Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 175, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1918 — TWILIGHT BALL IS PROVING ITS WORTH [ARTICLE]

TWILIGHT BALL IS PROVING ITS WORTH

New System May Be Means of Saving Two Western Circuits. . ♦ American Association and Western i League Gain in Attendance by Starting Games Late to Accommodate War Workers. The American association has de* yeloped a very close race, yet in some of the cities of the league the attendance is not well up to the standard — which undoubtedly is due to the fact that so many young men patrons are now in the army, and that many men are busily engaged in work which prevents attendance at the week-day games. The situation has become serious enough to force the adoption of the twilight baseball scheme recently successfully tried in Minneapolis and St., Paul. Under this scheme the games are started as late as six o’clock, thus giving war workers a chance to attend the week-day games. The first twilight game in Minneapolis drew the largest crowd of the season. In the Western league the club owners find that the games started after six o’clock attract double the attendance that would attend the game at three bells. Late starts seem to be the only way to save the minors, unless the magnates are willing to stand a heavy financial loss this season. There is no denying the fact the minor league ball is not’as prosperous as it should be. And the only solution of the problem seems to be twilight ball. The army has taken so many men that the stay-at-homes are needed during regular working, hours. There are not enough people Idle z in tlie afternoon to make baseball a paying venture in the minor league cities. President Hickey of the American association has little fear of General Crowder’s “Work or Fight” order, so far as it applies to baseball. He believes that the order is intended to apply to the chronic idlers and useless employees at amusement resorts, of every description, and does not include baseball, which is a clean and wholesome amusement within its scope. Furthermore the general has always been in favor of baseball and therefore he does not believe that he now contemplates the virtual conscription of ball players, and this belief is shared by the majority of American association magnates, whose only problem is how to finish a hard season with whole skins.