New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-23
COLLEGE BASEBALL UNION
Columbia Captain Has CIeUer Plan
to Decide Cham piOnship.

w. A Tilt captain of the Columbia baseball
team has under way plan for the formation of
an intercollegiate baseball league which will cor
respond to the intercollegiate basketball league
which is now established among the Eastern col
leges. He sent letters last week to F. O'Bren.
shortstop and captain at Yale; +. Stephenson.
catcher and captain at Harvard; S Reid, captain
and shortstop at Princeton; l.. q. WEIGH, captain
and catcher at Cornell. and T. Hare. captain and
catcher at the University of Pennsylvania.
In the letters he calls attention the manifest
advantages to be derived from the formation Of
the league and asks their cooperation in forming
it. Under the present system the championship is
always left in doubt the end of the season. and
the relative position of various teams cannot be de-
termned. Cornell may defeat Princeton, and
Princeton may defeat Yale. and then Yale turn
around and earn victory Cornell Or two
colleges may go through the season VIGOROUSLY
but not meet each other. In this case one can
only guess at the championship from comparative
scores. This is always unsatisfactory.
In basketball this difficulty is done away with
by the formation of league. in which The college
that wins the greatest percentage Of games played
wins the championship. As Captain Tilt plans it.
the new league would be formed on the same basis
1t would include is formation Yale Harvard
Princeton. Cornell. Pennsylvania and Columbia
If later other teams wish to join the league hey
can do so, provided they can obtain the unanimous
consent of the teams already represented
As Captain Tilt has the schedule arranged it
would include two games between each of the col
leges represented in the league. One game is to
be played at home ana the other abroad In a
league composed OF six members this would make
ten for each and thirty games for the entire
league Under the present system it is PROBABLE
that none of the teams viii play less than twenty
games in the course of the season
The principal difficulty be encountered under
such course as this would be faculty consent for
the trips which would nave be made away from
college during the term Under the present system
the only trips made during The Easter vacation
or after college closes. when of the teams
continue 10 play for week or two. For Pennsyl-
wanna TO meet Harvard for Columbia to meet
Cornell would require practically days ccssa-
ron OF college work, to which the faculty might
object
In the case of Pennsylvania the schedule would
cal for two such breaks, in the case of Columbia
probable that the faculties persuaded to
grant she leave OF absence for these trips.
Captain Tilt is taking the matter up enthusiasts
tcalIy, and viii spare efforts 10 push the plan
through. He expects that there VIII soon be a
meeting OF the captains, to whom he has sent let
ters to discuss the plan which he is confident VIII
The plan seems Lave this fault: 1t makes no
provision for determining the championship of the
smaller colleges. such a Amherst and Dartmouth
Often these have teams which apparently equal
to those of the large universities. To admit them
all to the league would he lmpracticabe, because
ii would make the schedule unwieldy that It
would be impossible TO carry it one way out
of this difficulty would be the formation OF several
the end of the season would easily decide the cham
piOnshp.