Baseball is a good game if it is properly played. It is unfortunate that so many amateur games are spoiled because some of the players lose their tempers in their anxiety to have their wrongs righted. No matter how good a ball player a boy is he will never get the real benefit of the game unless he remembers that it is not the one who loses his temper but “he who ruleth his spirit” that is really entitled to the respect of his fellows. Make up your mind to abide by the decision of the umpire just as a soldier obeys the orders of his superior officer. It is the easiest thing in the world for an umpire to make a mistake, but he will be far less likely to correct his errors if nine angry boys are all talking to him at once than if your captain quietly goes to him with the rules or the facts behind him and states the case. It is an old saying but none the less true that “oil catches more flies than vinegar.” A boy who has developed a healthy interest in baseball while young will probably never lose it in after life even though his opportunities to play or even to see a game are few. I once met a mining man in the interior of Mexico, a hundred miles from a railroad and in a town where only three people spoke the English language, and this man had not been to his home town in ten years, but he had followed his baseball team through the papers all those years and could tell you more about the players than many a man living in the town where the team played. Such a man is what the newspapers call a “fan,” which is an abbreviation of the word “fanatic.” There is no harm in being a baseball enthusiast, provided that we do not allow it to interfere with our work or allow our desire to witness games to take the place of systematic exercise for ourselves. XVI HOW TO PLAY FOOTBALL The various positions and how to select men for them—Team, work and signals—The rules Football is usually played in the fall of the year because the exercise that it involves is so violent that to attempt it at any other time would probably result in injury to the players. The cool, frosty days of October and November make baseball out of season, and such weather is ideal for football.