Page:America's National Game (1911).djvu/525



OR more than ten recent years each Base Ball season has seemed to be a climax of prosperity, only to find the succeeding season further advanced in every way than its predecessors.

I do not limit or attempt to define the qualification of prosperity and success by any material advantage which may have happened to each individual club of the major league circuits. Superficial observers of Base Ball conditions are too prone to believe that the general conditions affecting the national game are contingent upon the attendance in the greater cities.

It is true that prosperity in the cities means a certain amount of Base Ball interest in all the territory which is within the metropolitan influence, but it is also true that there has been a very wonderful and general growth of interest in sections which are remote from the major league circuits, and which are dependent for their professional Base Ball upon the so-called minor league organizations.

If we look for a specific date from which to measure the revival of conditions from the chaotic period which followed the organization and death of the Brotherhood 493