History of the A's

Athletics Require "Baking" - an Editorial

REGARDING LACROSSE

from the editorial pages of

THE EVENING STAR

Wednesday September 3, 1902

The lacrosse season is over, so far as the Athletics are concerned. The local team put up a gallant fight for the championship, but fortune was against them.

Now that the season’s battles have been fought and lost, it is but fair and sportsmanlike to give the honor where it is due, and cheer the unconquerable Brantford team. Brantford deserved to win. The people of that city were determined to capture the championship. They were not afraid to “go down deep into their pockets” to attain that end. They got together the strongest team that they could secure. And when they had gone that far, they did not hesitate, tremble and manifest fear or reluctance to go a step further, or as many steps further as were necessary in order to win. They were in the game to win and they were willing to go to any reasonable expenditure to win. Their team received loyal support. The men were not bull-dozed and criticized for every little misplay or mistake that was made. They were encouraged to go on and do better the next time. They were given every opportunity that was necessary to put themselves in winning condition. And they won.

It may be said – it has been said – that Brantford’s team is not a home team, that the players are nearly all imported. That seems to be a poor argument. Our Government is strenuously endeavoring to attract Yankee farmers into our Northwest Territories. We receive them as fellow citizens, naturalize them, make good Canadians of them. What is good policy on a large scale is good policy on a small scale. If you have not first-class home-grown players, import good ones. Naturalize them, make them citizens – and there you are.

The Athletics great weakness as noticed by strangers lay in their lack of staying power. They played a magnificent game, sharp, swift and clean during the first half. Then they begin to weaken. The race began to tell. The stamina that comes only from constant, regular, hard and systematic practice was lacking. Then, men who are accustomed to work under cover, protected from the heat of the sun during the day, and to practice during the cool of the evening, soon wilt when they enter a stiff struggle on a shadeless field during the heat of the summer afternoon. They require “baking.” But men who are under the necessity of working six days, or at least five days and a half each week, cannot secure this necessary “baking.” The proper course to follow, for the honor of the city, is to make it possible for them to do so. The Athletics might, very possibly, have had a different score at the end of the season, had this course been pursued.

But under the circumstances, considering the heavy handicap under which they labored, the local team did splendidly. It is no small honor to hold second place in such a league as the C. L. A., to defeat such teams as Orangeville and the Tecumsehs, and to give such a team as Brantford’s such a struggle for the championship. And the Star believes that Brantford would be the first to admit the fact, if the question were put.

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