they were supreme; in the hurdles they were in a class by themselves, and in the high jump and pole vault there was no one worthy of their steel. Whenever quick thinking and acting was required, an American was in front. Does not this | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050256 | fact prove that the American game of base ball enables the player to determine in the fraction of a second what to do to defeat his contestant?" * * * * * WHAT A SEASON OF BASE BALL COSTS It may not be out of place to say a few words in regard to the greatly increased cost of Base | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050257 | Ball. There are some sensational writers whose hobby is to inform the public about the great receipts in Base Ball. Usually they exaggerate from twenty-five to thirty-five per cent. Now as to the expense of Base Ball. Figures at an approximate for the National League will be offered. Railroad expenses for mileage alone $,, including spring training trips. Hotel bills | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050258 | $,. Sleeping cars and meals en route, $,. Salaries to players, $,. Total, $,. Add to this $, for the salaries of umpires and their traveling expenses. That makes $,. Now not a penny has been appropriated thus far for the salaries of the president of the National League, the secretary and expenditures of the office nor for the salaries | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050259 | of the business departments of the various clubs, nor for ground rents, taxes and a dozen and one other things, to say nothing of that well-known old item "wear and tear." The receipts of Base Ball barely cover these expenditures. The alleged profits of Base Ball mostly are fanciful dreams of those who know nothing of the practical side of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050260 | the sport and are stunned when they are made acquainted with the real financial problems which confront club owners. But the money that is contributed to the support of the game almost immediately finds its way back into public channels. Less than thirty per cent. of Base Ball clubs realize what a business man would call a fair return on | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050261 | the amount invested. A well-known writer on economic topics interviewed owners of Base Ball clubs as to their income and outgo. One of the best known of the National League men took the writer into his office and spread the cash book of the club's business before him. "You may go through it if you wish," said the owner, "but | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050262 | here is the balance for the last day of the year." It read as follows: Receipts, $,; expenditures, $,. "That's answer enough for me," said the writer. "I am through with any more essays on the affluence of Base Ball 'magnates.' I think it would be better to extend them the hand of charity than the mailed fist." * * | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050263 | * * * THE NEW ORGANIZATION OF PLAYERS The formation of an organization on the part of the major league ball players during the closing days of the season of was looked upon with some misgivings by those who remember only too well what happened when a prior organization of ball players was formed. In the present instance those foremost | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050264 | in perfecting the organization have also been foremost in asserting that the players' organization's principal aim is to co-operate with the club owners. If this object is followed with fidelity and to its ultimate conclusion there is no necessity to fear any grave disturbances, but there is a dread--that dread which is the fear of the child that has had | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050265 | its hands burned by the flame, that a selfish coterie of players might obtain control of the organization, set up a policy of unscrupulous defiance and destructive opposition and retard for a moment the higher development of the game. There is no organization, either of unscrupulous Base Ball players or unscrupulous club owners, which will ever find it possible to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050266 | destroy organized Base Ball. The results that organized Base Ball have brought about will never be annihilated although grave injury could be temporarily wrought by a force defiant to tie unusual demands made by the sport to perpetuate itself successfully. It is simply out of the question to control Base Ball as one would control the affairs of a department | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050267 | store. Base Ball has its commercial side, but its commercial side cannot maintain it with success. There must be a predominant factor based upon the encouragement that brings forth admiration for a high class sport. This factor can only be fostered by the ability to maintain not one, but a group of high class teams. Any ball player imbued with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050268 | the idea that the "stars" should be grouped together in the city best able to pay the highest salaries simply is an enemy to his career and to those of his fellow players. Without some handicap to assist in the equalizing of the strength of Base Ball nines of the professional leagues there will be no prosperity for the leagues | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050269 | or the clubs individually. No better evidence may be cited to prove this than the fact, repeatedly demonstrated that in the smaller leagues Base Ball enthusiasts in the city best able to pay the largest salaries frequently withdraw their support of the team because "it wins all the time." To-day Base Ball, in its professional atmosphere, is nearer an ideal | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050270 | sport, a better managed sport, and a more fairly and equitably adjusted sport, than it ever has been, which is manifest proof of its superior evolution. Had results been otherwise it would have retrograded and possibly passed out of existence. Carefully comparing its management with that of all other sports in history the Editor of the GUIDE believes that it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050271 | is the best managed sport in the world. It is true that improvements can be made. It is evident that there are still commercialized owners not over capitalized with a spirit of sport. It is undeniable that there are ball players not imbued with a high tone of the obligations, which they owe to their employers and to the public, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050272 | but it is as certain as the existence of the game that progress has been made, and that it has not ceased to move forward. For that reason players and owners must be guided by a sense of lofty ideals and not be led astray by foolish outbursts over trivial differences of opinion, easily to be adjusted by the exercise | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050273 | of a little common sense. * * * * * BASE BALL PLAYED IN SWEDEN In connection with the subject of "Base Ball For All the World," for which the GUIDE expounds and spreads the gospel, the Editor would submit a very interesting letter received by him from Sweden. it reads as follows: Westeras, Sweden, Sept. , . To the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050274 | Editor of the GUIDE: We hereby have the pleasure of sending you two copies of the rules, translated and issued by the Westeras Base Ball Club, into Swedish from the Spalding Base Ball Guide. The work of getting the book out has been somewhat slow on account of that the work of translating, proofreading, etc., all had to be done | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050275 | on our spare time, but it is done now, and I think we have succeeded pretty well, everything considered. The books will be distributed by a well-known book firm, Bjork & Boyeson, Stockholm, and will soon be available in all the bookstores in Sweden. We got some advance copies out just in time for the Olympic Games, and I had | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050276 | the pleasure of presenting some copies to Commissioner Col. Thompson, Manager Halpin and others of the American Olympic Committee. As you know, so did we have a game of Base Ball at Stockholm with one of the Finland teams, and as it may be of some interest to you to know the preliminaries to the game, I am writing to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050277 | relate how it happened. In trying to arrange for some amusements in the evenings at the Stadium, the Olympic Committee wrote us if we would be willing to take part in a game of Base Ball at Stadium some evening during the Stadium week. As our club this year was in poor condition, on account of some of our best | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050278 | players being out on military duties, we hesitated at first, but then decided to risk it, knowing very well that whoever we would play against, they would not rub in to us too hard. We pointed out to the Olympic Committee that it would not be very hard to get a team of Base Ball players picked out from the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050279 | American athletes taking part in the contests, but as they would not be prepared for Base Ball, suits and other needed articles had to be provided for. We were then told to get necessary things ordered, and so we did. We ordered suits from a tailor in this town, after a pattern that I got from Spalding's this spring. The | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050280 | suits were of gray flannel, with blue trimmings for our team and red trimmings for the American. I also ordered bats and gloves, and with the things our club already had, we were very well equipped. The Olympic Committee, Stockholm, then received a letter from the Olympic Committee, New York, saying that if a game of Base Ball could be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050281 | arranged for during the Olympian Games, they would bring two teams along on the Finland. The Olympic Committee cabled to come along, and sent us a copy of Mr. Sullivan's letter. I knew, of course, that if the game could be played by two American teams, it would be a much better game than if our team took part, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050282 | told the Olympic Committee, and wanted to withdraw, but as they did not know for sure how it would be, told us to go ahead with the arrangements just the same, and so we did, and by the time the Finland arrived, everything had been arranged for. The Olympic Committee has selected the evening, P.M., of the 10th of July, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050283 | for the game, and thought that this would be suitable to the Americans, but as some of the players had to take part in the contests, Mr. Halpin would not risk them then, so it was finally decided that a game should be played the 15th, the Americans to play six innings between themselves and then six innings against us. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050284 | Well, we had a game at the training grounds. We played six innings, and Mr. Halpin was kind enough to let us have a pitcher and catcher from his men. The score was to , and it could just as well been to , perhaps. Well, at any rate, it was the first Base Ball game, as far as I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050285 | know, that ever took place in Europe between an American team and a European team, with England possibly excepted. Mr. Halpin said that the Americans were going to play a game the next morning between themselves, but that game did not come off. There was probably no time for it, as the Finland left Stockholm the same day. Very likely | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050286 | the American boys were somewhat disappointed in not being able to play between themselves, as anticipated, and perhaps I should not have pushed our game ahead, but as long as there was a Base Ball team in Sweden, it would have been strange if it had not played, and it gave our boys a chance to see how the game | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050287 | should be played, and they certainly did take it in. Had the game been played as it was intended and advertised, on the 10th in the Stadium, there would very likely have been a bigger crowd present, and the game would also have been more talked about in the papers, but then we will have to be satisfied as it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050288 | is. Our club has been practicing all summer, twice a week, and on the 24th of August we gave an exhibition game here at Westeras, between two teams from our club, the suits made for the Olympic Games coming in very handy. I send you herewith a clipping from a local paper describing the game, and also a picture of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050289 | the two teams with myself and the umpire included. At our game here we distributed the "Description of Base Ball," written by you and translated into Swedish, and it came of good use. Next year we intend to have our teams appear in the nearby cities around here, so as to give people a chance to see the game, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050290 | it will not be long before they will start it in Stockholm, so I think the game is bound to be popular here also, Mr. George Wright, of Boston, was the umpire at the Stockholm games, and as he was very kind to us, we would like to send him the picture of the club, and hope that you will | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050291 | forward us his address. I am, for Westeras Base Ball Club, Yours truly, EDWIN JOHNSON, Electrical Engineer. * * * * * THE NEW NATIONAL AGREEMENT Unlimited satisfaction must be had by all who are connected with Base Ball over the greatly improved conditions by which the season of is begun under the new National Agreement. While it perhaps might | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050292 | be exaggerated boastfulness to affirm that Base Ball, as a professionally organized sport, has attained perfection, it is not out of reason-- indeed, quite within reason--to observe that Base Ball never had such a well balanced and perfect organization as that by which it is regulated at the present time. The principal fact of congratulation lies in the safeguards and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050293 | provisions which have been thrown around the players of the minor leagues and in the equitable and just measures which have been agreed upon to provide for their future. As a general rule it may be taken for granted that the players of the major leagues can take care of themselves. That is to say, their positions, if they are | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050294 | expert in their calling, and conscientious in their deportment, really take care of them. No club owner, unless he is maliciously or foolishly inclined, will jeopardize the interests of his team by acting in a wilfully unjust manner toward a player who is cheerfully and uprightly offering his services. We may hear of occasional exceptions to this condition of things, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050295 | but if these occasional exceptions chance to arise, it is inevitably certain that the owner in the long run will suffer to a greater degree than the player with whom he deals unfairly. It is the history of Base Ball that more inequitable treatment has arisen by fifty per cent in the minor leagues than has had its origin in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050296 | the major leagues. The reason for this existed almost wholly in the inability of Base Ball as a whole to bring the minor league owners to a realization of the injury that they might be doing and to extend such punishment and insist upon such regulation as were necessary to change this undesirable condition. By the organization of the National | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050297 | Association of Base Ball clubs the minor leagues, for the first time in their history, placed themselves in a position where they could demand proper enforcement of regulations for the government of the sport, and by their alliance with the major league clubs, under the articles of the National Agreement, a general working basis was effected whereby compliance with rules | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050298 | could be insisted upon. The result of this admirable condition of affairs is that wisdom and equity now rule where there once existed chaos and at times something akin to anarchy in sport. At no time in the history of the game, which is so dear to the hearts of the American people, has the general legislative and executive body | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000050299 | been so well equipped by the adoption of pertinent and virile laws to insist upon justice to all concerned as at the present moment. The new National Agreement is an improvement upon the old and the old was a long, long step in advance of anything which had preceded it. The mere fact that club owners and leagues were so | 60 | gutenberg |
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