The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-01-02
Haughton Would Abolish
Spit-Ball and Give Base
or Three Balls.

i Percy HauShton may be n mere
football wizard, but that does not pre-
vent him from having some good
sound ideas relative to baseball. He
made known some of these at the Ma
tional league meeting and one of the
most important was his suggestion to
iesislate against the pitchers in favor
OF the batters. In brief, Mr. Haugh-
! tons idea is to give the spectators
| more of the kind of baseball they like
! TO see-plenty of hitting and fielding.
1t is considered quite It wonderful feat
When a pitcher shuts out an opposing
team without a hit, or allows one or
two safe blows. but what is there in
that sort of a performance to thrill the
spectators? There is hardly as much
amusement in such game for the
men and women who pay their money
as there is in the preliminary practice
of the teams.
There Is little or no opportunity to
become enthusiastic at baseball
game when the SKATERS go up to the
plate one after the other, are retired
in order and then return to the bench,
such q game lacks the sound pleasant
to the ears Of all "fans"--the track of
the ball off the bat-and it deprives
the defensive side of making sensa-
tional fielding stunts. But give the
fans" plenty of hitting. which would
n n III .lt1 s,>
and opportunities for fielding stunts.
and the spectators would feel that the
money they had paid to see baseball
games would be we'll spent.
Haughton believes the improvement
could be brought about by depriving
the pitchers of the privilege of using
any foreign substance on the ball, thus
compelling them to depend upon their
natural ability as twirlers. and by
limiting foul strikes to one and per-
hitting a batter to take his base on
three called balls instead of four.
There is soundness of reason In
every one of the suggestions. In the
first place it was never intended that
pitchers should have undue advantage
over the batters, which they do at
the use of saliva, resin, emery and
other substances pitchers are enabled
to make the ball behave in a freakv
manner. The foul-strike rule was not
inserted in the code to help the pitch
ers, but more to make the games
1aster' but there is no question that it
puts the batter at a disadvantage.
The only bad feature about the pro-
posed change of giving a batter his
base on three balls instead of four is
that in the case of a wild pitcher there
would be too many passes. perform
ance that always takes some interest
out of 4 contest. On the other hand.
II a batter stands at the plate and al
lows three balls to go over it without
offering at them he is called out on
be penalized by permitting the batter
to take first base on three pitched
balls that do not so over the plate.
If the rules committee of the two
major leagues look upon Mr. Halch-
tons suggestions with disfavor they
might meet the situation by permitting
the use of a larger bat. The rules now
provide that the bat must not be
longer than AZ inches nor more than
two and three-quarters inches in
diameter at its thckest part. In
creasing this diameter to three or three
and one-half inches would give tho
batters a decided advantage and would
probably work as well as the changes
suggested by Mr.. Haughton. 1t is -
certainty that with thicker club than
is now used there would be fewer
fouls.
While the number of 800 hitters has
been decreasing annually. it is not the
purpose of the suggestions to make
SlugSers out of all ball PLAYERS. but
simply to give all battcrs a better
chance to hit the ball and put more
responsibility on the inficlders and
nutfieldcrs to keep the batting aver
ages down.