Salt Lake Telegram | 1905-01-02 | Page 9 | Rome is Invaded by National Game

ROME IS INVADED BY NATIONAL GAME Baseball -will not down. The Instincts Bind principles of the game seem firmly Imbedded in the hearts of the youth of America, and even In the distant parts of the world the Joy of the three-bagger and the hot grounder Is undiminished. One of the American colony at Rome Writes the following letter, which shows that If enough of the Italian emigrants can "-see the games they will have a pretty fair start as American citizens before they hit Castle Garden. "Last week, coming through the Bor-ghesa Bor-ghesa gardens, I was much surprised to bear real United States words to this effect: 'One strike! two strikes! three strikes! Batter out!' Well, it was enough to make a horse laugh,. The young priests or students of the Amer. lean college were playing our national game fth their long priestly robes and 1 big hats on. They appeared to be enjoying en-joying it," as I did also looking on. One of them fold me they have Thursdays off. Baseball was good enough for them. I will look them over again." South Africa is also waking up and has a first-class league with a number of American college players acting as Instructors tn the game. Large crowds attend the. games and have already learned to root, both In Knglish, Dutch and Hottentot. Herman Suter, formerly former-ly an outfielder on the Princeton team, leads the league In batting, with an average of .657, which is clouting them some. It ia evident, however, that the spit ball has not as yet reached South Africa. The Japanese have taken up the game, from the various U. S. war vessels ves-sels and from the Japanese graduates Of American schools, and are preparing to slnd a college team to play the California Cali-fornia universities next spring.