New-York tribune., 1909-02-15
COMMENT ON SPORTS
SILENCE ON RACING.
y,rrs and VieSCs on Current Topics,
Amateur and Professional.

a TQIS1lT ana SOg CSotOfICIs
stewards Of the Jockey Club held meeting
asr but again declined TO take into their con-
U.s. IS those interested in the sport Of racing.
-.ssrnen are beginning TO take lively interest In
nv. os,,,on the Jockey Club will take, and while
-a,ces have been had that meetings VIII be
- the feeling is general that the time has come
O. ths stewards 10 make Some Of their plans
- II such plans have been outlined The more
.s-vatfve believe that the star chamber ses-
- .-o-o which no official word OF encourage
-. comes are for the best, and that there is still
,.n-< Of time for the stewards and the various
Icing associations to perfect their plans This
To- ba trge but at the same time the sooner dates
=. announced and the programmes arranged the
-.,,s- Will new interest be aroused in the sport
.,cb suffered a lnockdowns blow last year. fol-
,o-4ng the passage Of the Agnew-Hart law. If. as
~. suggest the Jockey Club is waiting for some
80 court decisions before arranging any definite
sans then it is high time the lawyers retained 10
1,, egte- these cases made move. else the de-
r..b,s questions may hang fire for another six
-nonths or more The announcement came from
washington last week that meeting would be
tad zt Benning following the one at Pmlico. and
,t,s IN itself furnished crumb of comfort for the
-eason that the washington Jockey Club would
t.-sv make this announcement unless the governors
xrsre reasonably that the various associations
hero would conduct meetings in previous years
While & is foolish 20 any in the various
mans for the coming II is reasonable 10 be-
tee that one Of the questions discussed has been
the price Of admission. and that there is some
ground For the statement that IL may be raised To
g read plant from q follower Of the sport
q few days ago this question. in which strenU-
Gus objection was raised TO making the price any
higner than il was last year. The letter said in
mart: '"Tc make racing as popular heretofore you
want the people who enjoy racing for the sport
alone end who take their families with them. Such
people cannot afford pay s. EACH but could pay
& and not feel the expense much. The court
decisions have all been favorable and the betting
question need not be considered-that will regulate
itself in time At a So gate. s. at the highest
I firmly believe that the average attendance on
ordinary days would reach from 5000 TO 5000 per
sons and Saturdays end holidays from 5000
leeo could be relied on, which would bring in rev
enue enough to give good purses TO horsemen and d
far revenue TO stockholders This sounds we'll
but what OF the attendance last year. when the ad-
mission vas lowered from g TO 81? It fell away to
mere handful of persons the majority OF whom
held complimentary badges. There is reason for
this perhaps, in the surprising activity of the po-
licemen and detectives but at the same time II
did not look II those who enjoyed the sport for
the sake OF the sport were willing to support it at
g. When the question OF admission came up at
that time in favor of raising II rather than
lowering II. and nothing that has occurred since
has led me TO change that view. There is time
enough TO discuss this when more definite fnforn1s-
ton is at hand. but from what little I can learn
the price Of admission will not be changed
There is likely TO be a little baseball furry in
Chicago this week, after which the fans can in
terest themselves IN the spring training trips which
are now al hand, and the opening of the league
season, which is only about seven weeks away.
me meeting in Chicago viii be stormy ore.
less Charley Murphy, the president Of the Cubs
oec1des TO laugh some OF his recent tltterances
directed against Harry c. PuIliam president of the
National League, and Ban 3. Johnson president
o. the American League Personally 1 have never
been able 20 take Murphy seriously and II is hard
20 believe that ne will pertist in a campaign Of
Hntagonism against those fc1 whom at least-a a
show OF respect IS due. Pullian is a fighter. and
II Murphy is eourting trouble he IS quite likely to
fnd plenty of it before he gets through There
has been much talk about the inaction Of the
committee appointed to investigate the charges of
bribery n that famous game between the
Cubs and the Giants in this city last October. 1t
is hoped that report Will be made as the
baseball public entitled 10 some explanation, in
Rsmuch it was considered important enough
after debating the question for two days, to make
the announcement at the annual meeting IN New
York that an effort had been made to bribe the
umrires- 1t may not be case for the courts but
slur has been cast on the good name Of baseball
krd It should be cleared away.
Princeton has followed YaIe's lead in arranging
the baseball schedule, and thirtythree regular and
two provisional games will be played. the same as
New Haven. Yale increased the number Of
games over last year by seven, while the Tigers
haTs the longest schedule in their history. In
striking contrast Harvard's schedule calls for only
twenty-five games twenty-three in case of a
tie with Yale, four fewer than last season. This
condition brought about by the effort being
made Cambridge TO reduce the number Of
games and thus of the evils or at least
talking points Of who felt that intercollegiate
sports had assumed an Importance out Of all pro-
portion 10 their worth. The question is raised
.4-laf fN1yay1f 1fxy-fu u-C
twenty-three games are enough for the proper
development OF the nine, il is held, justly or
not that a team needs a certain number Of real
games 20 bring II up TO its top form. This is
true 10 some extent but the need for long sched-
ule exaggerated, particularly at the larger COL