The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1910-12-05
VARIOUS PLANS ARE SUGGESTED
WHEREBY THE PITCHERS
EFFECTIVENESS WOULD
BE LEssENED.

Suggestions as to how baseball may
be improved and reformed" now
are I'm order. IL seems to be the fash
ionable thing for the old National
game to come before a board of exam
liners every winter to show cause why
it should not be changed i'm some es-
sentials, and the present session is no
exception. Right now the principal
topic of discussion seems to be
whether there is any means of in
creasing batting without altering the
basic principles of the sport. More
batting is a cry that the fans and
some of the sporting writers have been
making ever since the adoption of
the present foul strike rule.
In some quarters there Is an idea
that the pitchers are having things
too much their own way, and that
the sport would be improved by the in
PRODUCTION of more activity on the
part of the batsmen.
Various schemes have been sug-
gested for bringing about more hit
ting. Among these might be men
toned giving the batsman four strikes
and three balls, counting only the
first foul a strike and moving the hur-
Ter back farther from the plate, AS
an academic proposition, 1t seems that
any of these measures would be too
drastic. Their introduction might
bring about a return to the old days
when team that didn't make 20 runs
I'm an afternoon thought itself in a
slump.
Another suggestion, and one that
would mean less radical changes. is
to have the pitchers eliminated from
the batting list entirely. Thus the
curver would work on the defensive
only and his place at the plate would
be taken by a man especially selected
for that purpose.
While there are many exceptions to
the rule, the average pitcher con-
tributes little to the attack. He is
weak with the stick and once on the
bases clogs them up so that the whole
machinery is upset. Many pitchers are
so slow and lacking in judgment on
the paths that IL isn't considered good
baseball to hunt them TO second even
should they be on first with none out
Would Help Poor Fielders.
The plan of having someone hit for
the slabman would open new sphere
of usefulness to some men who are
fair batsmen Dot whose fielding is so
bad that no manager will take
chance on letting them play regularly
Then too, there are some men now
holding down positions in the big
crude that they never would be turned
loose. to roam the outfield if the man
ayers could find any other way to
bring them to bat regularly.
The plan of eliminating the pitcher
as a hitter, however, is certain to meet
with a lot of opposition and its OPP
ponents are able to present some very
convincing figures to back up their
opinions. There are many pitchers of
marked ability with the willow. among
them, Mulin and Works OF Detroit,
Koestner of Cleveland. Karger of the
Red Sox, Chief Bender Of the Athlet-
les. Joe Wood of Boston and Joe Lake
of st. Louis. i'm the American league,
Pitcher Crandall of New York who led
the National league in batting this
year, wilhelm of Brooklyn, Mathew
son and Barger These pitchers have
frequently won games with well plac-
ed bingles and have exempllfied the oft
repeated saw" of pitcher winning
his own game"
Weighing all the arguments pro
and con, IL will zoe the consensus of
opinion among the more conservative
element OF the fans that baseball as
played at present is n mighty good
old gamez-especially when the home
team is winning. The sport never was
more popular than IL is right now and
even the men who love to talk of the
good old days" admit that the quail
ty OF play in general is better than 1t
ever was before. There may be minor
weaknesses i'm the rules, but take the
game by end large, as the nautical
men say, no crying need of reform is
apparent. The would-be reformers
well might take a leaf out Of the book
of footballs sad experience. For sew
eral years now the rulemakers have
been vivisecting this latter sport at
their annual meetings and the net re-
suits is far from an unqualified sue
cess.