Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-10-07 | Page 69 | British Fail to Get Grasp on Baseball

BRITISH FAIL TO GET GMSP mm. Are Astounded at "Protective "Protec-tive Armor" Worn by "Wicket Keeper." England is making a strenuous effort fully to understand and appreciate things American these days, and is' making quite a success of everything except baseball. base-ball. At baseball England balks, although it professes to see in the game a semblance sem-blance to a schoolboy game known to the Lnglish as "rounders." A writer in the Manchester Guardian, after having witnessed a game of baseball base-ball by Canadian soldiers, marvels most at the elaborate "protective armor of the players," and describes the catcher as "the man who stands behind the batsman and stops the missed balls." Detailing the "protective armor" of the catcher, the writer says; "His head is encased in a cage of metal and leather, and a thickly-paddd thickly-paddd covering protects his body from the heck down.' Here is the Manchester Guardian's description de-scription of the game: A baseball match was played by Canadian soldiers on Fairfield common, com-mon, Buxton, on Saturday afternoon. It made upon the observer's mind a curiously blurred Impression of something some-thing at once familiar and foreign. We have all played a form of baseball base-ball in our school clays, for baseball is the old game of "rounders" much els borated, and in spite of the strange guise in which it revisits us from across the Atlantic one gives affectionate recognition to it as an old friend. But the enthusiasm of reunion suffers a speedy check, and is succeeded by feelings of reserve and shyness. Puzzling Changes. There are puzzling changes both in the form and in the manner of the game. There is a fierce swiftness ami forcein the play which the school game did not possess. The rules are different, Surprising effects follow a catch out or a complete run around; and what was there in the school game to correspond wit h the equipment equip-ment of the players? Most striking is the elaborate protective armor of the player who, for want of knowledge knowl-edge of the terms of the game, we will call the wicket-keeper though there ,are. of course, no wickets the player who stands behind the butg-miin butg-miin and stops the missed balls. His head is encased in a ca ere of metal and leat her, a thickly-pudded covering cover-ing protoets his body from the neck downward, his shins are guarded, and he wears on one hand, in common with the men who are fielding, a great padded glove, to act as a buffer to the ball when its swift flight is suddenly stopped. Rooting Absent. U Is said that a baseball match, for the uninitiated at any rate, is a thing rather to be heard than to be seen. It requires not merely skilled players, but a body of spectators properly trained in the art of shouting shout-ing encouragement, advice, warning, and st im ifl.it ins inveetUv. Buxton people, though they have seen a number of these matches played, do not seem to have caught the fever, and the Canadians who were In the rnnvd on Saturdav were too few and too widely dispersed to glvo an effective ef-fective demonstration of . how the game should be played bv the spectators. spec-tators. They did not leave the players play-ers without vocal assistance, but "it was no more remarkable than that which is invariably offered by the Lnghh football i-rovd. The eh.-inoes of b'Khall raining a Place among our public iranies are not great. It has not the subtle skill of cricket, it m-c:iis to be chh-riv a matter of throwing th,v ball with 'extraordinary 'ex-traordinary swiftness, of h;,rd hittinc and running. As an ex-itoment it 's a long way behind Rngbv football The match was part of a Programme of sports arranu.-d bv the 'Buxton Coif club for the benefit of the Derbyshire Der-byshire Red Cross society.