Evening Star Newspaper, September 13, 1931, Page 76

DHE SUNDAY G Is Golf Eclipsing L anks Game Eest to Play, Dicnond Game Ideal to Watch,” Say the Fans as They Point to the Marvelous Grozth in Devotees of the Fairway. BY HOW ARD HCLT. S polf threatening base ball in popularily? Is the time arriving when tlie éiamond sport will be forced to sharc iis title as a national pastime of these Unired Statis--a title it has held almost evcr since this country became seriously atihl:tic-minded? Noi so very long ago any c¢ne who weuld have been so brash as to suggest that bas2 bal! was not America’s leading nationzl pastime would have been ridiculed, scorned an laughed right out of the pldce. It's not necessary to0 go any farther back than five or six yvears to coneceive such a situation. But times have changed, &5 Ll wways do. They've changed so much that, if one considers all the known facts, _if would appear that base ball no longer is the leading natioual pasiime for many, and for the very good reas:n the United States has no one sport that can be classed alone and singly as the national pastime. There wes a time when base ball could claim virtually the undivided interest of the majority of America’s athlelic fans. Now, however, it seems to have been fcreed to share its leadership with golf, for, to all intents and purposes, the links game has stripped it of at least one-half of its national pastime title. And so there is this new line-up: Base ball a8 the most popular sport to watch; golf as the most popular sport to play. That's the modern, up-to-the-minute American viewpoint on the situation, and its veracity cannot be successfully challenged if all the facts are fully considered. NE of these facts is found in a survey made not long ago by the Boys' Club Federation of America, & report which con- cluded that base ball is becoming a lost art among many lads of this country. Lack of playing fields and cost of equipment rather than lack of interest were advanced as reasons for such a state of affairs. It was suggested that the magnates of organ- s A Bobby Jones, greatest of all golf stars, has been a mighty influence in swinging the Nation to golf. The miniature eourses also have helped. STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, SEPTEMBER Base Ball as National Sport? B o 137 1931, Like championship base ball games, championship golf tournaments also draw huge crowds of fans, especially where outstand= ized base ball take some precautions, else their supply of playing material might be sorely depleted ere long. So the magnates lately have spent and are spending considerable money to build up more base ball interest among the boys of America. Furthermore, lend an ear to the recital of some interesting statistics. It has been esti- mated by a certain golf club manufacturer in the Middle West that the United States’ golfing army was swelled by at least & cool million additional players this year and that prior to the start of the present season there were more than 6,000,000 persons playing golf in the United States. Thus, if this particular estimator is to be believed, there will be almost 7,000,000 American citizens classified as golfers by the time the snow fiies. UCH a total is staggering in its proportions, especially when compared with the country's aggregate population of approximately 120,000.- 000. It's my belief that this is something of an overestimate, for another close student of the game has figured that about 2,000,000 per- sons played at least one round, of regulation golf in the United States during 1930. The discrepancy between the two estimates is large, yet the mean that lies somewhere between them remains significant. Moreover, the latter observer discovered the important fact that the total attendance at major league base ball games last year was around the 11,000,000 mark, while on the other hand at least 15,000,000 rounds of golf were played on links located in cities where National and American League base ball teams have home grounds. Such a comparison appears to hand the palm of popular interest to golf, and by a rather wider margin than is evident at a cursory review. For isn't it conceivable that base ball attracts more public attention in the big-time cities than in the bush leagues, and that, at the same time, golf does not encounter any such considerable diminution of interest when moved from Long Island to the home-town country club? Golf is always golf, but base ball loses some measure of its glamorous attraction when it leaves the Polo Grounds, Shibe Park or Cominsky Park. Let me present another intriguing point in this golf-vs.-base ball debate. I have it on the word of a nationally known manufacturer of sporting goods that approximately $29,000,000 worth of golf equipment was sold in the United States during 1930. This, he said, was more than twice as much as the sales of fishing tackle and equipment, which ranked second on the list, and more than three times the value of the base ball equipment disposed of, which ranked third in this comparison of sales voldme of athletic goods. Quite true it is, of course, that golfing para- phernalia is more costly per individual player than is base ball equipment, and that the rabid golfer spends more at his country club in one year than does the dyed-in-the-wool base ball fan in following the fortunes of “his team.” The camparisons, however, remain very valuable and significant just the same. There’s a deep, fundamental reason for this change-over. It's found in the fact the United States has become a playing nation, a country of people who would rather play a game than watch others in action. Americans are no longer content to sit idly by and be spectators, and so they naturally turn to golf, which in addition to being a tremendously appealing sport, doesn't require that 17 other persons play with them to make a game of it. JOHNNY KLING, ecatcher for the old Chi- cago Cubs, summed it up rather well when Be once sald: “Golf seems to be taking the ing stars are in competition. attention of the young fellows. People them- selves want to play rather than watch others play. And you can't blame them. I'd rather play a round of golf than watch a ball game.” ‘There are other reasons for this change-over of the American sporting viewpoint. FPirst and foremost of the latter is the Jones influence. Last year was a high point in golfing history and golfing interest, and all because Bobby Jones pulled the “impossible” feat of winning the amateur and the open championships of the United States and of Great Britain. Jones, more than any one other individual, inspired the United States to play golf. And he's still doing it, through the very efTective and univer- sally popular medium of the talking screen. Then, too, there was the miniature golf course. No matter how inany silly barrels one had to put through, regardless of thc weird hazards that their constructors erecied, those miniature links converted a countless horde of people to the game of golf. And a goodly percentage of those converts who were perfecily content to play the undersized variety a year ago will not now be satisfied with anything less than a he-man's golf course, a 6500-varder filled with sand traps and golf bugs whose every bite is a thrill. The big reason for the change in our national viewpoint, though, was noted by Johnny Kling. At the same time one should be careful to avoid the implication that basec ball is on the way to an almost complete passout. Such an eventuation may come to pass. but it's to be doubted, even though minor leazue failures have been appallingly numerous in the last year or two. Why. even one of golf's stanchest adherents, a man who was literally raised on the links, can- not foresee any such disastrous wind-up for base ball. Far from it. That man is none other than Alex Duncan, , 2sent professional of golf at the Philadelphia Cricket Club and brother to Britain's great George Duncan, who says: “I believe base ball is too integral a part of the country's athletic life for this sport even to fade from its position of prominence. Golf is undoubtedly the most popular sport to play, but base ball still is the most popular sport to watch.” “Connie Mack, you know.” Duncan con- tinued, “never permits his world-champion Ath- letics to play golf on the days when they're playing base ball in the regular American League season. Do you know the reason for that? No? Well, I do. It's this: Mr. Mack wants his base ball boys to concentrate on base ball, and on base ball alone. He's afraid of the distractions that might occur if they played golf. And he’s right. Wouldn't it be a pretty how- d'ye-do if Joe Boley, while in the act of throw- ing to Max Bishop at the start of a double play, were to say: ‘You should have seen the pinch shot I made at the fourteenth hole this morning’?” ORNELIUS McGILLICUDDY lh imself, otherwise the one and only Connie Mack, whose Philadelphia Athletics have won the last two World Series, virtually verified Duncan's impression. “Yes, I do place restrictions on golfing among my players once the season opens, and for several reasons. For one thing, it would not be fair for a player to go out in the hot morning and use up the strength he should save for the afternoon ball game. Playing golf after the game might be all right save for the fact that, instead of talking base ball and com- menting on how the day’s contest was won or lost, the players would have their minds diverted to golf. They rhould sleep, eat and think base ball alone, without the influence of any other sport.” Mr. Mack, however, has these interesting thoughts anent the golf-vs.-base ball question: “Golf has not cut into bass ball to any ap- preciable extent. As a player I know golf is a great game, but, with the exceptions of watching the champions or some of my close friends in action, I mysclf am interested only in how I swing my clubs and how I fare. Most of the people actually interested in golf are those who play the game. “Golf will not, in my opinion, eventually suc- Johnny Kling, old base ball star, says people go in for golf because they want to play themselves rather than watch others. ceed base ball, because it costs several dollars on the average to play a round of golf.” There’s the base ball man's side of the question for you. And what Mr. Mack has to say is mighty meaty stuff indeed. But you can't get away from the earlier con- clusion that our national viewpoint has changed —that we no longer are content to sit passively and watch, but must get out and play the game ourselves, and the game to which most of us have turned is not base ball, but goll. (Copyright, 1931.)