Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-30

Lgue pennant and also the world series
h Speaker in the lineup. and. naturally
r made business good for the Cleveland
ely on his sale. and. in addition. plucked
| is ali right, Bill; you ought to know
but you can't prove a thing by me.
All I saw him do the other day was
walk to the plate. stand around in the
box and smile blandly, while the
pitcher threw four balls SO wide of the
plate the catcher had to turn acrobat
stand.
Speaker Given No Chance.
1t then occurred to me my friend had
seen the game in which Speaker had
appeared only a very ordinary player.
lutely refused to take a chance with
him, preferring to cast their lot with
the player who followed him in the
batting order. It certainly was most
disappointing afternoon for the man
in question. He came to see the star
perform, the star was willing to do
his best, but the rest of the cast re-
fused to give him chance to say his
lines.
The game l have just described is
not an unusual one, from the stand
point of the intentional pass. That
bit of base ball strategy is resorted to
scores Of times during the summer,
and in majority of cases with con-
siderable success 1t is one Of the
very unfortunate happenings in base
ball. over no one feature of the game
have heard the fans grumble so much
as over the Intentional pass.
The article on the Intentional pass.
with it's many features, was inspired
by letter l recently received from
~. W. Flood. one of Loufsvilles fore
most fans. I am going to quote por-
ton of his letter:
Il would greatly appreciate an ex-
preston from you on suggestion
which, in my opinion. would make the
game much more interesting. popular
and pleasing to spectators as well as
to good batters. l refer to elimination
from the game of the intentional pass;
in fact. l would go even farther and
eliminate from the playing code the
granting of first base to batsman on
four balls.
want to see the recognized batters hit
the ball. That is one of the attractions
that bring them to the park. 1t Is
never pleasing to the spectators to see
a good batsman drop his bat and trot
down to first base. after receiving a
base on balls. No fan ever cheered
such a happening. No real fan ever
enthused at a game won by having the
winning run forced over the plate On
base on balls. OF course. the big
be eliminated from the game?
Would Eliminate the Pass.
MY suggestion is as follows: Allow
the strikes to continue as at present
that is three strikes retire the batsman.
but pay absolutely no attention to any
balls. that DO not conform with the
for such balls at his discretion to break
UP an attempted steal. the hit-and-run
game or the sueeze, but such balls shall
have no bearing on the status of the
batsman. Under such a system the
batsman could only get on base
through his batting ability or field
.inGserEpr, and that is as 1t should be.
t9uEEXrru1e would. of course, be tough
on batters who are known as good
walters. but nobody goes to game to
see walters. good or bad. The latter
were left at the hotel. Baseball fans
like hitting and action. I am sure the
above suggestion would supply the
want"
Mr.. Floods suggestion is a rather
radical one. It has considerable merit.
Personally. I would relish some change
which would do away with the inten-
tional pass. 1t is knock to the game
from the standpoint of the spectator,
and the fan must he catered to in
every way possible. The advancing of
all runners one base, on an Intentional
pass. might help to solve the situation
by permitting what the intentional
pass sought to prevent. 1t would make
1t rather hard for the umpire, II 1t was
left to him. to determine whether or
not the pass was intentional. It would
always be argued pro and con.
Mr.. Floods suggestion to eliminate
the base on balls entirely. would, of
course. solve the Intentional pass, but
what effect 1t would have on the game
/ Is problematica1. 1t could only be as-
certained by a thorough trial Most
fans-iike hitting. What do such a class
Of fans think Of Mr.. Floods sugges-
ton? J would be glad to hear from
any relative to 1t.
Perhaps some fan has a solution that
will help the grand old game.
Copyright 1917. by W. G. Evans)