Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 168, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1918 — FRENCH SOON BECOME REAL BASEBALL FANS [ARTICLE]

FRENCH SOON BECOME REAL BASEBALL FANS

As Enthusiastic Over Hit for Three Bases as for Boot ' - x Have Not Learned That Most Dangerous Place to Btand and Watch la Behind Bat—Big Entertainment for the Strollers. Are the French people baseball fans? Oo la la; anyone who was out on the Bois de Boulogne on a recent Sunday and saw the thousands of exdted Parisians crowding around the two baseball diamonds would answer that question with an emphatic “Oui.” The games were staged between the Medical Department Repair Shop No. 1 and the Searchlight Division on one diamond and the Red Cross drivers and Y. M. C. A. nine on another. But the fans didn’t know who was playing—nor did they care, says Stars and Stripes. Whenever someone cracked out a binger for three bags, a chorus of whatever Is French for “Atta boy l” rose from the crowd. And whenever the shortstop made a boot and let the ball get through to left field, the fans liked it Just as well as if he’d made the assist. And the Paris games are the first In history where the umpire has a chance with the bleachers. The reason is that they don’t know what or why or wherefore is the umpire. And the umpires, to date, aren’t giving interviews to the Paris dailies explaining the duties of their positions. But these new friends of our national game must learn that the worst place to stand while watching a game Is behind the catcher. In the recent games they were crowded within two feet of the plate and it was impossible to keep them back. “C*est dangereux!” an American would yell at them. “Ah, oui,” they agreed and moved back all of two inches. Those games ran for only five innings, and within that time there were several casualties. When a foul came screaming over their heads, they laughed; when the catcher let a bad one pass and it tapped a fan on the head, everybody came back for more. There are bound to be some serious injuries when the league opens if provisions are not made to keep the enthusiasts from acting as backstops. As a baseball game it wouldn’t have got very many paragraphs on a home sporting page, but as entertainment for the strollers to Boise de Boulogne it was a world beater.