Clipping:The baseball mania
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| Date | Monday, October 1, 1866 |
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| Text | We all know that at irregular intervals dangerous epidemics sweep over countries, affecting more or less all the people. The East tells us of thousands infected, and it requires no historical knowledge to see it in our own land. As with physical maladies, so also with moral contagions. Philosophers say that crime is infectious, and that one example of a mighty offense against law causes others. And it is a moral epidemic which is now raging in our land. Good, quiet people may smile, but there is a fever which is in the brains and affecting the minds of thousands of American citizens. Strange to say, this disease is principally limited to the male sex, and seldom attacks those who have attained the age of thirty. The prevailing mania is known as “base-ball,” and never was there a Juggernaut with more devoted followers than this god of physical sport. There seems to be a reckless abandon exhibited by its devotees, which savors of the mad ecstasy which the Pythoness continually lived in. All of the leading players have had their fingers broken, and some have every finger broken twice. The loss of a tooth or an eye is received with such slight interest that we might suppose that the member had offended, and been “plucked out.” The number of these reckless devotees is legion. Every boy who has attained the mature age of six feels qualified to belong to a “club,” and all the adjectives in the language are applied as titles to the organizations. The “Invulnerables,” the “Invincibles,” or the “Inwhatable,” as Toodles has it, are all composed of young Americans whose lives have not witnessed a decade. Then, also, is mythology laid under contribution, and “Olympic” brought down to the level of a plain. The venerable gentleman who rushed out of his bath without making a toilet has a delicate compliment paid to his memory, and the “Eureka” appears on the base-ball board. “The youth who bore 'mid snow and ice” is not forgotten, and “Excelsior” is inscribed on the banner of another. As to all the American statesmen, the patriotism of the players compels some recognition of their merits, and “Washington,” “Franklin,” “Hamilton,” and all the signers and all the Presidents are remembered. The fact is, the organizers of new clubs are driven to desperation to secure names, and if the fever continues much longer, they must resort to the expedient of the unfortunate fathers who, having exhausted their vocabulary, devised the scheme of duplicating names. We will have the “Washington Washington” and the “Eureka Eureka.” But we are in hopes that before this dreadful pass is reached, the fever will have commenced to abate, and that ere long it will be reduced to control. In 1854 the excitement over cricket first began to assume formidable dimensions, and in 1857 it was at its height. We all remember the way in which it took off small boys from school, and enlisted even men in its ranks as victims. It overdid the game. The excitement rose in an hour, and utter subsided; and instead of being a rational amount of healthy exercise, it was either a mania or none at all. Within two years after the visit of the English eleven, there was not found a dozen cricket clubs in the whole country. Two years ago, base-ball commenced, and the course of the epidemic is the same as that of its predecessor. It is to-day being carried to such an excess, that unless there is something like reason in the exercise, the whole game will complete disappear. What was originally a healthy sport has grown to be a positive dissipation. We hear complaints from all our business men, because of the continual absence of young men in order that they may engage in the game. If it were once a week, it would be an excellent thing. It would give vigor to the frame, buoyancy to the spirits, and make the time lost to them compensated for by the addition activity. But when it is four times a week, and sometimes more, it becomes a decided nuisance. We admire the game of base-ball. We admire the results, if indulged in moderately, and it is because we want to see young Americans have such a game always as a recreation, that we oppose the present excess. Unless it is remedied and the over-indulgence abated, we see that it will disappear, as did cricket. Our business men will lose patience, and refuse continual absence from duty. At present it is positively losing money to both the employees and their employers. This state of affairs cannot continue, and as lovers of the sport, we call upon those who actively engage in it,”to draw it a little more mild,” as the meek philosopher says, and “not run the thing into the ground. |
| Source | Philadelphia Evening Telegraph |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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