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Show I Sporting Life. The sprites who control the destinies of the weather seem to have a well developed prejudice against this section and a fiendish animosity to-i to-i ward the fans. The continual drip of the rain clouds shut off spheroidal dallying, and sent i the baseballists to the barn. No baseball for three weeks; that sounded like the crack of doom to the faithful old fan who would ford Utah lake and amble over ten miles of desert to see a good ball tossing exhibition. When the Maroons again appeared last Thursday down at Sloughville they had to be formally introduced again to Billy Hey-l Hey-l wood and the other cranks who make the front row of the grand stand quake during an exciting battle. , The Collegians were fortunate in squeezing in their meet last Wednesday between two deluges, and their contest was the only out-door sporting event of the melancholy week. The pattering of the rain drove the sport-loving fraternity to a variety of indoor entertainment which will cause a ministerial shriek when the news reaches them. At all events, there was a cc fight a few nights ago, a fast, furious feather-f feather-f j bout, which shows that rainy weather in tie - onth of sunshine is very improvident indeed. w (,5 5 Snow will probably be flying before the last of the postponed games is played. &i i&ri V ! The track meet between the University of Utah and the University of Colorado was remarkable remark-able chiefly for the plethora of good material and the lack of form. The festival resulted in a tie 47 points apiece. The lack of form was especially noticeable in the field events. In the high jump the contestants went at the bar like a Sunday .school picnic at a i barb-wire fence and "getting up into air" appeared ap-peared to be an unknown requisate among the i broad jumpers. It is to be doubted if any of the ! hammer throwers ever saw a double turn properly ' done and this is a shame as there are lots of peo-! peo-! pie good with the hammer in this town. The pole vault was probably the best qf the field events and the winner, Russell of the U. of U. has the elements of a first rate pole vaulter, ' but is handicapped by a style that is as ungainly as a new militia officer with a large and unmanageable unman-ageable sword. Form, in track athletics, as in rowing, is an absolute essential. No man, no matter how strong or swift or game can hope to become a leading light in track athletics and especially the field events without it. For it is simply another name for the tricks of the trade and there is no trade which has more tricks than broad and high jumping, hurdling, putting the shot, or throwing the hammer. ! It is a shame that two teams having such splendid material should, for no other reason than the lack of proper coaching put up a line of work which, compared to that of an ordinary Eastern prep school team, would look like 25 cents and a five cent check on the Bismarck. It would be money well spent if the U. of U. should get Walter Wal-ter Christie to come up and give them a few I points especially as the ability and usefulness of the gentleman in charge of the team at present are not showing up very clearly in the great white light of recent results. The University is also badly in need of a B grounds keeper. Things were run in a most slip H shod manner. The different distances and the positions of the hurdlqs were not correctly and H permanently marked and this created delay and B confusion. In fact the finish of the high hurdles JH was determined by one of the officials pacing off the distance. The hurdles themselves were so flimsy and unsteady that an experienced hurdler could have run through every jump without a stagger. The time of the 100-yard dash 10 seconds, sec-onds, flat, was received with great enthusiasm until it was learned that the coarse was about 6 yards short. Surely no accurate or trustworthy records can be established or recorded under such conditions. The main feature of the meet was Jimmie Wade's game run in the half-mile and his win of the mile event, in the last quarter of which he ran his opponent clean off his feet. & & & The fans are anxiously awaiting results from the proposed strengthening of the Salt Lake team. The long spell of rainy weather has given the directors plenty of time for inquiry concerning concern-ing new men, and tne team certainly needs them. In view of past events there should be no fear that thy will make the team so strong that Ogden cannot make it interesting. However, Christie Is a good man, and he knows the game, and if not hampered too greatly will put out a team that will make Salt Lakers rejoice and "beat the earth with loud-sounding foot," as Virgil says. There are rumors that some of the ex-Utah leaguers who have previously made good could be secured with little effort. It is hardy a time for the directors to hesitate hesi-tate when they compare the attendance of the first Sunday game with Ogden this year with that of the majority of the games last year. At that mournful period the crowd consisted of about fourteen unwary strangers and the boy who tends the bats. It would also be a good-idea to let the captain control the policy of the team on the field. Advice Ad-vice and orders from the management in the grand stand confuse and rattle the players and if a captain doesn't Know enough to do the right thing he ought not to be captain anyway. As Mr. Kipling says, "Too much bloomin' background back-ground in front." & & 5 Prospects for fine harness racing are moBt bright this season, and the first meet in particular particu-lar is looked forward to with eager interest by local horsemen. There are an unusually large number of horses in training at Calder's Park, among them a number of horses new to local race goers. Prominent among these are Wim-mer's Wim-mer's green pacer and Lyons' dark horse, a recent re-cent importation to Salt Lake. There are also a number of formerly well-known well-known horses that have been returned to Salt Lake after campaigns in other parts. The results will be more in doubt than Is common, com-mon, both on account of the uncertain condition of the starters at this time of the year and the unknown capabilities of the new horses. 9 iv ff& The Decoration day road race with a number of fat prizes and a well-filled entry list takes place today. O w iff Salt Lake has apparently got a prize in Egan, the new second baseman. He eats up ground hits with avidity, covers lots of ground and is seemingly very strong with the stick. His three-bagger three-bagger in Thursday's game might easily have been stretched into a home run. Byrens, the new California catcher, is also playing first-class ball, and is already a prime favorite with the bleachers, lie' is a steady backstop and his throwing to the bases is remark ably quick, snappy and accurate. He makes things extremely unpleasant for base runners and makes them hug the bases closely. He and Egan work beautifully together. The third new man, Mauser, did not show up so prominently at third base, but exhibited good judgment in fielding a hit to third to the plate instead of to first when there were two out in the fifth inning of Thurs- IE day's game. Christie is evidently unused to hold- H ing down the initial corner and did not show up H well, except as regards his batting and base H running. H The Maroons need team work the worst way. H Such an occurrence as the collision of the right H fielder and the second baseman when running H after a fly ball to short left ought never to occur. H The balloon ascension of the Maroons in the H tenth inning of Thursday's game is too painful a subject to expatiate upon. Mahoney of Ogden is playing a great game at fl second base. Ho made a beautiful recover and throw to the plate in Thursday's game. HH The bike races at the Salt Palace give prom- 1 ise of maintaining the former high standard this season, and enthusiasts will see many well-known figures and a lot of new ones following the cheer- ful chu-chu of the motors around the saucer. fll |