1912 Olympic Games Official Report Part 2

A nidtag (foul) is the term applied if one of the wrestlers comedown on his hands and feet, or is in any other dangerous position,and his opponent rushes up to him and presses him to the groundby sheer weight, and without having the prescribed hold. All “nidtag”(fouls) are forbidden.At 3 p.m., on Monday, the 15 July, competitions in IcelandicGlima-Wrestling were held at the Stadium, for a Cup presented tothe Swedish Olympic Committee by Icelanders living in Denmark.The following Icelanders took part in the competition: SigurjónPjetursson, Hallgrimuå Benidiktsson, Magnús Tomasson, Axel Kristjánsson,Gudmundar Kristinu Gudmundsson and Kári Arngrimsson,Halldór Hanssen acting as judge. The display was one of the mostdelightful of all the competitions in the Games.Baseball.The game of baseball is one of no very ancient date in Sweden,Vesterås, in 1910, being the birthplace of the first club formed forthe practice of the game that is so very popular in America.When, in the spring of 1912, the Vesterås Baseball Club receiveda communication from the Swedish Olympic Committee, inquiringwhether the Club would be willing to take part in an exhibition gameone evening during the Games, the question awakened both pleasureand doubt in the hearts of the members, for, though the highest wisha Swedish athlete could entertain was that of being able to take anypart in the Olympic Games, there were doubts if the Club couldget a team of good players. Many of the most prominent membersof the Club had left the district, and this loss seemed a difficult oneto make good. However, by means of continual practice, carried onthree times a week, the Club managed to get together a team sufficientlyskilful to be able to give their opponents a fairly good game.The American Olympic team in Stockholm had the idea of givingan exhibition of baseball in the Swedish capital, and had thereforebrought baseball outfits, together with a description of the game,printed in America.According to the original Olympic programme, the evening of July10 had been reserved for the exhibition game in the Stadium, but asthe American Olympic Committee would not allow the members ofthe team to take part in the game before the end of the other competitions,the baseball match was put off until Monday, July 17, whenthe game was played at the Östermalm Athletic Grounds, the Stadiumat that date being needed for the Horse Riding competitions.As, in baseball, a great deal depends on the “battery”, i e. theability of the pitcher and catcher, and as, compared with their opponents,the Swedish team was pretty weak just in this respect, the captainof the American team was begged to allow two of his men toact as the battery for the home side. The visitors were kind enough823