Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-11-21
BRUSH. NIMICK. 
STEARNS, ROBINSON.
BASEBALL PRESIDENTS.

h. club, J. T. Brush and John Martin; Chicago club, Walter Spalding; Philadelphia club. A. J. Reach and John l. Rogers. Next in importance are the representatives of the Cleveland club, which is knocking at the League door and will undoubtedly be admit ted to take the place of Detroit They are J. D. Robisen, George Howe and D. Hawley.
 The Association men in attendance are Charles H. Byrne of the Brooklyn club. William Barnie of the Baltimore club and Gus Schmelz of the Cincinnati club. These gentlemen represent the Association on the joint rules committee
 The interesting event of the day, of course. was the meeting of the committee on rules, consisting of Messrs. Day, Spalding, Rogers, Byrne, Schmelz and Barnie They were in session almost all the day and evening" The changes they voted to recommend were not many and their action in ruthlessly killing many pet projects of managers and players caused much disappointment
 The committee will recommend that the number of bad balls necessary to give hats man his base be reduced from five to four and that the number of strikes remain as at present. They voted to abolish the foul tips as means of putting out batsman. The third and last change is an innovation that last years committee proposed in a somewhat different shape. It provides that in addition to substitute in uniform on the bench each club can have tenth man, whose name shall appear on the score card. This man shall be In uniform, and may be put into the game at the end ot any even inning, a player being retired, of course, to make 8 place for him. A similar rule providing for two men was passed last fall by the League, but it failed. because the American Association refused to agree to it. These three amendments were the only material changes agreed upon, al- though some minor changes were made in the wording of certain rules, to make their meaning clearer.
 The committee refused to return to the high and low ball rule by vote of to ?, and by the same vote declined to put the pitcher back to hfty-fve feet The committee was practically unanimous against the scheme to extend the foul lines and to make the home base round to increase its size and the prop osltlon to allow base runners to oyerrun second and third bases was also promptlv shelved One of the minor changes provides that base hit shall be scored when a batted ball hits the person of the umpire while he is standing on fair ground, and in such cases even though fielder recovers the ball and gets 1t to first base ahead of the runner, the runner Is not out, and all base runners shall be advanced a base without being put out The evening session was devoted to a confer ence between the committee on rules and the well known baseball writers of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Cincin- nati on the changes necessary to secure a system of uniform scoring in the United States
 There was much speculation among the knowing ones as to deals for players. and rumors were thick. Nothing definite was done, but the day developed surprise that put stopper on the ambition of the Boston triumvirs to gobhle everything in sight
 This decision of the Boston people was due to the fact that they have discovered that another and more favored bidder is in the market. This party is no other than Walter Hewitt, the young, rich and energetic presi- dent of the Washington club. When Mr Hewitt arrived in New York he stated that he was here to buy players, and he was ready to pay as much for few good men as anybody. And MT. Hewitt demonstrated that he meant husin before the day was Qyer He had seves conferences with Sred. Stearns in regard to the Detroit players and MT. Stearns tried to persuade the young Washington magnate that he would make Q good thing by buying the release of Hanlon and Getzein, but Hewitt was after bigger game, h fact, he wants J. M. Ward and De says he has the cash to make good New York's price. It can be stated that the re- suit of MT. Hewitt's negotiations was that MT. Day agreed to give Washington the pre- ference over Boston.
 All talk about Washington or Indianapolis leaving the League appears to be buncombe The only club to retire will be Detroit, and it is practically settled that the Detroit fran chise will go to Cleveland