Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-26

, lege men also may be counted legitimately
In the vast number of baseball-mad enthu-
siasts. And the college teams are par
tieularly In the public eye at this time,
for just prior to the opening of the profess
siona season they have been crossing
bats with the major leaguers, giving their
partizans an excellent line on their pos
sibilities for their championship contests,
which come late In May and In June.
Now is also a period of intersectionai
matches. for each year at this time the
college teams avail themselves of the OPP
portunity afforded by the Easter vacation
to journey to the South, playing the
strongest college teams In the latter sec
tion. And the Northerners have usually
met defeat below the Mason and Dixon
Line, perhaps because their arms and
muscles have not lost their winter kinks,
as have the Southern college players, and.
perhaps, because the latter really have
had the stronger teams. Who knows? Be
that as 1t may, there are fewer or the
big Northern college teams making this
annual migration this year, Yale and
Harvard both being among the absentees
for some reason or other. They announced
last year they would content themselves
with staying In the North, and cut out
4, the time-honored Southern Eastern trips,
and they have done so. Princeton and
Pennsylvania have been meeting the
, Coi0neis and Majors and will play still
other games with them later on. Al
though too early to indulge in forecasts,
it Is certain that some good battles will
be fought out this spring before the col
lege championships have been awarded.
While the professionals were warming up
or thawing out in the South meeting
Southern teams In their training camps,
the college mines were getting into shape
m oil onh
opening their preliminary seasons rather
early and meeting opponents the latter
part of March.
Wagner Leaving the Game.
One of the regretable features Of the
early baseball season, the period which
preceded the real opening last Tues
day, was the announcement that good
old Hans Wagner, the greatest shortstop
OF modern or any other times, Will not
be seen with the Plttsburg (National
League) Club this season. Instead, this
bulwark of strength, one of the best
players and one of the best-usually the
best-batsman in the league, Is to teach
the young men of the Carnegie Technical
School. of Pittsburg, how to shoot curves
over the plate and balls across the dia-
mond or whip them In from the outfeld.
He will be professor of baseball" illus
ltuliuS his luedS On iut DldChDOuAu III luc
classroom, and then take the pupils who
are trying for the nine out on the school
baseball field and show in more practi-
cal manner how 1t should be done. His
loss to the Major League in which he
has so long been a star, Is a very great
one, for the success achieved at various
times by Barney Dreyfuss proteges
(and it must be remembered that the
pennant has gone to Pittsburg several
tines has largely been due to the all
around ability of that big shortstop who
could usually be depended to drive in the
needed run when 1t meant a game lost or
won, and who scooped up every ball that
was driven in his direction, whether it
belonged to the third baseman or the
second baseman or not. Wagner has long
been the terror of all pitchers, and he
has received pass to first from them
when they preferred to sidestep the pos
slbility of a hit that might mean two or
more bases and possibly a homer. An
drew Carnegie's gain Is surely profess
sional baseballS loss.
Putting a Premium on His batting.
One of the interesting things about the
just-opened baseball season will be In see