America's National Game. Albert G. Spalding
game. This he desired me to possess, but like
wanted it to go into the hands of one who would make use of some part of it, at least. He then declared that he had written his will and bequeathed to me his baseball library, in the hope that I would write a book on the subject that had held so much of interest for him during his manhood's life. Therefore, when, after his death I received word from Mrs. Chadwick that shipment had been made to me of her husband's Baseball literature, I found myself facing the plea of an old and valued friend, now " on the other shore," adding to that of many others his request that I should write a book on Baseball.
Hence, putting aside all personal inclinations, I find myself engaged in the undertaking of writing, not a history of Baseball, but the simple story of America's National Game as I have come to know it. I wish again emphatically to disavow any pretense on the part of this work as a "history of Baseball." I have simply sought in these pages to deal with the beginnings of things, leading the reader to the opening of paths the traversing of which will enable him to view certain historic scenes that in my opinion constitute the chief landmarks of Baseball history.
I have undertaken briefly to touch upon the several epochs that impress me as of greatest importance; to consider abuses that crept into the game at the beginning; to note the inability of early Associations to control these evils; to dwell upon the nature of the struggle to eradicate wrongs and establish a form of government that would make for the integrity of Baseball, and which has wrought the salvation of the game and made it the cleanest, most scientific and popular pastime known to the world of sport.
I have interspersed in this narrative some reminiscences in which the personal equation is conspicuously present. In the very nature of things that had to be the case. But I here and now disclaim any desire to exploit my name, my views or my achievements. This book is simply my contribution to the story of the game. In it I have reviewed facts as they have been presented to me. That others have seen them from other viewpoints and received impressions altogether different I know; and I accord to such the same sincerity that I maintain for myself.
In this work I have aimed to present only the truth. If in so doing I have on occasion seemed to speak harshly of the actions of some men who have sought to embarrass the noble sport, I plead in extenuation of what I have here written that it is the truth itself-not the one who utters it-that offends the doer of wrong.
POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA, October. 1911.
CHAPTER I.
WHY BASEBALL HAS BECOME OUR NATIONAL GAME – DISTINCTIVELY AMERICAN AS TO ITS NATIVITY, EVOLUTION, DEVELOPMENT, SPIRIT AND ACHIEVEMENTS.
HAVE we, of America, a National Game? Is there in our country a form of athletic pastime which is distinctively American? Do our people recognize, among their diversified field sports, one standing apart from every other, outclassing all in its hold upon the interest and affection of the masses? If a negative reply may truthfully be given to all or any of these queries, then this book should never have been published — or written.
But, if we have a National Game; if we know a form of athletics which is peculiarly American, and have adopted it as our own; if it is American in its spirit, its character and its achievements; if it conforms in every way to the American temperament; if we have a field sport ( outranking all others in popularity, then it is indeed time that the writing, in personal reminiscence, of its story in book form should begin, "lest we forget" the salient points in the inception, evolution and development of so important a factor in the widespread entertainment of the American people and the physical upbuilding of our youth.
To enter upon a deliberate argument to prove that Baseball is our National Game; that it has all the attributes of American origin, American character and unbounded public favor in America, seems a work of supererogation. It is to undertake the elucidation of a patent fact; the sober demonstration of an axiom; it is like a solemn declaration that two plus two equal four.
Every citizen of this country who is blessed with organs of vision knows that whenever the elements are favorable and wherever grounds are available, the great American game is in progress, whether in city, village or hamlet, east, west, north or south, and that countless thousands of interested spectators gather daily throughout the season to witness contests which are to determine the comparative excellence of competing local organizations or professional league teams.
The statement will not be successfully challenged that the American game of Baseball attracts more numerous and larger gatherings of spectators than any other form of field sport in any land. It must also be admitted that it is the only game known for which the general public is willing day after day to pay the price of admission. In exciting political campaigns, Presidential candidates and brilliant orators will attract thousands; but let there be a charge of half a dollar imposed, and only Baseball can stand the test.
I claim that Baseball owes its prestige as our National Game to the fact that as no other form of sport it is the exponent of American Courage, Confidence, Combativeness; American Dash, Discipline, Determination; American Energy, Eagerness, Enthusiasm; American Pluck, Persistency, Performance; American Spirit, Sagacity, Success; American Vim, Vigor, Virility.
Baseball is the American Game par excellence, because its playing demands Brain and Brawn, and American manhood supplies these ingredients in quantity sufficient to spread over the entire continent.
No man or boy can win distinction on the ball field who is not, as man or boy, an athlete, possessing all the qualifications which an intelligent, effective playing of the game demands. Having these, he has within him the elements of pronounced success in other walks of life. In demonstration of this broad statement of fact, one needs only to note the brilliant array of statesmen, judges, lawyers, preachers, teachers, engineers, physicians, surgeons, merchants, manufacturers, men of eminence in all the professions and in every avenue of commercial and industrial activity, who have graduated from the ball field to enter upon honorable careers as American citizens of the highest type, each with a sane mind in a sound body.
It seems impossible to write on this branch of the subject — to treat of Baseball as our National Game — without referring to Cricket, the national field sport of Great Britain and most of her colonies. Every writer on this theme does so. But, in instituting a comparison between these games of the two foremost nations of earth, I must not be misunderstood. Cricket is a splendid game, for Britons. It is a genteel game, a conventional game — and our cousins across the Atlantic are nothing if not conventional. They play Cricket because it accords with the traditions of their country so to do; because it is easy and does not overtax their energy or their thought. They play it because they like it and it is the proper thing to do. Their sires, and grandsires, and great-grandsires played Cricket— why not they? They play Cricket because it is their National Game, and every Briton is a Patriot. They play it persistently— and they play it well. I have played Cricket and like it. There are some features about that game which I admire more than I do some things about Baseball.
But Cricket would never do for Americans; it is too slow. It takes two and sometimes three days to complete a first-class Cricket match; but two hours of Baseball is quite sufficient to exhaust both players and spectators. An Englishman is so constituted by nature that he can wait three days for the result of a Cricket match; while two hours is about as long as an American can wait for the close of a Baseball game — or anything else, for that matter. The best Cricket team ever organized in America had its home in Philadelphia — and remained there. Cricket does not satisfy the red-hot blood of Young or Old America.
The genius of our institutions is democratic; Baseball is a democratic game. The spirit of our national life IS combative; Baseball is a combative game. We are a cosmopolitan people, knowing no arbitrary class distinctions, acknowledging none. The son of a President of the United States would as soon play ball with Patsy Flannigan as with Lawrence Lionel Livingstone, provided only that Patsy could put up the right article. Whether Patsy's dad was a banker or boiler-maker would never enter the mind of the White House lad. It would be quite enough for him to know that Patsy was up in the game I have declared that Cricket is a genteel game. It is. Our British