To the Editor of the GUIDE:
We hereby have the pleasure of sending you two copies of the rules, translated and issued by the Westeras Base Ball Club, into Swedish from the Spalding Base Ball Guide.
The work of getting the book out has been somewhat slow on account of that the work of translating, proofreading, etc., all had to be done on our spare time, but it is done now, and I think we have succeeded pretty well, everything considered. The books will be distributed by a well-known book firm, Bjork & Boyeson, Stockholm, and will soon be available in all the bookstores in Sweden.
We got some advance copies out just in time for the Olympic Games, and I had the pleasure of presenting some copies to Commissioner Col. Thompson, Manager Halpin and others of the American Olympic Committee.
As you know, so did we have a game of Base Ball at Stockholm with one of the Finland teams, and as it may be of some interest to you to know the preliminaries to the game, I am writing to relate how it happened.
In trying to arrange for some amusements in the evenings at the Stadium, the Olympic Committee wrote us if we would be willing to take part in a game of Base Ball at Stadium some evening during the Stadium week. As our club this year was in poor condition, on account of some of our best players being out on military duties, we hesitated at first, but then decided to risk it, knowing very well that whoever we would play against, they would not rub in to us too hard. We pointed out to the Olympic Committee that it would not be very hard to get a team of Base Ball players picked out from the American athletes taking part in the contests, but as they would not be prepared for Base Ball, suits and other needed articles had to be provided for. We were then told to get necessary things ordered, and so we did. We ordered suits from a tailor in this town, after a pattern that I got from Spalding's this spring. The suits were of gray flannel, with blue trimmings for our team and red trimmings for the American. I also ordered bats and gloves, and with the things our club already had, we were very well equipped.
The Olympic Committee, Stockholm, then received a letter from the Olympic Committee, New York, saying that if a game of Base Ball could be arranged for during the Olympian Games, they would bring two teams along on the Finland. The Olympic Committee cabled to come along, and sent us a copy of Mr. Sullivan's letter. I knew, of course, that if the game could be played by two American teams, it would be a much better game than if our team took part, and told the Olympic Committee, and wanted to withdraw, but as they did not know for sure how it would be, told us to go ahead with the arrangements just the same, and so we did, and by the time the Finland arrived, everything had been arranged for.
The Olympic Committee has selected the evening, 7 P.M., of the 10th of July, for the game, and thought that this would be suitable to the Americans, but as some of the players had to take part in the contests, Mr. Halpin would not risk them then, so it was finally decided that a game should be played the 15th, the Americans to play six innings between themselves and then six innings against us.
Well, we had a game at the training grounds. We played six innings, and Mr. Halpin was kind enough to let us have a pitcher and catcher from his men. The score was 9 to 3, and it could just as well been 9 to 0, perhaps. Well, at any rate, it was the first Base Ball game, as far as I know, that ever took place in Europe between an American team and a European team, with England possibly excepted.
Mr. Halpin said that the Americans were going to play a game the next morning between themselves, but that game did not come off. There was probably no time for it, as the Finland left Stockholm the same day. Very likely the American boys were somewhat disappointed in not being able to play between themselves, as anticipated, and perhaps I should not have pushed our game ahead, but as long as there was a Base Ball team in Sweden, it would have been strange if it had not played, and it gave our boys a chance to see how the game should be played, and they certainly did take it in. Had the game been played as it was intended and advertised, on the 10th in the Stadium, there would very likely have been a bigger crowd present, and the game would also have been more talked about in the papers, but then we will have to be satisfied as it is.