A RIVAL TO CRICKET

Southland Times, Issue 23047, 14 November 1936, Page 20

A RIVAL TO CRICKET

BASEBALL IN LONDON Within five years baseball will be more popular than cricket in England, and within ten years it will be a serious challenge to the Association football as the national sport of the country, declares a Canadian sports writer, who has just visited London. This is not my opinion, says the writer. It belongs to a half-dozen English sports writers who know their country and its games. Ask them why this optimism for the American game in the tight little isle and they point out the healthy groups that have enjoyed the sport here for the past two years and—what is more important—the almost unlimited capital of men who are determined to see it succee I. It is common knowledge that English baseball is chiefly backed by operators of giant football pools and that their interest is purely mercenary. The betting operators consider baseball to be a perfect “plug” for the four months of May, June, July and August. These are the only months in the year in which football on which millions of dollars are wagered, is not played and they constitute a dead loss for the pool owners. They lose not only the revenue from the bettors but also wages for their clerical staffs. Men and women who work in the offices of the betting pools are expei-ts and cannot be replaced easily. As a result, they—and some of the bigger pools employ thousands —must be kept on the pay-roll in idle months. Baseball offers the perfect solution and the betting tycoons are ready to sink millions of dollars in Already thousands of pounds sterling have been spent and spent in the most effective channel —on the development of the game among the school children. Drive about London’s suburbs and you will see hundreds of boys, ranging from 9 to 18, playing the game with first-class equipment. There are several baseball leagues in the city and their championship games this season often draw crowds of better than 13,000, which is larger than many of the throngs at the big cricket matches.