Evening Star Newspaper, October 4, 1931, Page 84

[ 4 - . @ THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. €, OCTOBER 4, 1981. WORLD SERIES Japanese Style In NoOther Conntry on Earth Does the fl meri- ‘ ‘ can Penna(zt Race Attract More Interest Than in the Land of the Rising Sun. TOKIO. WORLD scries in which the names of the batteries might be announced as “Grove and Cochrane for the Athletics” and “Miyatake and Hashiguki for Japan” is not such & far-fetched Gream as you might suppose. Of course, before that event becomes a part of the international sports calendar, there might have to bc some changes. The best pitcher in Japan, for instance, would have to learn in some way that $50 & week is 1ot all the money in the world. Japanese fans would have to learn that in- stead of accepting adverse decisions by the umpire in silence that might at least be con- strued as congmtulatory, they ought to burst out with an eccasional “Kill that bum!” The Japanese players also might be informed that .the custcm of smacking a home run or sliding to second with a neighbor's baby on one’s back, after the fashion of Indians carry- ing papooses, is not just according to Hoyle, as that gentleman’s tenets are displayed upon the American diamond. But the spirit of the game itself, which has rapidly become Japan's national pastime, needs no alterations. The Japanese are good sports, and they go in for base ball with a volume that compares favorably with crowds at Shibe Park and during our own world series. The most casual tourist in Japan must see how the game has taken hcold. Children play it on every vacant lot. Clerks play during their lunch hours. Factory workers play after The American system of scoring is used, ex- cept that occasionally a team’s standing or batting average is figured on the basis of 100 rather than 1,000. Important games are broadcast by radio Norizo Matsuuchi, sports announcer for Sta- tion JOAK of the Japanese Broadcasting Co., ‘Tokio, handles all the big games and is as well known to millions in Japan as Graham McNamee, Ford Frick, Ted Husing and the others are known in America. The big Tokio newspapers have loud speakers in front of their offices, and when the University League series . The honorable father of Japanese base ball, Isoo Abe, who learned the 4 gome in Hartford, Conn. hours and early in the morning before report- ing for duty. But the way they play in Japan offers an interesting contrast to the game in the United States. Games between neighboring villages are universal. Fans pedal on bicycles from town to town to cheer teams composed of youthful rice farmers, fishermen, silk growers or wheat planters. ‘With base ball's rising popularity, the Amer- ican college song has been and girl cheer leaders inspire the throngs to hullabaloo. Understand, however, the cheer- ing is always strictly “on the samurai,” as the ethical code of the Land of the Rising Sun is known. The code, by the way, which governs sportsmanship, is one of the strictest and cleanest patterns of honorable dealing that _eould be devised. For instance, when a couple of Japanese players collide on the base lines, they both apologize profusely. The umpire is deemed an honorable gentleman, and his decisions are ac- cepted sacredly and without abuse. What a spot Japan would be for Bill McGowan, the wizard of Wilmington, or “Katfish” Klem! Good plays in Japan are applauded mostly .By dint of enthusiastic hand-clapping. The roar of the crowd, so familiar to the American diamond, is missing there. When American teams first toured the Orient, Japanese crowds could not understand the practice of players “talking it up” on the diamond. Such chatter as “Attaboy, Joe, make him hit it!” were at first deemed affronts to the Japanese code of fair play, which does not allow noisy expres- sions of self-confidence. / RUT the language of the game is largely American. In Japan the positions are pitcha, catcha, shortu, rightu, leftu, centah and, for the bases, ichi-rui, ni-rui and san-rui. Texas leaguer a Texas, but a bhit home run is & hame run and a fly sacrifice is known as a giseida. is on, extra police help to handle the throngs. The Japanese office boy even has learned that an occasional grandmotherly demise is better for all concerned. - Many of the university and college players are little better than professionals, and attend college until they reach such a patriardhal age as 30. There are no strict interscholastic rules sach as govern base ball in America. In recent years, however, industrial leagues have grown to compete with the universities and many players have been weaned away from the schools, Thus, Miyatake, for years & star pitcher for Kelo University, finally left school two years ago when a talking machine company hired him to pull its team out of a slump. The talking machine company later lost him to a moving picture company which offered the twirler the top salary of 100 yen or $50 a week, When it is remembered that most university graduates consider themselves lucky to get a job at 50 yen a month, Miya- take's salary becomes fairly important money. LL the Japanese teams look to the United States for lessons to improve their style. BEvery year sees one or two teams journeying to America. ‘The Hosel University team of Tokio, which won the University League cham- pionship last year, has just completed an American tour which took it across Hawall and the United States. American college teams are invited to Japan every year, but few of them have been able to win a majority of their games in Japan. Thus, team has made two And no exaggeration . . . Japanese schoolboys, told to mind baby brother, pack théir “trouble” papoose fashion on their backs, but that never stops them from sliding home. ‘The Royal Giants, in fact, trimmed the best aggregation that Japan could muster, and the dusky players still are remembered as one of the best teams that ever played there. The Japanese are unable to understand, in the light of their- experience with the Giants, why the big leagues in the United States are made up of white men. They deem the Negro a far better natural ball player, ABE RUTH has been invited to Japan many times and would be as popular as Douglas Fairtbanks, who was nearly mobbed by en- thusiastic admirers in Yokohama. But it seems that the Babe's business manager al- ways has stipulated more yen than the Japa- nese care to talk about. Talking it up Japanese jashion. In- teresting photo of a Nipponese “flap- pah” leading the stands in a merry old razzle-dazzle at an interuniversity base ball game. The world series in the United States always is given a big play in Japenese newspapers. A play-by-play description is sent by cable from the press boxes, several of the bigger newspapers sending special representatives to observe the games. Special sports extras are on the strests of Japan a few minutes after the games are conpleted in the United States. Japanese teams play a more conservative game than the slugging pastime seen of recent years in America. The squeeze play is popular, and in every game the number of sacrifices appearing in the box scores is larger than - would be seen in America. There is quite & bit of bunting in every tight game. The scores usually are small, with teams specializing in schoolboy has a regular uniform and cap. Ap- parently no family is too poor to furnish these fmpedimenta of sandlot base ball. The plans for a professional league have been considered for years, but no serious efforts were made until this year, when Herb Hunter, former major leeguer in the United States, sounded out American capitalists in the larger cities on the proposal. Tentative plans for a professional league now have been drawn up, but will not be launched formally until next year. The economic slump has caused a de- lay, promoters feeling the desire to await better times. Prof. Isoo Abe, former head of the depart- ment of sociology in Waseda University, Tokio, commonly is called the father of Japanese base ball. Abe attended a theoclogical school at Hartford, Conn. He saw in base ball, as played here, an ideal game for the Japanese, who are quick and fond of any game in which a ball is used. When Abe returned to Japan he became a athletic ‘teacher at_Waseda and formed an association at the institution. He s now president of the Interuniversity League, the big league of Japanese base ball. The White Tiger That W ouldn’t Die Continued from Second Page the tiger close to his face. With a grunt of horror he executed a most creditable back somersault, came up on his feet and backed against the wall, his barong gripped in one hand and his naked kreese in the other, to meet the spring which he expected. Only when he saw by the white moonlight that the dread- ful ‘eyes which stared up into his own were glazed and sightless, and that his own spear was buried clear to the cross-bar in the vast body, did his tense muscles relax. For a full minute he stared at the white bulk stretched out stark before him. Then he moved cautiously toward the grim carcass and tried to withdraw the spear, but it was fixed so deep in the bone of the opposite shoulder-blade that he was unable to puil it out. “A brave stroke indeed,” the Malay muttered to bimself as he tugged at the spear. “Strange that I do not remember making it.” An involuntary giggle came from the women's corner at his words, echoed by a little laugh from above. Looking up, Igi saw for the first time the jungle girl smiling down at him in the moonlight. - “Whose was the hand, Princess, that killed the White One?” he asked, gazing up at her admiringly. “It was I who borrowed thy spear and thrust with it at the Grandfather-of-Stripes,” she an= swered in the slow, clear tones of her tribe. “No princess am I, but a slave-girl of the Semarang.” And she swung herself to the floor and stood before him. Before the young hunter could speak again there sounded the croaking voice of Ahmad, who had recovered his senses just in time to hear Teloa’s last words. “Thou art a slave no longer,” he announced. *Y will send the Sultan the skin of the white tiger, which he would rather have than a thou=- sand slave girls, and thou shalt be free.” The next morning the sky was like dark-blue velvet just before the dawn. Suddenly the sun showed through the green of the jungle like gome vast ruby set in jade. An arjuna but- terfly, all gold and crimson, floated over the tree tops, and the scented air was full of bird calls as Teloa moved among the trees, free once imore to claim her birthright of beauty and joy. Following a hidden trail, she moved through the tangle of trees and vines until in the distance the flash of a cataract showed against the slope of a faraway hill. . As she caught the gleam, the girl stopped, and from her parted lips came the sweet rip- pling call of the rain bird. Suddenly it was answered, and flitting through the tree tops came one of the birds itself. Black and claret, with a cobalt-blue bill and emerald eyes, it flew around her head and finally disappeared in & nearby thicket. At the foot of the waterfall Teloa gave the the tree _For the last time she whistled the lovely la ing notes. There was a rustle in the ahead, and suddenly into the trail burst figure of Nion. A white scar stretched across his face, but Teloa saw but look in his eyes, felt nothing but the clasp of his arms about her. (OCopyright, 1931.) -