New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-03-01
BASEBALL CALLING
FOR COLLEGE MEN
Billy Lush Says Leagues
Are Developing a New
Type of Men.
STUDENTS RECEIVE
BEST OF COACHING
University Training Now Equal
to That Afforded by
Term in Minors.

Professional league baseball teams are
going TO call on college trained players
more and more to fill their ranks. is the
opinion OF Billy Lush. for almost de-
cade coach Of the baseball teams at Yale
and now head coach OF the Columbia
University nine.
Furthermore. according TO Lush, college
men are fast losing that feeling OF re-
serve which has kept so many university
stars from embarking on q career in the
big leagues AS shining examples of the
new type of professional ball players.
Eddie Collins of the Athletics. Charley
iSterrett, late OF the Yankees; George
Davis. also late of the Yankees; Jack
iCoombs. of the Athletics. and host OF
others are cited.
That the college man IS destined to
WELD a big influence in the professional
game is due according TO Lush. 70 sew
eral important factors the greatest Of
which is that for the four years preced-
ing his bow into professional ranks he
gets q training in the national game from
coaches, who are selected with as much
care as the college selects professor OF
Greek or mathematics.
The other big factor is that college
baseball is getting better every year, the
competition is getting keener. and the
men on the teams play better baseball
The victories which college mines have
won over minor league teams is convinc-
ing evidence that the calibre of baseoau
| played in the college is already on par
with that of the minor league teams ana
oftentimes is Il great deal better
Brown and Yale. among others, won
from professional teams last spring.
There can be no doubt as to the better
coaching which college mines are recefV-
ing now over that which they got fifteen
or twenty years ago. Nowadays 1t is the
tried and efficient ballplayer who is ap-
pointed coach Of the nine. and as his
assistants he has men who do nothing
but coach the battery candidates and
sometimes. even. he has a special assis-
tant for the infielders
1t is small wonder that the average col
lege man who has taken course IN
baseball under one Of these modern in
structors does not pick UP as much
knowledge Of the game as the minor
Lacquer gets in several seasons. IL ne mas
inherent ability at all 1t is brought out
by the college coach, and he gets just
about as much polishing as he would IN
a minor league
AS q matter Of fact the college teams
are to-day minor league teams In sense
They have their preliminary training IN
the South, and they work up 10 their
championship games with all the care
and a great deal more zeal perhaps than
the minor league nine works through the
pennant race.
The calibre of baseball which the col
lege team Of to-day plays is not the slip
shod. care-free play of twenty years bacA'
and this is a fact which is borne out by
the closeness of the scores in games be-
tween big and small college teams alike.
This trend has been growing more notice
able from year to year, although yale
with its wonderful nine last season was
an exception in that the Ellis ran up the
( score in three games to eighteen runs.
This is indeed far cry from the record
tally of lightweight runs which La
( fayette made against Lehigh away back
in 1872 Remembering that the average
number of runs made by the Yale nine
last year was tri1e under seven game,
the fact that Pennsylvania ran up a
score OF twenty-siX runs against Harvard
in 1894 and that scores up in the twentes
were by no means uncommon in the early
9Os. seems 70 indicate that the quality of
! college baseball has improved In fact, IT
I is not twenty years ago since Yale made
I thirty-one runs against the University OF
! Chicago.
! The general improvement IN college
/ baseball is not confined 70 any one branch
of the game. for It is as noticeable in
fielding and base running as It Is in pitch
ing Like all college sports, the game is
played seriously. and although the aver
age student who desires to play is ne
elected the one who has shown any apu-
tu3e for the sport gets as much special
tied training as IL he were on a nine in
organized baseball
Not only is the coach oftentimes tho
equal, IL not the superior, OF the profess
sional manager. but the equipment is in
many cases far superior TO that Of the
struggling professional nine
On the other hand, says the Columbia
coach. the vast expenditures which are
made each year on baseball in the Leading
colleges are not justified in view Of the
relatively small number OF students who,
lNOeT lllt present - aAfiii' a. 70 'Ii~N14 aSNN
TO play the game. According 70 figures
recently gathered for the National Cole
giate Athletic Association by Professor
III. S. Wingert. OF the University OF In
diana. American colleges and universities
spend annually sum In the neighbor-
hood OF s., 5000 for organized intercolle-
glate athletics. while for athletics in
which the average student may partici-
pate the expenditures amount 70 only
$500.
These figures are the more striking
when. az DR.. Wingert points out the
number Of students on whom the $4,000
Is spent IL almost ten times "a great as
the number which receives the benefit Of