New Britain herald., 1928-02-11
BASEBALL IS DEAD
 AS SPORT AT H. 5.
Student Body Net Interested and
 Team Loses Steadily

Baseball at the high school ha:
 been q complete failure for the las
 eight years, both financially and a, a sport. A baseball team at the school rarely finishes a season witt
 more victories than defeats. mi, can be attributed to the lack ol est shown by the pupils at the school. \ call for baseball candi, dates in the spring excites little en, thusiasm and the coach is lucky ii more than :d men report. He :. forced to build up team consisting rial. He has no extra men whom he can groom for the coming years team to take the place of those who graduate. This could be readily seen last spring when one of the leading pitchers of the team was forced to tion when he was not on the noun | 1 He was given no chance to rest his arm after a hard battle.
 The players show little interest. Daylight saving time is in vogue during the spring and the team has plenty of time for practice. Instead of viewing this advantage of addi- tional time with the thought of get l ting much needed practice, the play 1 CTS become apathetic even before go- ing down to the practice field. "The coach is forced to work hard to get 2 suitable lineup. Very seldom does local high school team ap- pear on the field for game with the identical lineup that started the previous game. This can be attribut- ed to players being deficient in their studies or putting up poor exhibi- tions of baseball while under fire in competition with a rival high school. The pupils at the high school are lax in backing up the team at a baseball game. The ticket collector calls it banner day if he notes more than 50 admissions and mos, of these are old time alumni. What few students attend either pay or initiate "One-eye" Connolly. The team receives no more encourage ment at home games than in a strange town. Even the high school game with the time honored rival. Hartford, falls to arouse lthe fight ing spirit in the pupils and many times fails to excite the team itself. The Hartford high team last year lost 14 games straight but had enough power to bury the local team under q 12 to score. The game took nearly three hours to play be- cause of the lack Of interest shown by the players of both sides.
 FIelders Rest Against Pole
 In left field telephone pole made it convenient for the left fielders to repose against 1t until a fly ball hap. pened to come their way. This was the attitude shown by most of the players on both teams. The team might as we'll have been practicing as far as the pupils of the two schools were concerned. Since the season of 1928. when the local high school teaIn captured the state title, baseball has been on q steady de- cline at the school. Only one team since that season has finished with q record of more wins than defeats.
 Principal Slade and the athletic council members at the high school recently realized these conditions and turned towards baseball when 1t was thought that one of the sport teams at the school would have 10 De eliminated because of insufficient funds. The school maintains a heavy expense list in providing for q baseball team. Baseball supplies are costly. It requires nearly $500 a season to maintain the team in uniforms. bats. balls and miscellane- ous articles. Big expense is gone 10 and in paying the visiting team q guarantee. It Is almost safe to say that the high school loses at least $500 year during the baseball sea- son. With no income and a con- stant drain on the athletic fund
 
 to be dead sport.
 Many Games Out Of Town
 At present high school baseball schedule will show that more than three -fourths of the games are be- ing played out of town. This must be done to keep the expenses down. Members of the school board have objected at times to the number of out of town games but cannot ger away from the fact that baseball in New Britain is a losing proposition. The school cannot get games with the schools it wishes to play because most of the teams want home and home series. Last year. in a sched- ule of 10 games. the local high school team appeared seven times against some Hartford team. six of vhe games being played ill Hartford.
 Unless the pupils revive interest in the game by appearing at the home games and encouraging the players. and by coming through the entrance gates instead of over handy fences. baseball at the New Britain High school will prove 8 dead issue and an expense. These conditions ap- pear in almost every town and cify in the state. The profit made in football games is the money that is used to support baseball. A larger attendance and more spirit by mem- bers of the team will bring baseball in high school back to where it be- loncs-at the ton of the heap Base.