Evening star., 1944-07-28
Campaign Fight Seen
Over Baseball Slogan
IL Innings Could Be Too Much
For the Pitcher Says Writer
BY David laurence

BY David Laurence
When Quentin Reynolds, the war cor
respondent, made his speech at the
Democratic National Convention and
uttered new slogan--namely, that the
American people understood one of the
fundamental rules of baseball not to
take out the pitcher when he is pitch
ing winning game"-he stirred up
quite an interest in slogans.
Apparently good many people who
read his slogan think that he has not
delyed sufficiently into the technique
OF modern baseball. For one voter
writes to this correspondent and sug-
gests that when a man has pitched IL
innings he ought to be taken out fast
because he Is tired, and sure to crack
soon, and probably will pay no at
tention to instructions from the man.
ager the American people, and will
undoubtedly lose the ball game If per-
mitted to pitch any longer"
The old slogan that 1T is not wise
to change horses In midstream" has
been rebutted by the other side who in
sist that 1T is wise to get a strong
horse If you want to be sure to get to
the other side"
There is no doubt that much empha-
sis will be placed on these slogans dur
ing the campaign, and the baseball
vocabulary is likely to dominate, be-
cause people do not travel by horse
back these days and are much more
familiar with baseball.
Extra aiming Failures.
There are many instances of pitchers
who tried to pitch extra-inning games
and failed. Some of them got a bit
wild in the extra innings and lost their
games. There are of course, instances
in which pitchers have gone through
extra innings with undiminished
strength.
Political stump speakers may, of
course, point out that while the pitcher
has not been changed in the last IL
years and wants to continue for another
four years, it has been necessary to
change the other end of the battery.
Thus, Vice President Garner was taken
out after eight years because he and
the pitcher did not get along too well,
and Vice President Wallace was elimi-
mated at the end of the subsequent
four years because some of the fans
did not like the catcher.
Apparently, Mr. Roosevelt would have
been glad to 60 along with Mr. Wallace.
But the managers-in this case the
political bosses in the North and the
strong, conservative factions in the
South-vetoed the idea.
Undoubtedly the Democratic campaign
strategy is going to emphasize more and
more the part that the President is
playing in winning the war Gov. Deweys
apparent desire to keep the war out of
politics and to eliminate the Command
er in Chief idea from the discussion has
not met with an enthusiastic reception
among the Democrats. In fact, they are
arguing that Mr. Dewey would not be
operating as good Commander in
Chief If, when elected, he kept his
hands of the war
Overall Strategy.
Everybody knows, of course, who is
| at all familiar with the operations of
the Government. that the President of
the United States, when acting as the
Commander in Chief, has in this war
arranged with the Prime Minister of
Great Britain what is known as global
strategy Mr.. Roosevelt has not parti-
cipated in the details of military plan
ming, but has been content to accept
the recommendations of the joint chiefs
| OF staff. In the larger field Of strategy,
however, he has played a part, and it
| Is impossible to know at this time how
successful Mr.. Roosevelt has been in the
| overall strategy.
| Censorship for the present keeps the
details from the public and not until
the war is over will it be known whether
an alternative strategy was suggested.
which Mr.. Roosevelt was not able to
persuade the British government to
adopt, or whether compromise strategy
| was agreed to. which did not represent
the views of any of the participants at
| the outset
SO long as the discussion is kept in
the slogan stage and the debate centers
on whether the pitcher ought or ought
not to be taken out when the game is
going into extra innings, there may be
no harm in it and there may even be
some baseball experts who will suggest
that while it is important to win the
game it cannot be so important to use
the same pitcher in the postseason series
Decentralization Rights RassyvedA