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Show SLANG IN BASEBALL. The perennially vigorous controversy about the use of slang in the reporting of baseball games is once more with us. A few seasons ago this hoary and futile dispute had a strenuous inning in Chicago. One of the newspapers there invited its readers to submit their views. The 'slangistsM won by a score of about 500 to 3, and the game was called by the umpire on account of darkness. During Union association dars somebody some-body in Salt Lake "tried to start something" along the same lines. The movement didn't progress beyond the batting practice stage. Now a few "purists" in and about New York have resurrected the corpse of tho long-since slain. Some of the newspapers have been requested to print accounts of baseball games in "plain English." Whether or not the New York Herald was one of the papers pa-pers of which the request was made, does not appear, but a writer in that paper gives an answer which should serve for all. He says: Since the beginning-, our national game has had a language of its own. The slang that the baseball writer employs so freely has become inseparably a part of the game. It is hot off the bat always al-ways brief and graphic. It tells its story tersely and always to the point. There is a picturesqueness in the line of words handled by -the baseball writer that you don't find anywhere else In his paper. The Knglish he uses may not be error-j error-j kl; and some of it may be unintelll-gi.i unintelll-gi.i e to some people, but it is vivid, eon-cis:, eon-cis:, and usually coherent, and the college col-lege professors have always held out for vividness and conciseness. The excitement and exuberance of the game could not be conveyed in ordinary language to the satisfaction of the "fan." Being himself picturesque and alive, lie demands that whatever is written about 'the game shall have similar qualities. He refuses to find pleasure in a style that is used in describing a convention, a banquet ban-quet or a meeting of a labor union. He does not care about the English of it so long as there is life and vigor in the details that he is reading. To gain this effect the baseball writer has laid on the back shelf most of the hard-and-fast rules be learned at school and college and has evolved a set of his own that suits his purpose as nicely as a triple fills the bill with three on and three needed to win. English that the purist would O. K. was never intended for the sporting page, least of all the baseball column. To prove his point, this writer presents pre-sents a baseball report in language designed de-signed to meet the approval of the purist and also one designed to meet the approval of the "fan." The former for-mer reads: Tho baseball game yesterday between the teams representing the cities of Boston Bos-ton and New York, respectively, was one of the most exciting affairs ever seen at the Polo " ground. The young men on both teams played marvelously well and proved themselves adopt in every department. depart-ment. As New York made four runs while its opponent was making three, it won tlie game. Thanks to the ability of Mr. Lewis, the New York left fielder, in hitting the baseball, (he men representing the city of Xcw York were able to get their four runs. Mr. Lewis distinguished himself by hitting the ball hard in the seventh inning, with two runners on base, sending send-ing it so far he was enabled to reach third base before it was retrieved. Needless Need-less to say, the two runners scored. In the ninth inning, also, M r. Lewis made another long hit which brought in two more runs. His skill in this respect was the subject of considerable favorable cemment in the grandstand. Tho same information couched in terms of the vernacular: The Yanks and the Red Sox slam-banged slam-banged each other in the final game of the series, and the Yanks romped away with the candy, 4 to 3. Both teams uncorked un-corked the ging-er bottle at the outset and through the whole performance for the snappiest work of the season. Duffy Ijew is was the star with the baton. The blond Californian toed the p?ate with two in the seventh, bumped a bender on the trademark and zipped it to the fence tor a triple. He encored in the final inning for a smashing single, and the Gotham parties in the grandstand aeroplaned their emotions as two more Yank tallies trickled in. We submit that the Herald .writer has made a good defense of baseball slang. If any other is needed, we might add that baseball is the sport most beloved of Americans and if those Americans want their favorite game described in terms which mean every- 1 thing to them, and which they under- stand, they assuredly are entitled to have it so described. What is more, they '11 get it that way, armor-plated grammarians to the contrary notwithstanding. |