New Britain herald., 1914-05-27
One Thing That Baseball Needs.
(New London Day.)

It is the crack of the bat and the
 long hit that stirs the blood of the
 baseball fan. Fine fielding and air tight pitching appeal to his intellect,
 but his emotions are most effectively reached by the slashing sprint of the
 ball down the baseline or the long drive that sets the fielder achase like scared cat. And it is the emotions
 of the fan that must be reckoned on and catered to if baseball is to in- crease, or even maintain, it's hold
 upon the American mind. Baseball as it is today, baseball as it has been any time within the last twenty-five
 years, is the greatest sport in the
 world. It is played by more people
 and witnessed by more spectators,
 many times over, than any other ath-
 letic game. But it is always in dan ger of the effects of a one-sided de-
 Velopment and if that development should by any chance be extended a
 hairs breadth beyond its present
 point the consequences would not be
 good either for the interest in the
 game or for the box office receipts.
 In New London this season, up to
 within the last few days. the interest
 ir. baseball has been what might per
 haps be termed wholly scientific
 that critical, analytical interest in
 which the technical merits and pos
 abilities of the team and individual
 players formed the objects of exam
 ination and discussion. The team
 wasn't hitting. No more was the
 visiting team, wh1 never it might be,
 for that matter. But still the team
 wasn't hitting and the obserEstions
 of the enthusiasts had to.J|confine
 themselves to those finer ufside points
 of the game in which the habitue
 alone is initiate-eV,- considers him
 self initiate. And there wasn't so
 very much baseball talked on the
 streets, the trolleys, in the clubs, the stores or even the saloons. .- Then, all of a sudden, the Planters began to pound the ball. Niceties of pitching, the condition of this players arm or that players legs, whether this baserunner should have tried to steal on the second or third ball pitched, whether that player would 1 do"-all these minor considerations vanished as the team began to plunk l out the safe ones. And the town went baseball mad.
 But baseball teams cannot be ex- pected to mt the way lne NeW LOn- l don team is hitting just now. The 1 Planters are, as the fans put it, go- l ing faster than their legs. vii carry them They. are batting beyond the inevitable law of averages.
 And yet it is such batting as this l that brings baseball, as a popular spectacle, up to it's best point. It 1 would seem as if the men at the i head of the national game woula ! realize the necessity of doing some l thing to lessen the tyranny of the 1 pitcher and to give. the batsman a l better chance.
 One thing that might be done with acceptability to every fan in the | country, and with proper considera- 1 ton to abstract justice, would be 1 to amend the foul strike rule so that l Q batter who hits a screaming drive ] down the baseline will not be penal 1 ized for an effort which, if it had 1 been directed differently by so mitch as a single degree of the 360, WUu1d l have gained him credit for g. three l base hit. ..
 Why not draw a line through the