Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-08-18 | Page 40 | Baseball Fans Turn to Races

BASEBALL FIi TUHHTD Ml "Sport of Kings" Is Fast Becoming Major Amusement Amuse-ment of America. NK.V YORK. Aug. 17. Kaoln? Is fajt bcci.minj; the major l-oi 1 or tho I nil oil Stales. Since the- rutins on proletsional base ball was handed down by Secretary Baker and tho announrenifni was made of th shortening of the bebM) soason - th's year, there hue been a perceptible ehnns. in the interest taken in both the riianioml sport and Die tun", l'nr the diamond Interest bus been rapidly decreasing. The ' crowds at the ball pHrks hav been much smaller, vhile. on the other hand, racing; has received a boost and. tlie crowdb at t!ie tracks have been much linger. The extension of the racing season in the eal guarantees one of the. longest ami most promising seasons the turr has ever known. After the clasp of the present pres-ent meeting at Saratoga, which sor has produced many unexpected t hrilju , the horses vill be moved lo other traekek for short meetings. l Helmont Pa rk opens on Sep t umber ' Innd close? again on September 14; Aqueduct, Aque-duct, September 15 to L'S: Mavre do Grace. September 10 to 2S: Jamaica, September i ;:n to October l: Laurel. October 1 to I 31; Yonkery, October 14 lo '.'ti; Pimilco, November 1 to KI, and Bowie, Novem-i Novem-i her 14 to 30. I Since the curta ilment of the baseball season there has been lilllo or no interest tn the "national pastime." Nobody seeinn to care who wins the pennant?, as they consider it more of a gift t ha n an accomplishment. ac-complishment. The ;uie applies to the world's series, if such classic ie actually played. Saratoga has had one Of the. most successful suc-cessful seasons so far that has ever been credited to the Spa track. The dead heat? aro now on for the "king" (6f the turf honors and the 2- a,nd o-year-old .honors among the runners. The appearance of the foreign -bred thoroughbreds in America and the prominent promi-nent place, they have already won for themselves in turf history hab done much 16 boost tho sporl. Interest in breeding breed-ing has been quickened with the bringing- t6 our shores of famous European sires and brood mares. ft has been predicted that the application appli-cation of the "work or fight" order to all forme of sport would seriously cripple the turf. This, however, is true onlv to a certain extent. The government will hardly apply the order to (he horses. If It is applied lo the jockeyt;, no really se- ' j rfous results will follow. Many of the leading jockeys are In the draft age. of course, but there are plenty of pilots available who would not be affected bv the order.