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Show tWrnaion old-time ball No New Wrinkles Are Sprung Now. Too Much of the Automatic Doil Business for Timothy. Throwing to Bases by the Catchers Greatest Improvement in the Game Other News. BOSTON, May 14 How much faster baseball than it was fifteen years apo'.' 1 don't believe It Is any faster, but there are ten good players to the one in the game at that time. When all the best players were packed Into the eight-club league before the advent of the American league, clubs were faster than since or ferore. I doubt If yve will ever see finer ball clubs than were Baltimore and Boston In '97. No clubs of the present day play the Inside and brilliant ball that these Clubs played day In and day out. 'Dopy" work was not a part of the programme, an.! ever) player was constantly con-stantly on the alert for fear of a new play coming up to put him in the hole. I doubt if the game will ever see any more Longs ami Ji nningses, who Were far ahead of an players playing short at the present time, especially In taking tak-ing wild throws from the catchers and putting the ball on the base-runners, lifith lh.se teams hail line base -runners and were always aggressive and game to the core. The Baltimore men, however, how-ever, went too faa in the way of abuse to win games and finally became disliked dis-liked by the fraternity until the Boston Bos-ton vu lory over the Orioles was re-. re-. elved w ith great Jor all over the countrv coun-trv as Boston continued to play ball in a clean and sportsmanlike way, This season ihe surprises have been Washington and Duffy's Quakers. The Senators are playing far beyond thelr proper speed and will come back to the anchor end of the chain as a result of la. k of ht rve to stand the gaff when tlnnns aren't going light. it was a ciueer thing to see Boston at th.- bottom nnd Washington at the top of. the American league standing w hen just a year before tin- conditions were exactly reversed "The old flog for the long mad" will hold good iu the baseball base-ball business t As I t ike In t ho game daj after day played by the cleverest experts I won-dei won-dei why ii is that no new play Is h-troducedt h-troducedt Year after year the pit.-her gets the best of the batsman and the game is s iwd ii another handicap" on the box mkn. The bunt was intro-din intro-din ed over thirty years ago and the hit-and-run twenty-five years ago All th.- slides known to the player were practiced iw ont -five ears afro Outfielders Out-fielders were great throwers years ago, and men were constantly thrown out a 1 iirst base from right Held. Forcing the batsman to h't back at the pitcher 10 gel K man going to third after the second baseman or shortstop ran his man bat k to second is a clever play b Joe UcGInnlty, but was worked to pcr- fectlOh bv Tom Bond with the Boston SflleV neatly m good as the two "Tveiave no outfielders like Johnson Welch or Fogarty, and find it difficult to compare the Inflelders on account of he sieves used at the present time The "spit" ball is tlv nlj new thing ,n the game for years, and this one addition has made good pitchers out of ! . ordinary material nnd put severa good men on the retired list and will cause the rule makers to do a little thinking as to how to Improve batting to? "without good hitting you ao ne furnish brilliant field ng, nnd the game win soon become uninteresting to he spectator who is looking for exclte- 11 There is very little hitting to the outfield out-field this season and the wet ball will force wild throwing by usually accurate ac-curate players. Never was there SO mu-'h Interest taken in the sport, and vet the old players must stick to old methods and advertise their plays before be-fore they come off. os they do In the sacrifice batting. ran you Imagine a Mike Kelley or "Buck" Ewlng allowing h third baseman base-man to come within a few yards of the home plate to take a bunt" If they lost a leg these old brilliants would bang away, trying to drive the marble through tho man who took the chance. That was baseball Nowadays a player will walk to the 1 . 1-. n ... il- nvnr hta shoulder (11311' ill IU UICII i.jn. - to the bench manager and look for a cue as to what to do. If the order comes to hunt, well and good. Tho batsman dumps the hall Into the front vard and walks back to the bench as if he had done his little stunt according accord-ing to orders. No good ball player should have to look to the bench manager man-ager for instructions. The real ball plaver can see what his duty Is and should be free to change his tactics as the case comes up for action. Mechanical ball playing is poor stuff and unattractive. The rule makers should cut out the sacrifice bunt and give the spectators an open game, w 1th every man up trying to reach first bae No. thre is nothing new In base ball this season and. in fact, the game has really fallen off In many ways, President Harry Pulllam paid Boston a visit last week to break bread with his old friend. "I'm le Bill" Conant, and have a chat with Frank V. Dunn, the gentleman who expects to have the club next fall Mr. Dunn made a kick when he heard that Fred Tenney was to handle the business end of the club hereafter as well as the playing end. In t )i i ; way sa Ing one man's salary Mr Dunn claims that It would depreciate the value of his option on the club. John T. Brush was In the city with his dub and had made a combination with Mr. Dunn, so that hereafter It will be "Hello, Frank!" and "Hello. John'" with the formality cut out. Mr. Brush says he rather likes Mr. Dunn's theatrical the-atrical style and will give him the proper advice when the time comes next fall. Mr. Dunn will have a brand-new-manager, so he says, and would have the finest club In the business if the major leagues will only cut out that reserve rule and make It an open game for the players. "I never liked a limit game." said Dunn a few days ago. "as there is always a chance to dl tde the pot." |
