Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
1917 - Baseball Losing Popularity Because Commercialism Has Stepped In, Says Corbett

by James J. Corbett

Was Fred Clarke right when he said that the trouble with baseball is that "it has degenerated into a pink-tea affair?" Or has baseball slipped from its once lofty heights of popularity because of other reasons?

Something is wrong with baseball. No one can deny it. The great national game doesn't enthuse the populace as in the other years. There isn't any wild hurrah over the opening of the season. The fans of today go to the parks in fair volume but theirs is an impassive attitude. The old hero-worship stuff has disappeared.

The former Pirate leader, commenting on the waning popularity of America's national sport, said:

"The general fault is that the players have become entirely too friendly with one another. Baseball used to be a game of fight, fire and "pop." Rival teams regarded each other as enemies, not as fraternity brothers. The players didn't go out on the field with the idea of staging merely a scientific athletic contest. They went out to win. And they took every chance to accomplish their purpose.

"I am not an advocate of rowdyism on the all fiend, but I dare say that the Charlie Herzog-Ty Cobb mixup down in Texas would help to stimulate interest. If those teams met again in big league competition an enormous crowd would turn out to see the games. Why? Because the fans would know that with Cobb and Herzog at loggerheads and the rival teams heartily disliking each other some fireworks might be exploded any minute."

Many have tried to diagnose the ailment of baseball. A majority have felt that the outercropping of commercialism has been the biggest cause for the general slump in popularity. Baseball, fundamentally, is a sport. But during the past few years the sport part of it has been subordinated. Money has become almost everything in baseball. Magnates and players alike have offended the sport-loving public by their wails concerning finances. And part of the public has turned away in disgust.

Tennis, golf and automobiling have been arch-foes of baseball. They have lured away from the grandstand and bleachers hundreds of thousands who used to camp there regularly during the summer months. And the net and the link games are gaining hundreds of new devotees weekly.

Five years ago there were in America probably 300,000 to 500,000 persons who played tennis. Today that army has increased to 2,000,000 at conservative estimates. Where have they come from? Well, some are former baseball fans who are now middle-aged but still able to indulge in the strenuous racquet game. The others are the youths just emerging from their teens. In other eras they would have become baseball fans. But they turned to tennis - and that's where they will continue to worship.

The golfing ranks numbered 250,000 to 50,000 (sic) five years or so ago. In America today there are approximately 2,000,000 golfers. Some golfers place the number at 8,000,000 but I think that is very high. From where came the increase? Mostly baseball enthusiasts.

They noticed that baseball was becoming a cut-and-dried commercial proposition; that it was losing caste as a sport. And so those men have turned to golf.

Every man would rather mingle in some athletic contest than be merely a spectator. Baseball is too strenuous for most men who have passed 30. Golf isn't. It is a game for all ages and both sexes. It delights. It fascinates and it is a fine, stimulating exercise. Can you wonder why men have taken to playing golf, in preference to sitting in a ball park watching an athletic contest?

The low cost of automobiles also has dealt baseball another terrific blow. In the other years father used to take mother and the children to the ball park on an occasional afternoon - or go alone, in case mother and the children weren't keen about it. But nowadays most families of the middle class have a flivver of one variety or another. When Saturday and Sunday afternoon comes around, father says:

"I guess I'll go out to see the baseball game this afternoon."

And mother responds:

"Pardon me, my dear, but you are wrong. The children and I need a little fresh air and recreation. Crank up the car and we'll all go for a ride over the hills and far away."

And father, being a very intelligent as well as loving husband and parent, does that very thing.

Deseret Evening News
Salt Lake City, Utah
Wednesday, May 23, 1917

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