Evening star., 1909-05-02
REID CONDEMNS
SUMMER BASE BALL
Former Captain of Princeton
Writes on Purity of
AmateuriSm.

Samuel j. Reid, jr. a former captain of
| the Princeton Varsity base ball team, has
! contributed an interesting article to the
| summer base ball discussion, taking the
view that summer base ball. should not
| appeal to an ideal college ball player.
EN- Capt Reid says. in part:
During the last seven or eight years a
| we'll chosen, course in the purification OF
college athletics has been in progress.
| Mucker' base ball and the brutal ele-
ments in foot ball have been eradicated,
and the whole tendency has been to eie-
vate the moral tones of athletics and to
subordinate sports to their true position
in the affairs OF a college or. university
1t is true that the Importance of the
major sports, as foot ball and base ball,
has been greatly exaggerated, to the
detriment of scholarship, but the day has
passed when the athlete can count on his
| athletic reputation to move the faculty
| TO help him through his examinations.
IF the universities are to continue their
admirable progress in the uplifting of the
moral tone of college athletics, they must
adhere to the strict rules of amateurism.
They must not, as few colleges have
done, permit the playing of summer base
ball No one claims that summer base
ball is consistent with amateursm, but
the contention, weak it Is, of those
who favor it, is that college base ball
men always have played and always will
play, base ball for money during the va
cation period They contend that nearly
all the college teams are padded with
professionals, and that to avoid cOmpell-
ing the men to play under the guise of an
amateur when they in reality are profes
! sionas. the universities should allow the
athletes 10 engage in summer base ball.
The authorities adopting this rule re-
sign themselves to a condition which
may be true as far as their own college
or colleges are concerned, but, generally
speaking, their conclusions are grayely
in error.
Another argument propounded in IA
vor of summer base ball is that the rules
prohibiting il discriminates against the
poor man. The fallacy in this argument
lies in the evident misunderstanding of
the purpose of athletics. While many
people might think that Yale maintains
a foot ball team TO beat Harvard and
Princeton and that Princeton maintains
a base ball team to beat Yale, yet that is
not so. Princeton still would maintain
its base ball team If it never beat Yale.
1t would continue the sport for its own
sake. AS long as there are nine men in
the university who love to play the game
for the fun Of it. Princeton will play
base ball, and there VIII continue TO be
as many teams as there are men to
compose them. Last year at Princeton
there were no less than twenty-five base
ball teams. Thus there is ample oppor
tun1ty Tor man VINO pays 1Of the eA-
ericse and for the pleasure I'm 1t.
IF the poor man enters college with
the purpose lie should have-nalnely the
pursuit of knowledge and intellectual at
tainments-sis ineligibility. if he has
PLAYED summer base ball, should not dis
gruntIe him. If he still loves the game
more than the glory he can readily find
a place on the scrub team and thus assist
in the development of the varsity. The
poor man is not debarred from playing
summer base ball, but he is debarred. if
he has played summer ball for money,
from playing on an amateur team. If he
must earn His way. through college by
playing professional base ball during the
summer there is 10 objection to ii. But
where is the real injustice to him il he
is not permitted to compete as an anna
teur?
Amateur sport for the past fifteen
wears has been gradually improving in
tone The migratory, subsidized per-
petual athlete has become a memory of
the past. Letting down the bars to play
ers of summer base ball would destroy
at one hlow the progress which has been
made by those who have worked for the
elimination of professionalism for many
years.
college athletics have existed solely
for the amateur and it is only proper.
if the colleges wish to maintain the pres
, ent high standard of athletics. to elimi-
nate absolutely from college athletics the
summer base ball player