The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-12
M'GRATH REPLY TO OSUPT.DENIES
 SELFISHNESS
By JOHN A. CLUNEY


 no telling how far the current Board of Park Commissioners vs Indus trial Recreation Association and City Amateur Baseball League con- troversy may go, or what will be the ultimate outcome. It all began when the park commissioners favored Fred Davi, a U. s. Rubber Company workman and professional baseball promoter over the requests of the l. R. A. and c. A. L. for the use of the Municipal Stadium on Wa tertown avenue, $350, GOO athletic plant, most of which was paid for by the United States government, not the City of Waterbury.
 sa Background
 At a meeting of I. R. A. sports team representatives interested in baseball, softball, tennis and golf, | called last Monday night, the im- pression was created and report made that the I. R. A. baseball teams wanted use of baseball dia- monds at Hamilton, Fulton and Washington parks, for Wednesday night. As 8 result, Superintendent of Parks James J. Curtin charged the organization with "selfshnesS" in asking for certain diamonds on certain evening, to the exclusion of all other applicants. He also said certain statements credited to I. R. l aNa I~ 1u,nvn U
 Relative to those particular points, The Democrat is in receipt of the following statement from Edward T. McGrath, chairman of the phy- Sical committee and supervisor of sports for the Industrial Recreation Association: 4
 The statement made on Wednes- day by Superintendent James Cur tin of the Park Department relative to the I. R. A. application for use of baseball diamonds at Hamilton, Fulton or Washington Parks was rather broad and unsuhstantiated one. Either MT. Curtin is uninform- ed or else he has been misinformed on several points.
 As a matter of keeping the records straight, in the first place, the state ment he attributes to I. R. A. of- ficials was not in fact made by any Is R. A. officials or official. Tn any one of the many activities the I. R. A. sponsors, 1t is the participants in that activity who make the rules and ask that certain things be done. The I. R. A. acts only as the in- itiating agency seeing to it that everything possible is done to make the activity successful one along lines which the participants decide, for themselves. In this particular case, the representatives from the various plants who sat in at the baseball meeting at the Y. M. c. A. on Monday evening were the ones asking for the use of Hamilton, Full ton or Washington Parks. If they had decided to play in some ones back yard that would have been all right too, as far as the I. R. A. officials were concerned, provided of course, that permission could be ob- tained for use of that yard.
 After A Fashion
 MT. Curtin labels as untrue" the statement of the I. R. A. baseball group that the only diamonds suit able for baseball are at Hamilton, Fulton or Washington Parks. It is true a baseball game can be played, after a fashion, almost anywhere. I have seen youngsters having a pret- ty good time playing baseball out in the streets. But 1t is doubtful if an experienced player who works hard all day in one of the local indus tries would be at all interested in playing that type of baseball at night in league competition. Just tc mention couple examples of un- suitable diamonds the Hopevill; Diamond, used by the I. -. A.. last year, definitely is not good base ball field. While sliding into second base in one of the games played there last year, a Chase player broke his ankle because of depression. ir the ground in front of the base Also, the right field on that particu' lar diamond tapers so sharply down ward in the direction of the schoo
 that only the head and shoulders o, the right fielder are in view to any
 one standing at home plate. At thu
 Waterville Diamond hole was worI
 in the batter's box which became s' bad that a player looked as thougf
 he was kneeling while at bat. Tn rest of the infield was uneven ant , filled with humps.
 ! As regards MT. Curtin saying "l similar stand was taken. by tn . many other leagues who have ap . piled for permits there would b . very little baseball or softball play
 ed in Waterbury this season., tn question is--"Where are the man , other leagues other than those com 5 ing from the various industrieS?. [ No Preference , As far as the "selfishneSs" charg ! is concerned, the I. R. A. never ha P and does not intend to make de | nlands upon anyone for anythin
 nor does it ask for or expect pre-
 ference over other groups. The base : ball representatives, acting inde e pendently Of any other I. R. 4 S group, merely said that they woul' g not be interested in a league if cer v tain fields were not available.
 , They are willing to accept tn 5 answer that there aren't enougl $ fields in the city to meet the need of all applicants even though it doe s not make sense to them when the : see the Municipal Stadium diamond Q admittedly the best in the city, ly . ing idle night after night.
 EDWARD T. McGRATH, ,
 CHAIRMAN 't' -.,