The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-02-16
SPRING TRIPS: -.
ARE EXPENSIVE
Magnates Would Like to
Avoid Training Trips But
Cannot Afford

New York, Feb. 16.-The approach
Of h spring baseball training season
has r%eopened the annual discussion as
to whether such expensive tours to
the far south or west arc necessary.
Both maGnates and mage appear
to be dividing into two factions on tho
question, with neither section having
enough confidence In it's opinions to
put them to actual test. Eeach year
the club owners sigh as they put their
signatures on a hundred M one bills
which follow the squad north after
the close of the southern soinurn.
Without exception they would curtail
expenses in this direction did they
dare. The bugaboo of a tail-cnd team
unable to keep pace with rivals train
Ell In sunny clin,es has always pre-
vented the declaration that hereafter
the players would prepare for the
baseball campaign OF the home Gia-
nlond.
Many believe that men could he
rounded into condition Just AS we'll at
home as in Texas. Georgia or Louisi-
ana. but tradition and custom is a
barrier which they fear to mount.
Manager Fred Clarke, who has stud
led the southern training problem
from every angle. said recently In dis
cnssinE the question:
Like Swimming.
IF a professional is a real hall
player it's like swimming. lie ran al
ways play with Il moderate amount of
practice. What he needs more than
anything else at h start of tho sea-
son is endurance. Long walks ovcr
hills. %handball games and hat kind
Of training which gives the player en-
durance. wind and vigor and take OF
the superfluous flesh.'
Clarke believes that the long trip
to southland could he halNed or per-
haps dispensed with entirely if the
players would train Systematically at
home during the winter and spring
months. Ii is Il wcll-known act that
almost every member of IL big league
squad spends Il week to ten days re-
ducing weight as the first task after
reaching spring quarters. After the
supcrf1uous flesh accumulated during
a winter of comparative idlencss has
been removed the ordinary routine
differs but little from the daily prac-
ticc during the league season. Once
in condition the men play regular
nine-inning games i'll a temperature
equal to Il midsummer day in northern
chimes.
Shortly before tho opening game of
the pcnnant struggle the clubs work
north. PLAYING practice contests en-
route. arriving at whatever city the
schedule demands tw~enty-four hours
or SO before tho official cry. play
hall!." opens the season. With the in
itial contest to he played about April
Is, the lance are strongly in favor
Of a raw spring day with Il temporal
turc but a few points above the frcez-
ing mark.
Under tho circumstances it is not
surprising that thc players who have
worked out where the mercury hangs
between so and 80 should feel the
chilly change suffer from lame
arms and other ailments to which the
baseball player is prone. How much
better, say the reactionists. if tho me,
trained in the vicinity where they are
to play during the early days of the
season. The radicals. on the other
hand, contend that it is not possible
ing or home grounds. They claim
that it requires Il change of scene,
warm. balmy atmosphere and IL blist-
rring sun in order to set sluggish
blood circulating and fire the ambi-
ton of the players. Some state that
there is merit in the arguments which
dccry the bringing north of "a player
trained in an S~o-dcgrcc temperature
to play in about 80. They are willing,
however, to let tho other clubs try tho
home training experiment.
AS a result the southern trips grow
more ambitious. extended and cxpen-
sive each yea Permanent quarters
with costly equipment arc growing III
favor and within the next few years II
is likely that almost every big league
club will have Il fixed training CAM
where tho squad will break in stiff
muscles, reduce weight and return to
IL frigid north for tn beginning Of a
league season duo to- open about April