The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-13
A TRUER SCORING
Would Give Ball Players Credit
for Value.
Find Average Batting by Credit
Points.
OLD SYSTEM FALSE.
FALSE.
Fly Hit for Score Should Pay
Batter.
Walk, Sacrifice, Bun, Hit by
Pitcher, Worth Same as Hit.

Guthrie, Ok, Feb. 1S.TEdson T. (Ted)
Price. one of the best known baseball
players and managers produced by Ok
lahona, comes forward at the present
time when there are so many sug-
gestions relative to changing the rules,
with an entirely new system for fgur-
ing batting averages. After playing
Independent ball for several years, Price
has been playing in the leagues since
1895, leaving the Toledo team in 1902
to manage the Cedar Rapids team of
the Three-I League. Later he man
aged the Wheeling team of the Central
League several years, the Enid team
of the Western Association two years,
and last season he managed the Ke-
vance team of the Central Associa-
ton.
In discussing his proposed changes
in figuring the players batting aver
ages, Price says:
IT am trying to introduce a system
of averaging the work of a ball play
er as a batter that I hope may revo-
lutionize the old system, by which the
value of a player has always been
judged by the number of hits he made
in Il certain number of times at bat.
Before studying the new system think
how many games under your own OBJ
servation have been won by the batter
by other than a clean base hit.
my system of counting is as follows:
Hit, 10; run, 10; sacrifice, 10; base on
balls 10; scoring a man, 10; hit by
pitched ball. 10.
THE first on my list is the hit, and
none of US underestimate the value of
it. hut deny that it is the whole
thing.
"Second-The run. Some may ask:
What has the run to do with bat
ting?' Well, a man must be at bat be-
fore he can get on bases, and must
get on bases. before he can make a
run. This will be an incentive for
batter to run everything out at his
best speed.
''Third-The sacrifice. BY giving 10
points for the sacrifice an inducement
is offered to the player to become eff
car, become a scientific batter only
through close application to practice
in that department. At first thought
of allowing the batter onlv 5 points
sideration 10 points seemed to be the
proper thing.
''Fourth-The base on balls. It is a
standing fact that a man who gets a
base on balls scores more often than
with a hit. Why? Well, in the first
place. it unsettles the pitcher and. he
puts them straight over to the next
batter. and in the second lace base
on balls causes a team to have less
confidence in a pitcher and often causes
an explosion.
"Fifth-Scoring man-is perhaps the
most important of all, as it requires
a cool player to do the right thing in
a pinch. During the past league sea-
son no less than two of the first four
games played were won by fly balls to
the outficld. Yet under the present
system, a batter gains nothing by
scoring those runs. A ball player (the
right kind often goes UP with the
determination to try for a long fly
merely to score the run. Yet he must
suffer for it. Is it just?
1.-The last on the list is hit by a
pitched ball. No explanation of that is
necessary, as that il even more de-
moralizing to the pitcher and the team
behind him than a base On balls.
IF the above system We're used a
standard for good work would soon de-
velop itself, and at present 1t seems
to me that about a total of $50 pounds
for each ten games would show splend-
id work by the batter. Men from high
er leagues, who are looking through
the minors, would not jump at. con-
illusions when they saw that a man
had batted only .240 or .25o. This man
may have been the most valuable mem |
Der of the team, although there may
have been two or three 300 hitters, |
under the present system, in the same
bunch.
s'These rules, If followed, would |
bring the players who really help to |
win games into the limelight. The |
player who makes runs rather than
mere base hits is the valuable man to