The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-03-13

No changes will be made in the baseball rules for the 1918 season. Any possibility was dispelled when March 1 passed without a call to the joint rules committee to meet and consider the playing code, for one of the provisions of baseball law is that such a meeting must be held prior to the first of March Of course, there may be reforms in interpreta- ton of rules on which the two ma jors have different opinions and in the minors also they have a way of rule interpretation that is to say the least liberal, but the code book will read as it has read for the past several years-the wording will be the same and there will be no radical depart ures from the old style of play.
 Restrictions on certain forms of de- livery are a matter for league presi- dents to determine until absolute rules are laid down in the book in th.s connection. The American Associa- tion already has put a ban on all sorts of trick pitching and there have been strong hints that the National League may soon follow with inhibi- ton against the spitbalL The emery ball already has been barred from aE well regulated leagues.
 Each winter there is more or less agitation for rule changes, generally by those who advocate more batting in the game, but the moguls appear adamant against all suggestions. Dis ! cussing this backwardness to effect | changes, I. F. San'oorn, writing in the | Chicago Tribune, las some interesting ! observations, as follows:
 /. Baseball people are notorious1y su- ] perstitious. That probably is the chief reaJon why there has been no radical : change in the playing rules for nearly 1 20 years-none since the introduction of the so-called foul strike" during : the war between the American and i National leagues.
 The club owners and other magnates have left the sport alone for the same reason that the manager never dares change the lineup pf his team during 8 winning streak. Baseball has pros pered greatly since 1903, when the present National Agreement was drafted to govern the sport, conse- l willing to risk any sort of a change. The only revisions that have been made in the playing rules since then have been at the request of baseball writers, and those only for the pur- pose of clarifying the scoring rules and ironing out some conflicts in the code which made it difficult for anna Lteurs to understand.
 It was thought perhaps the disas- trous season encountered last year would prompt club owners to accept some of the many suggestions that [ have been made for the improvement of the game, but anather winter has gone without adopting any of them The promoters have argued that the game itself was all right, but tha conditions wene responsible for the financial reverses which wrecked the minor leagues and caused most of the majors to lose money.
 Practically all the changes that hav' i been advocated recently in any par of the country have had for their pur pose an increase in the batting so a to multiply the uncertainties of tn
 sport. None of these has been adopt ed. unless one may include the at tempt of the American Association t
 abolish the spitball. That attempt i more fancied than real, because n
 way was provided for said abolition.
 True, it will be possible for Ameri
 can Association umpires to forbi
 pitchers going through the motion
 of putting saliva on the ball in tn
 way they have been doing, but tha
 will not abolish the spitball.