The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-03-28
SPORTS.
SHORT SPRING TRIPS
Baseball Teams in the Future Are
Likely to Try New Plan.

Likely to Try New Plan.
This probably will be the last spring
IN which major league baseball teams
Will begin their training so close to
midwinter. as they have for many
years. There has been marked dis
position of late to shorten these spring
trips, both in time and distance cover
ed, and for several reasons. The ex-
perience of many clubs this year will
go far toward producing more
radical change of policy than would
otherwise be made.
From all over the South have come
reports of bad weather and poor re-
suits In the matter of getting practice,
although some of the teams have been
IN training for two and three weeks.
The best favored .teams are those
which went into Texas, and these
nave been handicapped Ay rains and
the cold "northers" for which the state
is famous. The Chicago Nationals, for
whom We're selected the most norther-
~ training grounds of the lot, have
Deen Kept indoors by snow, but they
have Jared no worse than the White
Stockings, who went as far south as
they could get, only to be shut off from
steady work by transforms.
The New York Nationals attempted
to avoid the extremes in either direc-
ton by choosing Memphis, and for the
same reason the New York Highland
ers went to Birmingham, Ala. Both
ran into bad weather and only recent
~ Polo ground fans were thrown Unto
q ut by the announcement that Christy
MatneWson, on whose health rests the
Giants hope for another pennant. had
contracted nasal diphtheria as the re-
suit of severe cold caught while
practicing on wet grounds. Location.
distance and expense have counted
little this year in the matter of con-
ditioning the players.
Before the present training season
began, several club owners. announced
this would be their last year of extern
stve trips. The latest convert is Ned
Hanlon the new leader of the Cincin-
natl Reds, who SO far have had the
best luck of the sixteen clubs.
Hanlon has announced that next
year he will make a radical change,
and cut the training down to three
weeks. 1t is his idea only the pitchers
need longer than that to get into play
ing form. He will send his pitching
~
staff and some catchers into South.
ern Guy SIX weeks before the champG
l0nsnip season Is scheduled to open, let
them WORK their arms gradually into
condltlon, and then Join the regular
players In some moderate climate for
the remaining period of preparation,
which will be devoted to putting the
feiders into form physically and to
a few practice games,
he argues that the regulars need
only three weeks of practice, and, if
tnelr preliminary work is made longer,
tney are likely to lose interest or go
stale before the opening of the real
season. Inc three weeks could be
dlvloed up into one week of boiling
OUT ana Two weeks of outdoor prac-
tlce win gradually increasing speed.
BAN players OF major league exper-
renee ana ability do not need extensive
practlce TO retain their skill in either
oattlng or fielding. Time is needed
only 10 train the muscles back into
sucn form tnat they will stand hard
use without soreness. Back in the
uays VI the bicycle rad devotees who
took their wheels out of storage in the
spring old not nave to learn the trick
-SAS AAAA6hI VIC
little less soreness Of hand and eye
In guiding the thing, a little more ap-
parent exertion required to propel it,
OUT tne OLD skill returned In day or
TWO. care was necessary to avoid
oVeraoing II at hrst, and there was an
lnevlta6ie soreness OF the muscles
aiter their long rest. but that was
ali;
IN the same way ball players ac-
quire tnelr former sureness of hand
ana eye IN short order every spring.
~ Is natural instinct which returns
aiMost Immediately.
Nearly Nfour weeks are left before
tne National league season opens and
more tnan tnat before the American
league opens IN the west. The players
can experience another week of ba,i
wear Wea,her ana still nave all that Net
Hanlon thinks necessary to get int,
cnaInploasniP form. This years ex
Isilence VIII DC watched with inter
eSt on tnat account. If the teams
, wmeh nave nave been Kept back in Their