Brawn and the Bleachers
THE
COMMONWEAL
A W~kly Review d Literature, The Arts, and Public Affairs. Volume V New York, Wednesday, January 19, 1927 Number x I CONTENTS Brawn and the Bleachers ................ 28I...
...It is di~icult to see how it can be modified...
...Henry Ford...
...and the very grandeur of our prosperity has made it fearfully dim...
...it was amalgamated with poetry, with drama the noble plas- tic forms of which revealed the fate of man, and with religious rites...
...Even the best of veteran players are dropped if, in the man- ager's opinion, their performance is not worth the price...
...It came out to see dramatic action, with brawn in the title rble, and it felt sure that it was actually seeing dramatic action--witness- ing the jubilant contest of might against might which has always been mankind's cherished spectacle...
...Thomas M. Schwertner 288 Man in Caf~ (verse)..Gouverneur Paulding 289 Utah the Beautiful...
...In fact, if one considers what has been done in other realms of sport, it was almost an idealistic move...
...283 Cleaning the News-Stands...
...Only this system can account for the abominable gush which men and women who have had ideas dump into magazines and books...
...It would add as nothing else can to the goodness and gayety of the populace...
...Bertram C. A. Windle, George D. Meadows, Gladys Graham, Edwin Clark, George N. Shuster, Ernest Sutherland Bates, Theodore Maynard, Ambrose Farley 3oi The Quiet Corner...
...Conceivably they halt now and then to consider that Mr...
...Undoubtedly, it is this second aspect of the sport: --its ability to enkindle enthusiastic emotionwthat is civically valuable...
...Has the effect been beneficial to base- ball ? Well, it has tightened the financial goad a little...
...James J. Walsh 293 Perils of Migration...
...Failure to recognize this salutary truism pretty nearly wiped out old-fashioned country racing...
...An official whose job is fixed tight enough to sit on, sits tight on his job...
...R. Dana Skinner, T.W...
...It is assumed that the rather poetic fancy is meant as a joke...
...But the other side of sport--the bare material side--is destined to create constant un-easiness and acrimony...
...But it is played with a joker...
...It is a fact that money has completely supplanted that older mainspring of com-petition which found its best symbols in a lady's smile or a laurel wreath...
...Mediaeval warriors preparing for a ioust were under no suspicion...
...And what is the result...
...The theatre, for instance, is no longer a serious competitor because, for better or worse, it has adopted so many of the purposes of literature...
...and these in turn mean writing that is dic- tated, not by inner necessity or poetic exaltation, but by the price paid...
...Enormous crowds assembled annually to witness various sport contests come away the better for the experience, stimulated as they could be by nothing else...
...Perhaps the symmetry achieved by the genius of Phidias was really a symbol, a reflection, of the harmony arrived at between the discus-thrower and the poet...
...Prince William of Sweden, John Sherry Mangan, Leo Markun, Violet Alleyn Storey, Harold Vinal, Kenneth Slade Ailing 297 The Play...
...In fact, the Judge has even laid himself open to suspidon that the recent scandals were broadcasted only because the news that they existed had in some way leaked out...
...Today the very suggestion that a baseball hero---or a 'varsity football team--ought to stalk forth for the sake of fame evokes a series of guitaws...
...But there it remains, the skele- ton in the doset of popular amusement...
...He takes his place in a history that is mastered by far more people than one normally supposes...
...Margaret Lee Keyting 29 o Physician, Heal Thyself...
...What else is implied in the constant discussion of school athletics...
...287 The Mass and the Movies...
...286 The Voice of the Vatican...
...It is still a good game...
...An institution which can accomplish this needs to be preserved and developed, even if abuses do mar its value...
...Now, admittedly, sport is not the only modern activity to sutter from what can only be called the malady of fixed rewards...
...One should like to hope that the old ideal of glory could be brought back to earth again...
...and if a neighboring institution is unfor- tunate enough to be minus a seating capacity and a live town, its request for combat is likely to be ignored...
...298 Communications...
...In poli- tics, the sinecure is the source of all ills...
...Prowess of body, as dis- played in athletic competition, was not isolated...
...It came rather close some few years ago to making stock in ball-clubs an unprofitable investment...
...The public that sits on the bleachers wants the struggle to be realistic...
...Thomas Walsh 296 Poems...
...Everybody knows, for example, that big baseball is played by men who try to get the largest salary possible...
...Obviously, popular senti-ment also continues to weave round performers of prowess the aura of a legendary fame...
...The old record of the laurel wreath which brought immortality of renown upon the fields of Greece is parchment over which we may sigh but which has precious little ad- vertising appeal...
...But there is one aspect of that record which may be of some value even now...
...A man like Christy Matthewson or "Babe" Ruth becomes a hero with a vast following...
...Possibly the audience which went from a com- munity athletic field to a theatre which expressed its collective strength and aspiration would be satisfied in a measure far beyond what we can now conceive...
...Their primary object is not at all the same thing as what brings the crowd...
...The Greeks, and in fact all peoples who reverenced the dassical tradition, made their popular festivals satisfying to the whole of human nature...
...Volume V New York, Wednesday, January 19, 1927 Number x I CONTENTS Brawn and the Bleachers...
...Citizens who have forgotten the date of Gettysburg--or even Gettysburg itself--can tell you instantly how a timely homer won a game in '98, or how many balls a brawny arm pitched to an embattle& hero on an afternoon even more remote...
...It becomes particularly painful when brought to attention 282 THE COMMONWEAL January x9, t927 ml in connection with glamourous names like those of Cobb and "Tris" Speaker, or when a college president admits that the grid heroes representing his institution have been subsidized even as (in his opinion) they are at other colleges...
...In literature the ownership of a successful name means the receipt of handsome contracts...
...The community thus avoided focusing its attention upon one form of self-expression, and cast over the primitive arts of physical strength the glamour and softness of the more idealistic crafts...
...Henry Somerville 294 Douai in Decay...
...With reference to the second, events prove very clearly, of course, that a good name is still an indispensable asset...
...Or of baseball scandals...
...All the while the public has been content because it has preserved its illusions...
...What is the good of following the fortunes of war if the treaty of peace has been signed in advance...
...But it is particularly disastrous that the malady should prevail in sport, because sport is about the only surviving community enterprise...
...The costs of coaching, training, scouting and other incidentals have been permitted to reach hitherto undreamed of figures...
...Baseball tried to view itself as a public utility, and appointed a supervisor whose personal in- tegrity was to guarantee that proceedings were above board...
...But let us look at the balance sheet I Under Judge Landis, yarn after yarn about corrupt ancient history has been dug up and aired...
...But it has thrown against the vital public illusion the whole weight of new evi- dence that the game is not really a dramatic contest, but a matter arranged sometimes by capital and some...
...The worst taint which could have atfached to them was a preliminary bribe to guarantee a lady's favor...
...28I Week by Week...
...At least it is encouraging to think so...
...Athletic stadia have been erected with a financial outlay that rivals the manipulations of Mr...
...This fact we like to ignore...
...During recent years the price of tickets has soared at a much faster pace than tuition fees...
...The move was courageous...
...THE COMMONWEAL A W~kly Review d Literature, The Arts, and Public Affairs...
...Here the healing, purgative value: of action that satisfies the fundamental human dra~ matic instinct, that frees the soul from burdens anti repressions, is revealed better than it is anywhere else in American life...
...Lawrence O. Wolf 295 Lines from the Armenian (verse...
...It is bitterly opposed to frame-ups and secret agreements...
...Alma mater carefully considers the gridiron gate...
...And everybody connected with organized baseball knows the stands will be empty unless there is absolutely no doubt that each of the rival teams has its heart set on winning--that, in short, the fight will go to the fighter...
...But there is no sign that its halo beckons to any of the young...
...But the contrast between the public illusion and the real thing is too great, too actual, to continue with- out doing damage...
...307 BRAWN AND THE BLEACHERS T HE passing from earth of glory as an ideal hap- pens to be a stirring topic of conversation just now...
...One must suppose that the Roman habit of turning the thumb down was an efficient, if cruel, preventive of attractive "arrangements" among popular gladiators...
...It may be that if we could somehow make sport a part of life instead of cutting it wholly adrift from life, we could conserve that dramatic vitality which all who are normal cherish so deeply, without running the risk of chaining the whole thing to the meanest of steeds...
...Jenkins of Okeechee is keeping a reverent eye on their prowess, but normally their attention is riveted upon the more accessible gentleman who must be satisfied if the pay check is to maintain its standard...
...Money becomes the goad of the game...
...It has proved that no player's pay check can survive the breath of accusation...
...times by perfidy...
...299 Books...
Vol. 5 • January 1927 • No. 11
