, for America starts training of future
Olympian winners very early in life. 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 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 1912 Olympian games shows that the American 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 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 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
$300,000, including spring training trips. Hotel bills $65,000. Sleeping
cars and meals en route, $80,000. Salaries to players, $480,000. Total,
$875,000. Add to this $30,000 for the salaries of umpires and their
traveling expenses. That makes $905,000.

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 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 Ba