The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-01-13
NEW SYSTEM OF AVERAGES
 ADVOCATED FOR BIG LEAGUES
Present Method Does Not Give Eaters Credit for
 Extra Base Drives.

In the St. Louis number of the Baseball Magazine, there is an excel lent article ing which the writer ad- vocates change in the system or de- termining batting averages rms ma agazine has printed three excelient articles, advocating a system for de- si termining the relative batting ability l of ball players. The writer of the article does not urge the abolition or the present system, but he does em- Dhatically demand that an additional I column of figures should be added to the batting records. He also main tains that the new system gives que credit not only to the quantity but to : the quality of hits. ,si ~r .N
 The present method of z obtaining batting averages involves but slngle act of division. The number Of hlts a player has made during season IS dl- vided by the number of times he was at bat and the result constitutes his batting average This division, TOT nl,rposes of convenience, is usually \ carried out to three places of dec1mais from whence originates the term ".25O hitter" s..300 man and the Ike. The term 250 means merelys that the batter who made that average made hit 25 per cent of the times ne hau an opportunity to make a hlt' or III other words, one-quarter or the tune. The term 300 hitter means that the batter made a hit 30 per cent of the time or in other words that he hit safely three out of ten times that he appeared at the plate.
 This system would do very well II all hits were of equal importance or ii all players made relatively the same number of doubles, triples and nome runs But such is not the case.
 During the summer of 1916, kept careful record of 1000 hits made dur ing sixty-three major league contests. Every club in both major leagues was represented in these games WHlcn 1n- cluded a worlds series contest for good measure The games extended through the season, including an opening day contest and one of the closing dates of the year. This was done so that the games might be as representative as possible. and approximate fair working average The 1000 hits comprised 7S9 singles, 122 doubles, 6O triples and 29 home runs.
 The value of single was compue- ed upon the comparative number or stimes player, making single, fin ally scored plus the comparative number of times a run or runs were scored through the instrun1erta4ity ef the single. In otherswords, the total value of a single was comprised of the fraction of a run which it netted the man who made it on an average, added to the fraction of a run which it netted to other base-runners. These two fractions added together as com piled. from the 789 hits gave .gen- eral value of 45.7 per cent of run. Doubles, triples anl homers were ham, died in precisely the same manner.
 Now as the. values -thustsderived are the only values which have ever been obtained and furthermore as they must be admitted to be at least ap- lproximately correct. let us see how they would affect the batting aver ages of certain well-known players in 1916.
 Hal Chase was the real batting leader of the National League last season, although his record was top ped by that of Holke, who did not take part in games sufficient to ob- tain first honors. Now Chase went to bat according to the records .542 times and made 1884 hits. With childlike simplicity, the scorers divide one fig ure by the other and tell us with an air of triumph, that Chase made a safe hit little over one-third of the times he had a chance to hit and that his batting average is therefore .339.<
 Now, searching further through the records, we find this exhilarating ln- formation: Chase made lS4 hits, 29 of these were doubles, 12 were triples, and 4 were home runs. Let us as- sign to these hits the values we ob- tained in our former article, allowing to each single it's respective value of i 45.7 per cent of aerun to each double 78.6 per cent of a run, and so on. We will find if we do that Chase's 184 hits netted, according to our general sys- tenn of averages, s106,32 runs. Now Chase went to bat 543 times. Divide 106.32 by 542 and we find: that Glasses average batting, effectiveness for every time he appeared, at bat was 1860 per cent of a run.
 Like the value of the Metric sys- tenn this unit which results from a1- lowing to each, hit its respective value has a meaning clear, concise, easily understood The present value means but half what it should mean, because it indicates merely the. comparative number of hits a player. may make. Our System indicates not only the comparative number of hits but also their comparative values. Tn other words, it does what the present sys- tenn does not even attempt to do. \ II gives each and every batter precisely the credit which is due him on his hitting.
 Applying our system as indicated above to numerous other players in the National League we find that Chase leads them all. The man who rivals him most closely is one who stands but eighth on the list. Zach Wheat. The Brooklyn star is a slug ger whose long wallops have broken up many a game. Wheat batted, ac- cording to present records for .312, a good average but one which does not do him justice, in view of his extra base wallops Wheat's revised aver age, allowing each hit it's proper valu- ation, is 19.37. Tn other words, in- stead of standing eigsth on the list he should stand second, according to the comparative effectiveness of his batting.
 As a striking absurdity, Higgins who took part in IS games. is given precedence over Zach Wheat He sbatted, so the records say for .333 standing fourth in the list. Applying Our revised fie11res we find that Hup-