New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-02-21

Baseball reporters stick whether they'
ike II or not with good deal Of per
,istency. When they quit the game
they usually 90 higher. The opening
Tor a jibe here is ignored. Baseball
writer's break into magazines. books
Congress and what not. Some have
hank accounts.
No baseball writer has ever been
President. but Taft Is a fan and Wood
row Wilson was a shortstop at Prince
con. In fact, We understand that the
President was an excellent innelo2r bu'
for The fact that he never could quite
make I'D his mind whether or not to
throw even after he had pulled his arm
hack. lie was a light hitter, but nat
urallv enough a perfect terror 10 all
pitchers who lacked control. BE the;
rs II may.
Baseball writer's may be divided into
,~-o classes those who keep their own
box scores and those who trust The As
,ociated Press and the evening papers.
A. present the second class seems 20
be tho more popular. The account OF
3 baseball game nowadays is frequent
lv an imaginative story Of high liter
nrv value. As often as not IL is filled
with classical quotations. and II is
only with the greatest difficulty that
-ne fan can discover in what inning
Merkle walked, stole second and came
home on DOyle's burning single TO right
field. .,
Humor is in great demand. The
rooter may rave when the clubs star
pitcher blows up and gives eight passes
IN succession. but the funny side VIII
be brought out in the account next day.
Things have come 20 such pass thai
many q feature writer can dismiss the
loss Of d pennsnt or even world
series with A quip.
There is sturdy opposition 20
humor i'm baseball stories. The players
always fear the Greeks when they come
cracking Jokes. and 1t is well known
psychological fact that when man
loses his batting eye his sense o.
humor goes with II. II is practically
;mnossible 10 write anything about
baseball which will make the .2l5 hitter
laugh. it,,
PLAYERS much preferred the earlier
or statistical school Of baseball writ
ing. When Hughie Fullerton was a.
his best he could make good secohG
baseman seem a much more intellectual
pcrson than a Supreme Court judge
FULLERTON painted baseball as q cross
between chess and plane geometry. ne
p,a-ers never understood what hugh
Vas writing about, but they were quick
- accept his theories, and many
MAYER deludes himself into the belief
tbat mis- mind acts with the mathe-
NAUTICAL precision written into It by
Fullerton. In fact. the phrase INSIDE
baseball" still lives in the vocabulary
OF the game. 80,
There was time. and il is still
within the ken Of memory, when
baseball writer never sat down 70 WORK
without pushing aside the record book
and opening his Blackstone. OF late
the legal aspects Of the game have
3hllen into disfavor. although Benny
Nsuff is still vainly endeayoring 10
rake the public excite itself concern
ing some minute points Of contract law;
Now that the players have started
ior the South, the greatest interest OF
the rooter is in the personality oil the
,lsvers. The training trips are report
ID al greater length than ever before
Lecause they give the newspaper man
IN opportunity TO deal with the human
SIDE Of the player.
The dope which comes from the
South is largely negligible. The TACT
that Bill insolvency has hat four nome
,cns in a practice game means moth
irg. but il is interesting 70 know tnat
Mst,y bids o very light no trump and
that Fred Merkie keeps his thumb
down the shaft when approaching.
When we were IN Marlin We picked
out three stars Immediately. In fort
night they had gone 10 little leagues
and since then their progress has been
downward. Two OF them, in fact' have
fallen SO low that they have dropped
right out of the record book That
never discouraged US. We merely
picked three more stars: We only wish
That we could 90 TO Marlin this year
end could guess some more. Nobody
can be wrong always. At least, We are
not yet convinced.
Still. there are some disadvantages
about going 20 Marlin now. We are
moved 20 wonder what Frank O'Neill
will write about when ii rains. In our
GAY the Marlin hermit was worth at
least two rainy day stories, but since
then he grew decrepit Snd a Texas
train cropt up from behind and killed