Norwich bulletin., 1918-04-10
METzGER'S COLUMN
Washington 6 Jefferson Coach Tells of Effect of Daylight Saving on Athletics in the Army-Bis Three vindicate His Views on lntencolle- giate Sport.

Vindicate His Views on lntercolle
 eiate Sport.
 Gaining an hour each day is bound to have far-reaching results in ath- letics the country over, especially in army athletics where the question of time has been difficult one. Indeed, during the short winter days sport for the army has been a difficult ac- complishment because of the limited facilities for indoor play. And with summer coming the problem did loom large until the new scheme of time was put into effect.
 Here was about the way the sport situation was in the camps in Amer ica in regard to summer. Owing to a rigorous and necessary military sched- ulle which abated only on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons of the week days. it looked difficult to even figure out a scheme which would give every 1 ball team a chance to play at least once week. Diamonds might be built on all the available space but there was not enough leisure time available to permit all the teams to | get in their games. Afternoons. other l than the two mentioned, offered little opportunity for play. But the new | daylight law has done away with all | that Games may now be scheduled practically every day of the week and baseball will. as result, come into l it's own in the camps.
 l Army baseball is the biggest base ball proposition America has ever seen. Pretty nearly every small camp l in the United States can boast of more teams than we have in both major leagues. But when you get to the big cantonments then you find 1 figures that are amazing. Teams run | into the hundreds and most of them are in leagues of some kind or other. | The number of games played, the number of balls and bats to be used and the cost of all the needed equip ment is staggering even when one makes a guess at the whole Indeed, no one can do other than guess at it. It's impossible to do otherwise.
 1 But baseball, as big as is it's scale in the camps and eantonments, is but a small factor in the general scheme of physical fitness and sport in the army. Take a camp of thirty thous- and men, all of whom are urged and encouraged in every way to get into Esport. If anyone can figure out plan whereby every one of those men can lplay in baseball games two or three times week he is capable of leading
 
 it! Fact is the thing cannot be done and in order to get all the men into sports and athletics. as the army wishes. plans have to be made and carried out for games of a kind that require far less ground area than baseball and which get the great mass of soldiers into them.
 These games must also be of the sort that require no equipment. Thus
 they solve a big problem in that they
 may be played at any time and by
 less of a spontaneous nature, games patterned after those we played as
 boys; games that fulfill the inherent
 desire for recreation: and games that
 are therefore big factor in keeping
 everyone happy Schools, recognized
 and promoted by the military authori-
 ties, are often the means of getting
 these games made a part of the sol
 dier's knowledge. and that they serve
 nkeeping men both fit and happy is
 in no small degree a reason why they
 have become so popular throughout
 the army. Strange as it may seem
 there is a certain percentage of mer
 in the draft army who never before
 played at all These games are a big
 factor in the lives of these men. They
 also serve to quicken and speed III
 the army types of this sort.
 There has been no more universa
 and popular game in the army thar
 swat tag. Last fall I saw regimen
 play it before a football crowd o
 twenty odd thousand and the fun o-
 the players was so contagious that tht
 crowd got more real amusement ant
 enjoyment out of this informal an( , impromptu game than out of thS football contest itself
 Mass athletics is the term which i! used to cover all this recreation worl in the army, the kind of work tha organizations such as the Y. NJ. c. A
 have been promoting for many year' throughout the country in big wa, and without any buster of advertis ing. Today the Y. M. C. A. has found 1 a big field for this sort of work ant
 it is meeting it-as it always has without seeking glory in the act.
 is a service it is rendering the men o . the army, quietly and with efficiency as it is doing each part of it's bi: task.
 Recent statements from New TIa ven and Cambridge lead one to be { lieve that the contemplated reform : which were to come in intercollegiat athletics at these two institutions a :; 8 result of this war are all but gon
 if not forgotten. just as this column ; has so often predicted would be tn , case. Here is a sample of the view $ now in vogue taken from a recent is
 sue of the Harvard Alumni Bulle
 tim:
 : Intercollegiate contests are now t
 be resumed, before the world is a z peace again. The coaching system "a at least for spring athletics, is nc . materially modified. and it remain z to be seen whether the proposed Ire
 strictions' will bring about all tha ,t simplifcation in an over- -elaborat / scheme of things which has been S
 much desired. We heartily hope
 will; but unless considerable vigilane g is exercised we suspect it will no !t and that before one knows it we sha Z have drifted back into all the ol |, ways. Should any sign of such < tendency appear in the months t
 come, it is much to be hoped tha F some entirely new system of interco1 r. legiate contests may be devised be F fore any peace time football seaso < comes around. The plan of combine < intramural and intercollegiate game 4 suggested already in the Bulleti E might then be considered