Parks	Acres
Ambler Parkway Ambler-Woodland Hills Brookside Bulkley Boulevard Clinton Edgewater Fairview Park and Playground Forest Hill Parkway Franklin Circle Garfield Gordon Jefferson Kingsbury (opposite East Fortieth) Kingsbury (opposite East Fifty-fifth) Lake Front Lake View	48 22 159 39 2 117 6 88 1 182 112 12 160 16 33 58 10
1160 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS
Library Lincoln Monumental Miles Rockefeller (North) Rockefeller (South) Shaker Heights Wade Washington West Boulevard Woodland Hills Woodland Hills-Garfield Morgana	2 7 4 2 206 67 292 85 126 211 113 81 4

The authorities have added, to all these acres, drinking fountains, picnic tables and stoves, rowboats and the hundred and one items like swings and slides that go to make up a properly equipped recreation place. Not listed above is the great Highland Park Golf Course, on Kinsman Road, with thirty-six holes and a complete club house, showers, restaurant and everything. On the West Side, in Metropolitan Park south of Lorain Avenue in Rocky River valley, is another public course, with twenty-seven holes. Now we'll see what your Clevelander likes to do when his day at office or shop is finished. First and foremost he wishes to get out of doors ; scarcely anything else is considered when the weather is at all favorable. The city's Park Department has a Division of Recreation which keeps records of attendance at the amusement centers, and in those records we can find the story we seek. There are some surprises there, but it is not a surprise to learn that the first choice, by over-whelming majority, is the great national game— BASEBALL The complete figures for 1931 show that 2,625,000 persons attended games at the public parks during the year. That does not include the throngs that saw the Cleveland THE CITY'S LIFE - 1161 "Indians" battle with their American League rivals at League Park or the many thousands who saw the school and college games or improptu corner lot contests. The count is only for games played on city-owned diamonds. Three million would be a low estimate of total attendance, including all "unofficial" games, and if the attendance were spread evenly, every man, woman and child in Greater Cleveland down to the youngest baby, would see three games of baseball during the season. It is fitting that this condition should exist. Our fathers were not thinking about how to get a little exercise when they got home after a day's hunting in the woods. But if they had been, their thoughts would, no doubt, have turned to "rounders," the English ancestor of our baseball, for these pioneers were English by descent. As soon as there were enough small boys to make up a team, rounders was played in Cleveland, and professional teams were known in the early 'eighties. There is an excellent story in the city's baseball experiences, too good a story to be spoiled by half-telling. Besides, it is well and completely told elsewhere—the story of the days when pitchers threw underhand and hardy catchers wore no gloves, their hands looking like Japanese maple trees, with gnarled and twisted fingers; the days of the old "Brotherhood;" the well-organized revolt against the baseball "Trust;" the days of Pop Anson, Dan Brouthers, Cy Young, and later Bill Bradley, Addie Joss and the great Napoleon Lajoie. These are great names, and those were great days, and it behooves the narrator to tread softly on such ground and do his work with thoroughness and reverence, if he attempts it at all, for Cleveland takes its baseball seriously. We dare only mention in passing that Cleveland's American League representatives, the "Indians," now play in the Stadium, on the lake shore at the foot of Ontario Street. This newest and finest municipal stadium anywhere is expected to produce signal changes in local sports, making possible great inter-sectional football games and possibly the Olympic games. Already one world's heavyweight champion- 1162 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS ship fight has been held here, between Max Schmeling and Willie Stribling, and immense crowds have attended amateur baseball and football games, pageants, open air opera, circuses and fireworks exhibitions. Twenty years ago there were numerous vacant lots within the city limits where boys played baseball after school; but increased construction closed these, and with their closing came opportunity for the "bad" politicians, and the "good" ones, too, to create for themselves a warm spot in the hearts of their fellow-citizens. Not that the politicians did it for any selfish motive. They did what they did for the kids. Naturally there was a scandal or two in the purchase of sites for playgrounds; but, in the main, the graft was incidental to the chief objective. Plenty of playgrounds and parks were bought and equipped without scandal. There's a Cleveland Amateur Baseball Association, the "Sandlotters," which is highly organized with several leagues, teams being usually financed by business firms for advertising purposes. These teams are uniformed and well equipped, and furnish high class sport free. In a final game for the championship in the Class "AA" league, a crowd of 100,000 gathered at Brookside Park. This is claimed to be a record attendance for any sport event. The fields are well kept, with benches for spectators. Two paid umpires are provided for each game, police keep order, and thousands are entertained Saturday afternoons, Sundays and holidays. Schedules are maintained by the Commissioner of Recreation, so that there is no confusion at the diamonds. If teams not in any of the organized leagues wish to use one of the fields, they call up the commissioner and are told where and when a field will be available. There are forty-one leagues affiliated with the C. A. B. A., Including fraternal groups, industrial, institutional, school, settlement and church interests. Then there is the "Huck Finn" League, composed of 191 subdivisions with an enrollment in 1931 of 13,698 boys from settlements, schools and churches. Each player gets a free ticket on "Boys' Day," to see the Big Leaguers perform, and members of the cham- THE CITY'S LIFE - 1165 pion teams get tickets good for seven games, so that they can see every team in the American League. It would be pleasant to spend a great deal of time on this subject, dwelling especially upon the frequency with which the word "free" appears. Saturday mornings, for instance, when no regular games are scheduled, the little kids gather for free instruction by competent coaches, with free base-balls, bats, gloves, masks and all equipment. The C. A. B. A. furnishes the equipment, and the City the fields and officials. One hundred and four teams were organized in 1931 during these Saturday morning periods. Three hundred and forty-five boys received free medical attention at City Hospital, at the expense of the C. A. B. A. Class "E" is the youngest division, and teams in this group are not backed, so the C. A. B. A. pays umpires' fees and other expenses, averaging. over one hundred and fifty dollars every Sunday during the long season. There is a national association of amateur baseball players and a tournament every year. In the year in which our figures were compiled the finals were played in Cleveland, and the Cleveland team won the championship in nine successive games, all of which it won. Teams listed with C. A. B. A. - 1,902 Permits issued for games - 11,975 League games played - 2,907 Locations of the major baseball playing fields are Edgewater, Gordon, Woodhill, Garfield,. Washington and Brookside. These are not nearly adequate to take care of the growing demand for baseball playing space, and so it is evident that the figures of attendance which have been furnished here do not measure the baseball interest in Cleveland by any means, but only the extent to which that interest can be expressed in action. There is no question but that baseball holds first place in popularity. Second place is held by— PLAYGROUNDS The attendance at these was 1,713,999 in 1931. New equipment and improved conditions registered an attendance 1166 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS nearly double that of previous years, and there were five new ones opened during the year. There are thirty-nine of them now, not counting those in Lakewood, Cleveland Heights or any other suburbs, nor those of private institutions, but only those operated by the City of Cleveland. Highest attendance was at Lincoln Park, with 284,887; second, Fairview Park, 96,305; third, Sterling, 82,994 ; fourth, Woodland Bath, 80,330. These playgrounds are not simply collections of swings and trapezes, nor are the children dumped into them and left to shift for themselves. Several thousand adults are enlisted as assistants in the development of special event programs, and the play is purposeful and educational. Handicraft, sandcraft, toy orchestras, singing games, folk dances, games, story-telling and dramatics are correlated. A central theme such as a "tour of the world" is adopted and the folk lore, music, arts and skills of foreign countries are introduced in play form. Finally there is a playground festival in which 3,000 children participated in 1931, and which was witnessed by 30,000 spectators. Special talent developed in this way was broadcast over the radio. Hundreds of parents not only view but take part in feature parties every week. There is a Playground Theater on each playground, with a children's toy symphony orchestra, special instructions in the use of gymnastic apparatus, a program in magic and a special schedule in girls' activities. The playground activity is directed by a staff of 125 trained leaders. All this is free to all, and another credit entry for the politicians. The third most popular recreation—prepare for a surp rise—is BATHING "Bathhousing" is a better term, perhaps, for in all fairness it should be stated that sport rather than mere cleanliness is the attraction. The number of persons washed (under the classification of recreation) in 1931 was 1,643,- 536. That total is for the neighborhood bathhouses, but there THE CITY'S LIFE - 1167 were 654,000 more cleansed at the outdoor pools, and more uncounted thousands at the beaches of Gordon and Edgewater, Euclid Beach Park, Rocky River, Huntington Beach and the private beaches. More than 9,000 took regular instruction in the swimming classes and 1,000 were given lessons in first aid. The pools are located at Brookside Park, East One Hundred and Tenth Street and Lake Shore Railroad, Forest Hills, Garfield and Woodhill. On very hot days life guards are kept on duty as late as midnight. Thursday mornings are set aside as "Institute Day," when all guards assemble for schooling in swimming, life-saving and first-aid work. Time for this work is volunteered by the guards. The neighborhood bath centers are at Broadway, Central, Clark, Lincoln, Orange, St. Clair and Woodland. Now for another and a bigger surprise. If attendance figures may be accepted for the measure of popularity, fourth place goes to— THE ZOO It isn't much of a zoo, as zoos go in other large cities, but 961,000 Clevelanders per year like to go out to Brookside Park and see the bored monkeys and the somewhat motheaten lions. Not long ago a keeper was clawed to death by a zoo bear, and one of the councilmen introduced a resolution to abolish all the "fierce animals" in favor of "nice ponies and birds." The motion was defeated with derision, as it would have been if submitted to popular vote, especially if the children had been allowed to vote. No admittance fee is charged for the zoo. Next place goes to— AIR RACES Three hundred thousand have gone out to the Municipal Airport to watch the National Air Races, where the best flyers of the world were assembled. It is hardly fair to include these races as an indication of the city's normal recreation preferences, perhaps, as they are not a permanent institution. Yet they indicate what our citizens like and what they will patronize when the opportunity is offered. No explanations are needed, though, for the next choice- 1168 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS PICNICS With an official count of 262,343 for the year, it is probable that at least four times as many take advantage of the unequalled picnic facilities around here. Most of these followed the time-hallowed custom of loading the family into the car together with potato chips, hard-boiled eggs, bananas, chocolate and cocoanut cakes, watermelon (in season) and four different kinds of sandwiches, not to mention pickles (dill and sweet, in waxed paper) , and potato salad, with coffee in thermos bottles and lemonade in mason jars. But there is a modern, Cleveland method of picnicking. If your Sunday School is planning an outing, you can send your committee to the Recreation Commissioner at City Hall, answer a few questions as to how many, etc., and forget about electing program committees and all that sort of nuisance. The Commissioner will not only advise you where to go—and there are hundreds of desirable sites—but he will send out a skilled picnic conductor who will make up the program and handle it down to the last sack race and the fifty-yard dash for fat married ladies. Not only that, but the conductor will provide certain non-perishable equipment which your group could not afford to purchase for only one day's use. There's a regular Picnic Bureau in the Park Department, possessed of all the knowledge and technique of picnicking which the ages have accumulated. More than three hundred churches, schools, fraternal organizations and clubs take advantage of this service every year. Then too, improvements have been made in the strictly family type picnics. Open stoves or grates are provided in all the parks where picnic spots are set out, where you can broil your steak (or fry it in bacon grease) over a wood fire, and eat it on tables, reasonably immune from ants. Great is the picnic among local institutions. Great also, and next in popularity are— BAND CONCERTS AND FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATIONS Attendance here runs about 250,000 annually, divided among some nineteen or twenty community programs. Orchestras and bands play on soft summer evenings in Gordon THE CITY'S LIFE - 1169 Park, Edgewater, Brookside, Garfield, Washington, Lincoln Parks and the Stadium. Stands are provided for the musicians and seats for the audience—all without charge. Long ago Cleveland forbade the indiscriminate use of fireworks, in fact was one of the first cities in the country to take this step. So now the citizens may see much finer and more elaborate displays than would be possible for the privy purse, at the Stadium or at one of the parks, without cost. One of the surprises in this catalog is the failure of golf to make its appearance among the leading activities. Well, it isn't golf's turn yet, nor will it be for some time to come. The next mention belongs to— FOOTBALL The city has organized three leagues for the various age and weight classes, and a full schedule of games is played every fall on the public gridirons. From 3,000 to 5,000 spectators view these games. Total yearly attendance runs about 186,000 not including soccer, which attracts 94,000 more. Football has had an interesting evolution, like golf, which was narrowly confined at first to a few private clubs. Football, only a score of years ago, was played by boys on corner lots, in preparatory schools and in colleges. There was no general public interest. Today the scores are as carefully followed by the public as those of baseball, while professional football, after a difficult novitiate, is played throughout the land to large audiences. Practically all pro-fessional players, however, receive their training in colleges and universities, and to that extent the game is still a "college game." The increasing use of public gridirons like those in Cleveland seems likely to work the same changes in foot-ball that the sand lots did in the case of baseball, and produce a new crop of skilled players who may form the profes-sional leagues of the future. SKATING An annual skating attendance of 147,000 in a city which in some years produces no ice at all, shows what a hold skat- 1170 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS ing has on public favor and what a factor it would be in outdoor life if Cleveland had weather like Toronto or Minneapolis. Lake Erie is no good for the purpose, because the ice piles up in heaps and ridges. Cleveland's skating is nearly all done on artificial ponds, many of them on baseball diamonds in the parks, especially flooded, lighted, and provided with comfortable shelter houses. The city attempts to put on big skating carnivals every year, with races and masquerades, but it is a discouraging business because of the uncertainties of the weather. When the weather is right, though, attendance is limited only by available room. Coasting should be mentioned with skating, but it holds a very minor place here. The city prepares some twenty-six ponds for skaters and twenty-two hills for coasting, but the coasting is confined to the youngsters and to the active participants among these; for barring a few anxious mothers, there are no spectators. Roller skating is not very popular, and is confined to a few private halls. Next comes— TENNIS This sport has grown tremendously of late, and now attracts 130,000 players a year to the public park courts. Demand for playing space is far ahead of supply, although the situation is not so acute as it was before 1931, when all public courts were placed under daily supervision and all classes of players were given an equal and fair chance to use the courts. Tournaments for all classes are conducted, with strong lists of entrants, and the program calls for a culmination in the National Public Parks Tennis Tournament, in which entrants from twenty-two cities participate. Tennis used to be confined to the estates of the wealthy and to a few clubs, because of the cost of constructing courts; but Cleveland has made it available to all, without cost. Now we come to— YACHTING A well known Cleveland yachtsman once had aboard his fine yacht a guest whose mind ran to economics rather than to sports. THE CITY'S LIFE - 1173 "Do you know how much it costs to run this yacht?" the guest asked. "No," replied his host. "Do you suppose I would have it if I knew?" "Well, I will tell you." "I don't care to know. It would spoil my fun." "You must know !" the kill-joy insisted. "Your yacht is worth thirty thousand dollars, and the interest on that is eighteen hundred dollars, at six per cent. Insurance is nine hundred dollars. Now your season is June, July, August and September—four months—but since only Saturday afternoons and Sundays are available, we have but twenty-seven days. One-fourth, or seven days, must be deducted for bad weather, leaving twenty days, net. Allowing fourteen days for a vacation cruise gives us thirty-four days altogether. So for every yachting day you spend seventy-nine dollars and forty-one cents for interest and insurance alone. "Now, for the crew's wages, gasoline—" There is, of course, a point beyond which the endurance of a sportsman cannot go. Happily, the jury was sport-minded, as Cleveland jurors are apt to be, and the verdict was justifiable homicide. Furthermore, the accountant was dead wrong in his computation. While the local season is about as indicated, there must be added long winter evenings of poring over yachting magazines, planning the next season, the spring days of "fitting out" which are the best days of all to your true yachtsman, and moonlight evenings. There is no outdoor sport which yields so many pleasant hours a year as yachting does to the man—or woman—who has an inbred joy in it. Nor need it be expensive. There are yachts which cost a thousand dollars a day, and there are folk in Cleveland who live on their yachts all year—in water seven months, shored up on land five months—and do not spend ten dollars for strictly "yachting" costs, such as gasoline, repairs and fixed charges. Their costs are mooring fees and charges for taking their yachts out of the water in fall and launching them again in spring, plus a few quarts of paint and varnish. Fifty dollars a year is 1174 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS more than ample, and for this the yachtsman has his rent paid. From the boy with the canoe up to the small sailboat, powerboat, cabin cruiser and ocean-going yacht, you can have what you wish in yachting and as much or as little as you choose. Cleveland does not take to yachting as other lake cities do, but it is not cost that holds her back. It is rather lack of harbor facilities. There is plenty of room in Cleveland Harbor, but little dock frontage; and that little, at the foot of East Ninth Street, is used by the Lakeside Yacht Club under tolerance of the New York Central Railroad, which owns the land and may order the club off at any time. Also it is very dirty in the harbor, and yachting there is somewhat like holding a family picnic in the yard of a boiler factory. At Gordon Park, to the eastward, there is a narrow entrance to a creek, furnishing good shelter for very small boats and canoes, and a breakwall outside that protects against winds from the northeast. But nor'westers make yachting impossible there. Former City Manager W. R. Hopkins did more for yachting than any other public officer. He built the breakwater at Edgewater Park which provides a splendid anchorage for the Edgewater Yacht Club. But the heart of yachting. is at Rocky River, about seven miles west of the Cuyahoga, and well away from the coal smoke and oily waters of the harbor. Here is the home of the Cleveland Yachting Club, located on a six-acre island in the middle of the river. Few places on the Great Lakes surpass Rocky River in yachting facilities. There is ample room in the harbor for maneuvering, and good mooring space, also first-class winter storage room on the island, where the yachts are protected against thieves. If anything should happen to destroy Rocky River as a yacht haven, a finis would be written to yachting in Cleveland. There are two dangers at present. One is that the channel may fill up and no funds be available for dredging, and the other is that the yachtsmen may lose their quarters on the island, which they