Salt Lake Tribune | 1914-03-08 | Page 57 | Intentional Walk Presidents Problem

INTENTIONAL WALK I PRESENTS PROBLEM I Managers Agree That Some Solution Must Soon Be 'M Found. GULFPORT, Miss., March 7. In the opinion of James McGulrc, Tiger coach; and scout, the greatest and best change in the rules of baseball was that mak-lng mak-lng foul balls strikes If thevbatsman has fewer than two strikes upon him. The rulo met the problem brought up by tho constant fouling off of balls by hatters Until the poor pitcher was tired and because of sheer exhaustion had to put the ball over the plato with nothing on it but tho hldo that tho fac-tory fac-tory endowed !t with. It was an easy matter for some of the clever men of ye olden days lo foul off a dozen balls until that one clothed in nakedness lobbed up to the plate for slaughter. The next problem that must be faced and solved la the Intentional pass af-fair. af-fair. Thero is apparently no way In which to force a pitcher to pitch to1 a man if ho wants to pass biro. It has become so bad nowndays that the man-agers man-agers of the clubs simply tell their men when to pass certain batters and the pitcher and catcher go through the mo-tions mo-tions of pitching to him. while the crowds In the grandstand generally howl In derision. Thoy always do If it's a homo man at bat with a. couple of men waiting to score and one- run needed to Back In the bid days there was no such thing as the Intentional pass. It wasn't fM thought a game or a necessary thing. But today It Is accounted a part of stra- Ul teglc baseball. IH Even the best batsmen hit safely only about once in four times. A .300 hitter gets threo hits in ten times officially at bat. Ho faces a pitcher oftener than that, however, with his passes and bases for being hit by a pitched ball. The odds are all with the pitcher even when facing the best batters. Neverthe- IH less, few managers refuse to use the ln- DH tentlonal pass and how they can ba IH forced to discard It Is the question that UH must bo settled. It was suggested to Manager Jon-nings Jon-nings that nn agreement that they should not allow their pitchers to pass men pur-posoly pur-posoly should be reached by all the man-agers man-agers of tho league. Hughle said that he would bo moro than glad to reach .such an agreement if he thought that there was any chance of onforcin? it- "But you'd havo to establish a course in mind reading for managers then," said TTughlc. "Nobody can rightfully accuse any pitcher of purposely passing a man If ho scorns to bo pitching to him. He might be wild just at that time. So there you are." Free Cigars for Ballplayer?. BT. AUGUSTINE, Fla., March 7. "Branch" Rickey isn't going to have . tho lead on Miller Huggins. The in-formation in-formation reached hero this morning that "Branch" is supplying cigars to all of the Brownies to got them to quit the cigarotto habit. Huggins does not favor the paper pills, eithor, and an-nounced: an-nounced: that cigars would be placed on the hotel desk for all tho Cardinals. Jesse Tannehfll Has Job. Jesse Tannehlll, who sought a berth with tho Virginia league, whenco ho started out as an athlete of the diamond, Is slated to manago the Maysville team In the Ohio State league the coming cam-