Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-27
COLLEGE BASE BALL
Columbia University Is Trying
Once More to Form a League.
TOO LATE THIS SEASON
Harvard and Yale May Arrange
Classy Track Meet With Cam
bridge and Oxford.
BY Edward r. Bushnell.

Once more an attempt is being made to
organize an intercollegiate base ball
league and Columbia University is taking
the initiative as she did several years
ago. Columbia's first attempt resulted in
a failure because of lack of interest on
the part of the big colleges throughout
the east. In addition to Columbia the
University of Pennsylvania and Cornell
were the only ones to give the New
Workers any encouragement in their new
venture. 1t is true that 1t received sup
port from many other institutions, but
most Of them were minor colleges. The
three big universities whose membership
1t was DESTROYS to get, Yale, Princeton
and Harvard, all looked askance and the
project was finally abandoned.
This year Columbia is proceeding on
very much the same plan, but it is diff
cult to say at this writing whether or
not there is any more prospect OF ulti-
mate success. There is no doubt what
ever that intercollegiate base ball needs
and needs badly just such an organiza-
essential that the intercollegiate cham
ponship be decided every year. but both
the college and the general public are al
ways anxious to know what team has the
best right to being considered the cham
pion. 1t is this thought of competition in
the professional leagues which makes the
game the great success it Is and the
same idea Of competition if applied to in
tercollegiate base ball would make it
dOubly attractive.
AS it is, most Of the big universities in
the east meet each other in definite
number OF games each year, but the time
of their meeting and the circumstances
make it difficult to rate the contending
teams on any sort of a championship ba
sis. Occasionally it happens that one
university team is so far superior to all
its rivals that no one disputes It's right
to the championship. This has frequently
two years ago it was true of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania nine. But this meth
cd Of awarding the first honors is usually
unsatisfactory. Too frequently it hap
pens that some col ege team with good
claims to be considered in the first rank
is unable to get game with its strong
est rivals.
What Columbia hopes to do is to effect
colleges: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn
sylvania. Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth
Brown and possibly one or two other
minor institutions, which usually have
strong teams. 1nasmuch as most of the
colleges play each other one or two games,
anyhow. their arrangements would not be
disturbed IL a committee representing a
league formed an intercollegiate schedule
by which each college would meet each
other member of the league a definite
number Of times. Then 1t would be possi-
BILE on the basis of games won and lost
to determine the intercollegiate champion
for the year and the respective rankings
OF all the other teams.
In view of the fact that all the COL
leges' concerned have announced their
schedules for 1911. it will be impossible to
put into operation any such league as
that this year. If the various colleges
can be gotten together they could ar
| range a schedule for 1912. In addition
/ to the reason that such a league would
eliminate the usual complications incl
dent to selecting the team best entitled
to the base bail championship Of the year
such an organization would go a long
way toward roofing out the evil OF sum-
mer base ball. At present this evil is al
lowed to exist for the simple reason
that the interested colleges have no uni
form or such effective means OF curbing
1t. All admit that II is an evil yet no in
stitution will take the initiative. nor can
II get other colleges to cooperate with It..
On this account all the rules we have to
control summer base ball are no more
than a dead letter. 1t Is only too true
that summer base ball will never be
| stamped out until some such intercolie-
giate league is organized OF the leading
universities in the country