BASEBALL’S NEW RIVAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 15 October 1927, Page 10

BASEBALL’S NEW RIVAL.

U.S WELCOME TO ‘-SOCCER..” In America you see ample proof of tlie saying that it is the mission of the English to ioach. tli© world to pl&y > says a New York critic. Apart from baseball, which is a scientific development of the English game of rounders, most of the games which have attained popularity in the United States have come from the land of John Bull. Association football is the latest arrival in the realm of American sport, and is fast becoming popular and profitable with the American public. Until quite recently it was played under cover, so to speak, as though its exponents were afraid to risk publicity until they had finished experimenting. Here, as elsewhere, the public prefers to pay big money for the privilege oi watching small groups of professionals battle manfully for supremacy in anything from marbles to polo. Only since the war has “Soccer, as is always called here, come into the limelight. In 1871 the first official “Soccer” match was played between a team from Yale University and a team made up of old Etonians. A few yeans later English Rugby—-now by far the most popular ipterlcollegiate sport in the United States, and a valued source of revenue to American institutions -of higher learning—was introduced from Canada and adopted as the national type of football. ... ~ More recently, in the beginning of this century, “soccer” was played in the public parks by teams whose jerseys were decorated with mystic sj mbols, and who shouted strange cries in a bewildering number of accents. Closer inspection showed the teams usually represented the. big shipping firms —the Ounard, White Star, and Anchor Lines, Next, mercantile and manufacturing concerns supported “soccer” teams among their employees and. “soccer” fields were fenced in and a turnstile or two placed at the entrance. This was a long step forward. However, the importation of the Hakoah All-Jewish team from Vienna last year brought about a tremendous jump in the social status of the game. Mr Nathan Straus, the well-known philanthrophist of New York, was the financial sponsor. Tickets were sold openly, and spectators often gave their right names upon inquiry. MATCHES BY SEARCHLIGHT. This year the Kerrykickers, the Maccabees, and the Uruguayans are reaping the partially ripe fruits of “soccer enthusiasm sown .years ago. The second tour of the Hakoah Team was concluded a short time ago, when the final game was played at night before a crowd of 10 000 spectators. In the Yankee Stadium —the mecca of all sports demanding an aduience —with tn© playing field brilliantly lighted by a dozen thousand-candle power searchlights, the New York Giants and the Bethlehem Steel combined team fought with the visitors to a scoreless tie game and the possibilities of the game were emphasised. “Soccer” is entirely feasible when played by artifical light, other conditions being favourable, and there is a great demand here for evening sport. Moreover, nothing but the local police of the State constabulary can stop a “soccer” game. It can be played in sleet, snow, drizzle, and thunderstorms —on hillsides, in swamps, or on a proper field. There is no American sport to equal it in respect of its immunity from external conditions.

Above all, there is the natural appeal of the game —the appeal which so early gripped and held the enthusiasm of sport-k>vers in the United Kingdom and Europe. Its simplicity and its lack of requirements in the way of equipment, the variety of'other games which may be played with the round association football, and the element of combat presented by the sport, all tend to “put it over,” as they say here in boys’ playgrounds, whether they be school yards, city streets, country fields or wealthy estates—and once that kingdom of sport is invaded the success of any game is assured. And the invasion to-day is well advanced in many parts of the United States. While “soccer” has moved up socially, it still has some distance to go before becoming a matter of public enthusiasm or indignation. The whole City of New York is outraged if the “Giants” Jose a baseball series to Washington; inter-collegiate football games between universities in California and those in the East are catalogued as the “East against the West” ; almost any prize liglit is “The Battle of the Century” ; but a “.soccer” game is just a “soccer” game, and as yet there are no three-inch headlines in the newspapers shrieking “New York Goalie Stands Off Chicago.” However, if it continues to progress at the rate at which it has advanced during the last two years, the day is not far distant when it will rival baseball in the national sporting catalogue.