Newspapers / The Roanoke Beacon and … / June 13, 1913, edition 1 / Page 3
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FANS Motto: May the best team By Hugh (Copyright, 1913, by "Wow! Wow!! Great eye, Eddie! Make him put it across! Bust a fence! You can do It! Wow! Wow!! Wow!!! ROBBER! All right Tough luck, Eddie. x Two and two. Make her be over.' Home run, Eddie, old scout. Break the gate. Wow! Wow!! Wo ." The red-faced, apoplectic young man in the front row made a trumpet of his bands and yelled until the veins in his neck turned purple.' In the middle of the final "WTow" he col lapsed, looked disgusted and turning to me said: "What do they keep that hunk of cheese for? lie can't hit. Never could. Striking out In a pinch like that!" The fan, howling encouragement or bawling abuse at the ball players is the spirit of the town. Just how great an influence this spirit exerts upon the playing strength of the team representing the town or city Is im possible of calculation, but it is cer tain that it is part of the national game. He and his fellows exert al most as much influence upon the team as does luck, and this spirit is so in extricably mixed with the element of luck that it Is impossible to deter mine cause and effect. There are cities in which the loyalty of the fans has waned and turned to gibes, and in these, cities no player does well. There are crowds that remain loyal ' In victory and in defeat. These in spire the player3 to give their best efforts to win. Ball players will tell you that teams invariably play bet ter with friendly crowds applauding. 1 The fan Invariably will respond that he would be loyal provided the club would win games enough, to justify loyalty. The players accuse the fans, the fans accuse the players, and both are In a measure right. The major ity of patrons will "root" when the home team is winning. An team will play better ball and win oftener If the patrons are loyal. The fan, voic ing the spirit of the town, is a pow er for victory or defeat. Conditions in different cities com prising the circuits of the major leagues assert a powerful influence over their teams. Players will tell you they would rather play for the Chicago White Sox or for the New York Giants than for any other teams. They will assert that twenty Cobba could not win a pennant for Clnclu- ,nati under conditions which the man agement Is now striving to. change. The fanatical loyalty of the White Sox rooter and the Giant patron, the angry abuse pf players by the an nually disappointed Cincinnati pub lic, the sarcasm and raillery of Wash ington crowds, trained for years to -expect nothing but defeat, have an immense effect upon the players and teams. They make or mar players, and weak men win for one type while brilliant ones fail and lose for the other. The baseball fan is an unique Amer ican species and the most rabid of all enthusiasts. Compared with him the golf fan, the bridge fan, even the bowling fan are mild. Baseball is the most serious pleasure ever in vented. Probably the most blindly loyal crowd in the world is that which fol lows the fortunes of the Chicago American league team, and to one who is disinterested the Chicago sit uation is acutely funny. The White Sox park is located on the south side ;i 4 - . ' I "A X "Fans." of the city;' the Cubs' on the west, and the city is divided into two great armed camps. In 1896 when these two teams, winners of the champion ships in their own leagues, met to contest for the world's championship, It was the loyalty of the south side crowd beyond doubt that won for the team. That fall the Chicago Tribune's composing room was about equally divided between the followers of the two teams and bo bitter was the feel ing that the foreman was compelled to separate them and send them to different sides of the building to main tain peace. It was civil war all over Chicago. Ittls a magnificent crowd, wonderful in its spirit and In Its intense loyalty. There are few things that shake an opponent like the incessant: "Get a hit," "Get a hit," which, is the war win; But ours is the best S. Fullerton W. G. Chapman) song of the Sox rooters when they scent victory. One of the most, dramatic displays of loyalty I ever saw was in 1907, when the team, Seaten and displaced from the championship, came home to close the season. They had gone away In high hopes, and failed. It was Sunday, and as the defeated team marched down the field 17,000 men and women stood silent and un covered for a moment, then broke Into applause that swept the stands. It is small wonder that a team back ed always by such loyalty won even during years when it seemed much weaker than Its opponents. I have heard opposing players de clare they would rather face anything in the game than the grinding "root ing" of the Chicago south side fans. The only duplicate I know is the rasping, nerve-racking, long Yale yell. Not all players are frank enough to admit that the rooting has any effect. Indeed it is a common pose to pre tend that they do not even hear. But they do. Even among themselves they pretend they do not care; but once in a while they tell their Inner feelings. They know that half the men who quit the major leagues are driven out by the voice of the fan. I have seen . men break and go all to pieces, rave and swear and abuse everyone after suffering a cruel grill ing by a crowd. Walter Wllmot, one "of Anson's fa mous old Chicago players, came to a game on the old grounds fifteen years after retiring. He looked across to ward the left field and said: "There's some of them out there now I'd like to choke." Yet the roar of the crowd does tiot break them as quickly as does some sharp thrust of sarcasm or biting wit from an individual. Perhaps that shaft is only the last straw, but when a player is In a nervous collapse he usually rages at some individual who said something to him. Josh Rellly, one of the merriest, happiest players I ever knew, "blew up" one day and had to be restrained from assaulting three or four thousand men In the bleachers. 'Did you hear what he said?" de manded Rellly as the other players tried to restrain him. "What did he say?" inquired some one. "He said: 'Rellly, you're a disgrace to the Irish'," and then he raged again. One of the quickest things I ever heard was a remark from a Wash ington fan which upset Frank Isbell, the veteran, completely. Isbell's head is as bald as a concrete pavement, and usually he kept his cap plastered tightly on his head to shield himself rrom me giues oi crowus. ims um he tried to steal second and made a desperate, diving slide around and un der the baseman only to be called out. He was so enraged that he ran at the umpire, grasped his arm, ar gued and raved and finally in sheer anger, jerked off his cap, hurled it onto the ground and jumped upon it His bald head glistened in the sun light and the crowd roared. Then, above the roar came a voice: "Put on that cap. They pinched Mary Garden here for less than that."M Possibly more trying than any con certed rooting Is the incessant na& ging to which players on the Polo grounds, New York, are subjected. The one great bit of rejoicing among 1 X2r ' the National league players last year when they saw the wonderful Brush stadium was that the crowd could not make itself heard on the field as it did in the old stands. The Polo grounds crowd is odd. Somehow fans who occupy box seats either are not as rabid as those in the cheaper seats or they are on their good be havior, and a fringe of box seats Is ad effective shield for players. Strangely enough the crowds on the New York American league park, al though quite as noisy, are much fair er, than the crowds at the Polo grounds. One would think that visiting play ers would like to play " on grounds where the home team is unpopular through defeat or other causes, but they do not. They rather resent the home crowd abusing the home men. In Cincinnati, Brooklyn and Washing ton, during most of the season, the crowds are bitterly sarcastic toward the home teams, although the Brook lyn crowds are decent except on Sat urdays. St. Louis affords ; a queer study of the crowds. When the Browns are at home the crowds are ugly and vent their temper' upon the players, yet half a dozen blocks away, on the rival park, there assembles a crowd wilder and more frantically in favor of the home team and more un reasoning in partisanship than almost any in the country. Just where this feeling arises Is hard to discover. The crowd Is violent in temper when the team is winning, worse when it is los ing. ' Perhaps long years of bitter de feat have caused it. In Boston and Philadelphia, on both major league parks, the home players and visitors are almost upon equal terms, and the spectators applaud good plays irrespective of the players. They see baseball under the best con ditions, with both teams encouraged and giving their best efforts to the work. Pittsburgh is bad because of the gambling that has become almost part of the game in the Smoky City. The temper of the crowd is ugly and the losing element is in evidence no matter whether the home club wins or loses. Detroit is a loyal, rather violent crowd, tamed now because the fans have learned to endure victory as well as defeat. The crowds were mad with enthusiasm the first year De troit won and have since tamed down 1 "Ate w t "They Pinched Mary Garden for Less Than That." One of the queer things in that city is the baiting of George Mullin, the veteran pitcher. Mullin is a jolly, quick-witted joker and years ago he began talking back to the bleachers. He was warned that the bleacherltes would put him out of the business, but persisted. Every afternoon he would walk down in front of the bleachers and eneaee in a. verbal skirmish with the crowd, trying to hold his own at rough repartee with hundreds. He abused the crowd, laughed at them, accused them of "quitting." and enjoyed it. If he had taken it seriously the result might have been different, but after a time it became part of the game and now 'the spectators in the bleachers would not be satisfied if Mullin forgot to start a skirmish. Last summer, go ing out on a car in Detrojt, three young fellows were talking. "Oh, I've got a peach of a get-back at him today," said one, and. at the urgent request of the others he drew out a card and read what he was go ing to say to Mullin If he came near their seats. It Is not the great crowds that at tend the crucial games that exert the strongest influence over players. True there Is a natural nervousness among all the players when a tremendous throng gathers to see them, as in world's series games; but the ones that help the home team, or damage it, are the crowd of from six to ten thousand, stirred up by the "regulars" who, day after day and season after season, incite .those around them There are thousands of these regulars, self-appointed claques or cheer mas ters, and some of them feel as if they are doing as much to help the team to victory as if they were out there on the mound pitching. The large crowds usually are the fairest and most sportsmanlike, for in these great gath erings the rabid and partisan fan is lost and his utterances are smothered. These crowds police themselves and the players feel safe and assured of fair play, and, after the first nervous ness passes, they play their best. A baseball crowd is much like a mob. Without a leader it is just noise and turmoil, but with one recognized leader it can do much. A few years ago a number of Chicago men at tempted to carry out a theory that the crowd needed leaders and the result was one of the most dangerous ex periments ever attempted. The White Sox rooters organized, a band of men far above average intelligence, who laid daily plans for inciting crowds and stirring up enthusiasm. The Board of Trade Rooters operated at both Chicagq parkB, being organized primarily to attack McGraw and the Giants. They wrote and circulated songs. Invented Ingenious methods of harassing a worthy foe, and to force undeserved victory upon the , home teams. The idea 'spread rapidly. "Rooters' clbs" were organized In many cities and towns to help the home teams. For a few weeks It looked as if the new movement would seriously endanger the national game. The crowds grew more and more vio lent. Then, uddenly and without warning almost, the est efforts of the cheer masters feH flat in Chi cago at least. The harder the .leaders of the rooters worked the more apa thetic the crowds became. It was an interesting phenomenon and I set out to discover the reason. The first bleacherlte I met solved the problem. "Dem guys ain't on de square," ha said. "Usuns out in de bleachers don't want to rob nobody." There was the solution. No matter how partisan a baseball fan may be come, or how wild in his desire to see the home team win, deep down he wants fair play, and, after a time, he will insist upon It. The rooters' clubs died. There are few of the noted fans now, chiefly because the papers sel dom mention them. Perhaps they ex ist. In the old days almost every club had one or two such followers. Probably the best known was "HI HI." This was General Dixwell, of Boston, who for many years followed the fortunes of the famous old Boston club. He Is wealthy, intellectual and a cultured gentleman who became completely absorbed in baseball. He followed the team wherever It went and became a familiar figure all over the country. He occupied a front seat in the stands, kept a careful score and studied the game with a seriousness that was appalling. He maintained a deep silence during al most all the game, but when a really great play was made he emitted two sharp staccato barks: "Hi! HI!" and then dropped to silence again. His IaY" 1 war cry gave him his name. He quit attending baseball games years ago, but still continues his deep interest in the sport, and In his apartments he keeps a wonderful set of books show ing the averages and performances of players for many baseball genera tions. "Well, Well, Well," was another character who was named because of his cry, which followed just after a big outburst of applause on the part of the crowd. The moment the ap plause subsided his "Well, well, well," would boom over the field and never failed to start the cheering again. The average crowd is cruel, because It is thoughtless. Few of the fans who hurl abuse a.1 criticism at the players stop to think that the men they are addressing have the capacity to feel and to suffer. Many a thought less, barbed jest has wrecked the ca reer of some ball player. It took the players a long time to discover the fact that their popularity and their safety from abuse lies in presenting a good-natured appearancy, no matter what happens, and In answering ques tions when possible. If you go through league after league, team by team, you will find that the most popular player, In nine cases out of ten, Is some outfielder. He probably is not the best player, but he has the most devoted follow ing, because he keeps on friendly terms with the men and boys who sit The Baseball Fan Is a Unique Amer ican Species. behind him. In fact, almost every outfielder has his own regular pat rons, who attend games and seek seats as near to him as possible, and who defend .him against all comers To them he is the best in the world, a "Greater than Cobb," nor do they forget him; the player who finally dis places an idol has a hard time. I have known them to follow a player around the fleld when he was shifted from one to another position and to battle for him with the retainers of the other fielder who dared criticise him. Biased, prejudiced and distorted in their views as most of them are, they are very human and very lovable in their blind devotion to the game, and in their unreasoning hatred. And a word of warning: Never try to ar gue with a rpal. dyed-in-the-wool, thirty-second-degree fan. In the first place the chances are he is right, but even if he is wrong there Isn't a chance to win the argument. -'rtrrtnfc ii i-i i V fii oMHVMvmwwvW' o a i ,ir.i,r..r,.Tr.,..,.....,;T.i,.i ,. S It: lil'iri'St'll fi Says Goddess of Liberty Will Fall Some Day WASHINGTON. "Some day that goddess of liberty on top of the capitol is going to fall down and hurt someone. I know, because I was up In it." Thus spoke Rodman Law, who calls himself the "human fly," while he was reclining on a bed in a downtown ho- j tel waiting for a telegraphed remit tance- from New York, which was necessary after the way some friends of his had disappeared with his cash while he was climbing up the god dess' lnsides. "All that bracing material on the interior of the statue is made of cast Iron," continued the "fly." "It was put up there before anyone used steel construction, I suppose, and I scraped up handfuls of dust. I went all over the inside and I'll bet that if some thing isn't done about it there will be an accident some day." The "human fly" took the impend ing danger to the goddess about as jXWWVVVVVMlllll He Found Out What the IT IS notorious that street railway companies In Washington, as in oth er cites, have a good deal to trouble with rail joints and with the street paving along the rajls. The pound ing wheels and the vibration of the track seem able to break down or break up almost any kind of pave ment which the railroads lay. The result is that repairs are made fre quently necessary. For several weeks repairs have been making to the tracks of the Mount pleasant cars along Connecticut ave nue. Yellow clay has been piled high up on both sides of the track. Strong Lfien have been working there with forowbars, sledges, .picks and other : tools. At the ends and along the Bides of the repair work has been quite a procession of flags, mainly red to warn of danger, but some of them green to indicate safety, and marking where teams or machines might pass. At each end of the construction work by day flutters In more or less harmony with the red and green flags a yellow flag, and at night lanterns with yellow globes let their light shine there. The question was put Duck on the Window Sill TWO weeks ago attention was called to a duck on the second story win dow sill of a fine old house on II street. "Attention was called" is not a happy phrase, because nearly every body who passes along that part of H street knows the duck. In the previous Btory It was said that: "Perhaps the family living In the house will be able to explain it, and perhaps 'not, but the writer did not care to pursue the inquiry further than to make the necessary observa tion and notation." The story of the duck is well told in the following letter, which was re ceived a few days ago: What Middle Statue of THREE Chinese students entered the Y. M. C. A. Educational institute not long ago to study, among other things, English, American history and geography. They are young men in whom the Chinese government is tak ing an interest, it having sent them here to acquire the English language in the shortest possible time. They haven't ben here very long, but they're strong on English already, as will appear from this exclusive story, told by Myron Jermaln Jones, director of education of the Y. M. C. A. Dr. Jones took the education of the three boys as a personal matter. He gave them all the time possible, and mingled his plain language teaching with several highly polished courses in ethics, philosophy, philology, apolo getics, etc. He dipped Into the Gospel of St. Mark' for tome of the great social teachings there, and gave the three Chinese students a lecture that they would scarcely be able to get anywhere elBe In a month's journey. Dr. Jones concluded his remarks. ! ? ! I U WKftl t seriously as he took the fact that his friends who accompanied him to the top of the capitol had disappeared with his cash. Any old time he wants to go back and sit on Liberty's head he is going to do it, but he Is going to make sure that his friends can be trusted with a "human fly" pocketbook before he gets up in the air between earth and sky, with no one but a press agent to keep the secret. The "fly" went to the capitol in the afternoon with his false friends. He climbed up a column on top of the dome, using a piece of steeple jack's rope to aid him in his efforts. Pre viously he had handed his pocketbook and valuables to his false friends who accompanied him. W7hen he descend ed they had gone. "I went all around the Inside and saw the rust. It was very dark, and I used up a box of matches in there. Then I crawled up on the base of the statue. A 'cop' yelled to ne to come down. "When I slid down the cop pinched me" A rap on the door interrupted this story. A bellboy handed in a tele gram. ' It was money from New York, replacing that which the false friends had taken with them so hurriedly. "Well, I guess I can have breakfast now. So long." m Yellow Flag Was For to many fellow-travelers: "What does the yellow flag mean?" Day'after day the answer was: "Give it up." "You got me now," or "It stands for small pox." Those yellow flags were getting on the scribe's nerves, and on one of the few pleasant days In early April he got on a car determined to pay an extra fare to find out the significance of those strange flags. He walked over to a stalwart colored laborer, who was cracking concrete in the excavation, and asked him: .','What does that yellow flag mean?" The man looked amused. There was pity in his eyes and his voice as he replied: "Boss, dat am de sign fo' de kyars to g(T Blow." Simply crushed! Known to Many People "This is the history of the duck in the window: "My father, Dr. Clymer surgeon, U. S. N., on his return from the Asiat ic coast brought with him some very beautifully colored ducks, which he purchased in Ceylon. "On the trip over, whether from change in climate or difference in food or exposure aboard ship, all died but one drake, and he arrived in H street In good health. He lived with us happily and contented for two years, occupying the back yard, where he had a large pond filled by a natural spring. "When Alexander R. Shepherd put in the deep street sewers our pond ran dry, and our drake then became sad and pitifully melancholy, and one day we found him dead. "We called in a taxidermist, had him treated, and placed him in the front window, always looking toward his native home. And when he faded out of existence we placed another there in memoriam. He or his rep resentative has been in the front of 1617 H street for 41 years." Buddha Said to Teacher The boys did not stir a muscle, and Dr. Jones was totally at a loss to- tell whether his efforts had made an im pression upon thoBe mute auj immov able orientals. "Have I made myself plain?" he asked. Three heads nodded. "I should be glad to go over the ground again," he said, "If you are not quite sure you got what I was Baying." And then the middle statue of Budd ha e poke : "We gotcha, Steve," he Bald. Which is certainly making progrtf a In English "C
The Roanoke Beacon and Washington County News (Plymouth, N.C.)
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June 13, 1913, edition 1
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