Evening star., 1909-01-10
WEAK POINT IN
COLLEGE BASE BALL
All Right in Defensive Play.
But Poor While on the
Offensive.

game as played by professionals. Any
body who has followed professional and
college base ball closely must have
marked the wide difference in quality be-
tween the two-that IS. taking the best
college tase ball and the best professional
base ball as eXpounded by the teams OF
the big leagues.
1t isn't that the college players are
lacking in intelligence as applied to the
national game. The reason for the diff
ference is that base ball is a business
with one. a side issue with the other.
Rating the playing of the major league
teams at 100 per cent, the college
game would be - per cent in fielding 10
per cent in batting, TO per cent in pitch
ing and 33 13 per cent in base running.
The college fielding is within a quarter
as good the big league fielding but
the batting is only one-half as good and
the base running only One-third as good.
In short, the college game is weaker in
batting and base running than in fielding
and pitching.
The college player knows less of the in
side game. tfe offense OF base. ball. than
he does of defense, as compared to the
best professionals.
These figures are the estimate of David
Fultz who formerly played with the
Philadelphia Athletics than whom no
opinion on the subject. Fultz was a first
class college player, flrst-class profess
Sional player and has had success as a
coach. Therefore he had had opportuni-
ties to acquire knowledge of the profess
sional and college game from all angles.
with the college man." he says, base
ball is more of conscious effort. The
professional, on the other hand. does the
same things by intuition. though an ntu-
tion born of experience. Long training
along certain lines makes the game Sec
ond nature to him.
Does the professional play the game
more intelligently than the college man.
He does in so far as it is business
with him. His life is given up to it, is
spent with men who are the peers In that
calling. He comes in daily contact with
the most advanced base ball that is
played, and he becomes capable of doing
things that the college man knows about,
but hasn't the ability to perform; for in
stance, the squeeze play and the hit-and-
run play
But why haven't the college men the
ability to perform these plays?"
Lack of Opportunity.
Want of opportunity. The college man
plays base ball about two months and
half in the year, and then meets an op-
ponent about twice week. Moreover, the
| teams that his team meets are, as a rule,
| of the same base ball grade as his own.
And when it comes to learning the
weak ana strong points of his opponents
| play and making the most of them, you
must remember that he goes against a
particular opponent not more than three
times in the season at the most. The
professional has the advantage of playing
against the same even teams for six
months at a stretch
| In answer to question whether the
collegian had the natural mental ability
of the professional, needing only the ex-
perience to bring it out Fultz said:
Yes, his mental caliber is such that
with the same experience and the same
physical ability he would make a better
player as soon as he overcame a certain
nervousness in executing the game, grew
accustomed to the excitement and the
surroundings
college base running is a good way
! behind the professional game" continued
Fultz, 'and it is an idea of mine that it is
! farther behlnd than it should be. Eve
seen college teams that never attempt to
! do anything in base running, seen them
stand still on the bases when the oppos-
/ ing catcher was weak in throwing and
| the opposing pitcher dfdn't know how To
hold them close to the bases
Again, the opposing baSemen didn't
KNOW now TO touch Il man sliding to a
DdSe. The chances consequently were ali
| no effort to take advantage of the per-
centage in his favor. The college player
runs fast enough, but he is slower than
| the professional in getting a lead and
doesn slide as skilfuly
Il know that when | was in college I
never attempted To steal as [ should have
| done. though L always could run fast
and slide we'll F'ultz was one of the best
sllders professional base ball ever nad)
| Il didn't realize until later that many a
| time in college games l could have tried
| to steal and got away with it. L suppose
L improved 10 per cent in base running
after leaving college and about % per cent
| IN batting and 10 per cent in fielding. or
course, l learned great deal of base
| ball as a professional l never knew at
college. especially about the execution Of
plays and the times to try them.
Collegians' Tired Eyes.
| Base ball almost more than any other
game requires perfect eyesight-battinS
more than anything else in the game. I
don't mean that going to college is bad
| for ones eyesight. but when one is study
| ing a good deal his eyes naturally get
| tired and that has at least a temporary
effect on his batting.
| Il think it is the tendency of the coach
| to expect too much from the college play
ers the coach having seen good deal
of professional base ball, while some OF
| his pupils may have seen little, or even
none of it. For all that, college players
sometimes do things in a game for which
| the coach cannot find any excuse, and he
wonders what could nave been in their
minds to prompt them TO try such
/ play.
There was a big college game in New
| York last June, i'll which the collegianS
| want of alertness in taking advantage of
weaknesses in the enemyS armor was
| clearly brought cut. The catcher on the
! side which eventually won had IA sore
| finger, but the opponents weren't aware
| OF that fact and never would have been
aware of 1t had they not been SO informed
| by John McGraw who was sitting in the
| grandstand and was very friendly with
| the captain of the side which eventually
| lost McGraws keen eye detected the
| fact that the opposing backstop had
| finger which bothered him when he threw
| to bases.
! The game went along for six in
ninps without his fayoriteS doing any
| thing in the base running line when, un-
der the circumstances, they should have
| been taking every chance. Finally. he
went down to the bench, and remarked TO
| the captain of his favorite team:
..Why don't you fellows steal? Steal
whenever you get on. Don't you see that
| cat cher has a sore finger and can't throw
with certainly Right after that the
| captain of the team McGraw was root
ing for got on first base. stole second and
l