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Show ZING OF THE BALL WILL BE HEARD AROUND THE WORLD" John K. Tener, National League President, Gives Remarkable Interview I : i : : AS THE apostle of optimism in baseball, President John K. .Tener of the National league can peer into the dim future and see the great American pastime grow and grow until the zip and zing of the ball and the crack of the bat are heard around the world. He can see this typical American sport, in spite of the obstacles which harass its advance from time to time, spread to the four corners of the earth, and he pictures in his own mind that time when the world's series will not bV? played in two cities of the United States, but will be an international af-ff.ir. af-ff.ir. lie has confidence in baseball's fascination and its power to give all peoples honest and exhilarating recreation recrea-tion and amusement. (President Tener or Governor, as ev-ertvone ev-ertvone calls him is a robust giant of a f4"n. towering upward rj feet 3 inches from the Persian rug on his office floor. r One time a player, a tall, lanky pitcher in the National league twenty years ago; then a responsinle business man, a " congressman, and later governor of the state of Pennsylvania, he has always al-ways been at heart, and is today, a fan. He' is the reverse, of unhappy when he paces up and down his office with long strides and talks about baseball, as he did for the benefit and information of a Xew York Times reporter the other day. The essential honesty of the game is almost a religion with him. He delights to tell of the forty years of baseball during which no man can say with a semblance of verisimilitude that a player play-er ever conspired to lose a game. He is a stanch advocate of a change which will increase batting and base running and make the game still more attractive to its millions of votaries. He hopes to see such changes made in the world's series conditions that all the major league players will benefit from the flood of money which flows into the box office for those crucial contests. Tt is his belief that not only will players and club owners be increasingly prosperous, pros-perous, but the game will be improved and played more expertly than ever before. be-fore. .Unlike many old-time players, he sees a great improvement in the game as compared with its status twenty years ago, and considers its foundations as firm as Gibraltar's great rock. And not only that President Tener 's fervor fer-vor goes so far that he lifts the friendless friend-less umpire from the mire into which hordes of hostile hoofs have trodden him, places him upon a pedestal, and sings words of praise to him. President Tenor's desire to make the game more abounding in thrills for the fan is paramount. That is why he is so intent upon changing the playing rules so that the spectator can revel in more heavy hitting and more gallop-ing gallop-ing trips around the base paths. Hard Lot of Batter. "V, ''For the last half dozen years or said President Tener to' the reporter, re-porter, "there have been fewer hitters hit-ters than formerly in the .300 class. I do not believe that there is as much free swinging among the batsmen as i there should be. There is too much of a tendency to stand up at the plate and wait and wait. Do you realize that manv.of the base hits made by the best batsmen are the result of striking at balls outside the plate? The best hit-tors hit-tors do not wait for the pitcher to put the ball over. ''Many suggestions to increase the batting will be considered when the rides committee convenes within the next tew weeks. There is one suggestion sugges-tion which will be of great benefit to the batsman. That will be to increase the size of the plate from seventeen to eighteen inches and to reduce the number num-ber of balls to three. If the number of balls were reduced, with the plate at its present width, I am afraid the game would become a regular parade, but with the plate widened an inch the batsman bats-man would be forced to strike at more balls than he does now. "This change would do away with the habit of pitchers wasting balls as they do now before trying to pitch over a strike, and the batter would be encouraged en-couraged to take more chances. The addition of an inch in the size of the plate would give a greater area for the pitcher to place the ball. Cutting the balls to three would encourage control among the pitchers and should give the batsmen better balls to strike at. "The moist ball, or spitball, as they call it,'J President Tener continued, "is doomed. It will be abolished after this season. The wet ball is disgusting and unsportsmanlike and leaves the ball in a condition which causes inaccuracy in throwing after the ball has been hit. It is also a handicap for the catcher in throwing to second. The pitcher will not be permitted to use any artificial ar-tificial or foreign substance in delivering deliv-ering the ball." Mr. Tener waxed enthusiastic when discussing the future of the national game. "It will not be manv years," he said, "before the zing of the ball and the crack of the bat will be heard-around heard-around the world. Baseball has not yet reached the high-water mark of popularity popu-larity and will not for many years to come. As the centers of population in this country grow, so the game will grow. It has already been received with favor in foreign lauds, and it is not too much to predict that some day the ivorld 's series will be an international interna-tional affair. In every part of this country baseball is played. There is hardly a city, town, hamlet, or village but has its baseball club of one kind or another. "Oh, yes," continued the National-league National-league chieftain, "there will be a third major league some day. A major league cannot be formed, however, by a number num-ber of men getting together and passing pass-ing resolutions. The territory must have the population to warrant the investment in-vestment and to insure the upkeep which such a wide business venture calls for. It must have the environment environ-ment and the necessary public demand before it can measure up to the standard stand-ard of major league company. But a third major league will come in time." Sport Without Peer. President Tener 's enthusiasm and admiration ad-miration for the game- are unbounded. "The American game of baseball never nev-er has had an equal as an outdoor sport," he said,' " and it is hardlv conceivable con-ceivable that it ever will. It seems that this game of our own invention includes in-cludes and embraces every essential that stimulates the mind, recreates the exhausted faculty, amuses the jaded sense, quickens ' the sluggish blood, makes strong the weak muscle, and impels im-pels a vigor and health of bodv that no other form of exercise containing the element of sport can establish. "Baseball became popular almost in a day," went on Mr. Tener, "and was by common and universal consent, and, indeed, mandate, dedicated as our national na-tional game. Not by accident is it so-called, so-called, nor is it a misnomer. It has increased in popularity and gained in volume of competition and interest as the years have rolled on, until its future fu-ture immensity cannot be foretold. Thousands of young Americans engage in the, game of baseball either as a means of pleasureable exercise and recreation or as a means of honorable livelihood, while millions witness the playing of games, both professional and amateur." In touching on the subject of baseball base-ball as a commercial pursuit, President Tener pointed out that the very foundation foun-dation on which the game was built was the reserve clause, that often disputed dis-puted feature of the players' contracts which gives the club owners the right J to reserve a player from one season to another. "All professional games," he went on to say, "are played under what is known as organized baseball, a svstem that represents the consummation of fifty years' work by the most able of far-seeing men who have been identified iden-tified with the sport in that period of time. This system has placed baseball upon a solid and enduring basis, and is intended to widen its scope to the largest possible national extent and to make it the typical and representative sport of the American people. "It is the essence of a vast svs-tem svs-tem for the conservation of inve'st-ment, inve'st-ment, for the steady and lucrative em- JOHN K. TENER - - i-jv. f It 4 - " i k HJ r- . I N .a i , - i Hi! V'J fr'1 v - AtJ fri t " . . ; x ' i , V - . - - i y ' " , 1 " - - ' t 1 (In an interview given a reporter for the New York Times, President I John K. Tener of the National league discusses every phase of "baseball. His ! discussion is remarkable for its scope and clarity, and amounts to a sort of text book for baseball lovers.) ployment of a small army of athletic Americans, and for the maintenance of the absolute integrity of the sport, alike in its organization, its legislation, legisla-tion, and exposition, and in all these respects it lives up to its ideals and fulfills its purpose to a degree unexampled unex-ampled in the history of the sport of anv nation. "Tear down the fabric of organized baseball, and chaos reigns in your national na-tional game. ' ' Returning to the reserve clause. President Presi-dent Tener went on: " Experience is the best teacher, isn't it? In all the 3'ears of organized professional baseball there has never been a time when it was not conceded by all students of the game, club owners and players that the reserve rule is absolutely necessary for the proper conduct of the game and the proper balance, of the teams. It prevents pre-vents the tampering with players by the owners of the rival clubs. Without the reserve rule it would be possible to center all the stars of the game on one club. ' ' Advance in Skill. The discussion of such a subject as the comparison of the players of twenty years ago with those of today is a rather ticklish topic for President Tener. He was a pitcher for the Chicago club back in 1SSS. when the pastime had such stars as Anson, Pfeffer, "William- son, "Ward, Hanlon, Baldwin, Daly, Burns and others. If you ask most of the old-itime players to compare the old players with the new they will tell you that the game was just as fast in the old days as it is at the present, Xot so with President Tener. He gives the present day ball players credit for having developed the game in many ways. He holds that the national game is more expertly played today than it was twenty years ago. Tt is "a subject which has been argued over and over again, and it is a rare thing to find an old-time player who will admit that the game has improved. True, there was heavier hitting in years gone by, and more run getting, but the gradual curtailment of the game's attack has brought out added defensive power, and with the pitcher's box in its present position, with the foul strike and other rule changes, it is unquestionably a harder har-der task nowadays to get hits than it was a score of years back. "I am not one of those who believe that the game has not advanced. Baseball Base-ball playing has improved. It is played more scientifically than it used to be. Understand me, there was just as expert ex-pert fielding in those old days, and just as expert batting and base running. There was less bunting and sacrifice hitting in former days, and today we find remarkable improvement in the playing at first base and third base. I have never known and I do not know of any modern batsman to excel Captain Cap-tain A. C. Anson in driving the ball or placing his hits. ' ' Continuing in a reminiscent strain, President Tener delved into the secrets of that phase of baseball which ho knows most about pitching. "To my mind," he said, "the greatest asset that a pitcher can have is control. Assuming, Assum-ing, of course, that he has the other fundamental qualifications that a box-man box-man must possess, such as curves and speed, he must nevertheless have control con-trol to use his other talents to the best advantage. A pitcher may have a world of speed and may be able to curve the ball with remarkable skill, but these will go for naught unless he possesses sufficient control to place the pitched ball in just that spot over the plate where the batsman is weakest. To be a successful pitcher, it goes without saying that he must study and know the men who face him. H'e must have knowledge of the kind of pitched ball each one can hit the hardest, and of the sort of ball which each finds hardest to meet. Placing the ball to the batsman bats-man "s weakness is the great secret of pitching. "This great ability to control the ball has been demonstrated by many great pitchers, such as Mathewson, but I do not think it was ever more clearly demonstrated dem-onstrated than by John Clarkson of Chicago in plaving for the championship champion-ship "against Detroit years ago. Time after time, with sure control, Clarkson curved the ball over the plate on the third strike, to the batter's weakness. It requires nerve, skill, and confidence to perform a feat of that kind at a critical criti-cal moment of a game. " Freedom From Dishonesty. There have alwavs been those scoffers scof-fers who will not believe that professional profes-sional sport can be kept clean from the taint of dishonesty. From time to time there crop up instances of alleged sharp practices in baseball. Great temptations have alwavs confronted the ball player and always will, but President Tener points out that m spite of temptation and in spite of the suspicious minds of the doubting Thomases the national game has been and will be kept straight and clean. "For more than forty years," the Xational league president remarked, emphasizing his words w7it!i his fist on his polished mahogany desk, "there has not been a suspicion that any player has conspired to lose a game of baseball." base-ball." The baseball leader than went on to tell of the famous "crime of '"'.'" when four players of the Louisville club were found guilty of "throwing games" and were expelled from the game in disgrace. He sketched how the four players conspired w"ith the gamblers m "1877 to "throw" games, and of how the collusion was discovered through telegrams which passed between be-tween the guilty parties. "These men became outcasts after their expulsion," went on G-overnor Tener. "They were shunned by the other players and by their fellow men. "The honesty and high standards of the game are due in the first place to the high character of the men who make baseball their profession. The high salaries which the players receive also have much to do with placing the players beyond the contaminating influence in-fluence of the gambling element. The example which was made of the four Louisville players forty years ago proved to thd players that" the game must be kept clean. The charges which one hears occasionally against the honesty hon-esty of the game come from persons who are either ignorant or are crooks in their minds. It would be impossible today for players to conspire to lose a ball game. ' Xo baseball fan was ever more enthusiastic en-thusiastic about the game than President Presi-dent Tener. " XTo game," he said, "has such fascination for the public as baseball. Its grip on the thousands of spectators who crowd the stands in the summer is astonishing. In the first place, it is played out in the open and is witnessed under ideal outdoor .conditions. .con-ditions. It is exciting in play and brings out the mental alertness and physical skill and agility of the plaver as no other game can. One of the greatest attractions is that no two games are alike in the sequence of plays. It abounds in situations of intense in-tense interest, and the remarkable manner in which dull early inning? may suddenly develop into a contest of great excitement keeps the spectators specta-tors at a baseball game on edge with expectancy. ' What, for example, will give a spectator a greater thrill than to see tne home team at the bat. one run be- j hind, with the bases full, two out, and a heavy hitter at the bat.' That moment, mo-ment, meaning victory or defeat, which so often develops in a ball game, is the most exciting instant in any branch of sport. It may come when the winning i or losing of the game hinges on the 1 last out in the final inning, when the burden of defeat or victory is put I squarely up to the pitcher.' The great crowd sits in tense silence as the Eitcher matches his wits against the atsman. One slip by the boxman, as he collects every bit of cunning at his command, may mark the downfall of his team in a' bitter battle. Moments of Madness. ' Then, again, picture the wild-eyed enthusiast, who is rooting for the team which is playing a game, uphill fight. The contest arrives at the point when a rousing hit lreaks through the stubborn stub-born defense of the opposition, and that one precious hit brings victory after a hard struggle against great odds. It is the anticipation of such situations, sit-uations, likely to arise in any game, which draws the spectators to the baseball base-ball parks day after day. ' To my mind the most tense moment mo-ment of the game comes when the tying ty-ing run is on third base and the winning win-ning run waits on second base in the ninth inning. Just grasp the situation. situa-tion. Say the team's "best batsman is at bat and he hits a screaming liner seemingly out of reach of the outfielders. outfield-ers. Tne crowd breaks into a celebration celebra-tion of jov as the two runners come over the plate. And then a second or so afterward the outfielder, racing after aft-er the drive, makes a miraculous catch and saves the game. Do you wonder that the baseball fan goes into spasms over such a situation? "One of the tightest situations in which I ever found myself when I was playing ball occurred in a game where we were one run ahead in the ninth inning and I was pitching. I was confronted con-fronted with the three runners on the bases and no one out. There was a good hitter up and my chances of retiring re-tiring the side did not look encouraging. encour-aging. I had two strikes and three balls on the batsman. A base on balls meant forcing in the tying run and a hit meant the loss of tne game for our club. What did I do? I offered the best curve I had and a prayer. The hit ball came to me fast on the first bound. I threw the ball home, forcing the runner, and the batsman was doubled at first base. Confidence returned re-turned after that play and the next batsman was retired on a fly to the outfield. out-field. . It has always been a question with me whether it was the curve or the prayer which saved that game.:j Necessity of Clause. President Tener then touched on the much-discussed ten days ' clause, that feature of the player's contract which gives the club owner the right to release re-lease a player on ten days' notice if, in his opinion, that player has outlived his usefulness to the club. Baseball players, especially the Players' fraternity, frater-nity, have made strenuous objection to this clause. In discussing the subject, President Tener said: '"The ten days' clause should not be eliminated, for certainly the public does not desire to see the game played in the major leagues by players who are unfitted in skill and experience to participate with high-class high-class players. There must be this means of replacing a player who has lost his efficiency. The " ten days ' clause is also a necessary provision in the matter of enforcing discipline on baseball clubs." "Baseball in general,'' said President Presi-dent Tener, "has not yet recovered from the Federal league exploitation. While the two major leagues recovered last season, it is doubtful if the game would have been restored to popularity popular-ity so quickly if it had not been for the fact that both major leagues furnished fur-nished remarkably close pennant races. The facts that so many clubs were closely bunched in the championship series and that the season was marked with an abundance of sensationai playing, play-ing, such as the jjreat run of straight victories by the Giants, tended to bring the game back to its former favor with the "public. Throughout the country, however, the pame lost much of its former for-mer status in all the minor leagues. 1 attribute this mainly to the effects of the Federal league war, because this movement tended to brin baseball into general disfavor and the public became tired of the constant exploitation of the commercial side of the frame. That is another feature of the conditions in baseball which makes the fraternity movement inopportune, as the minor leagues are in such a condition at the, present time that it is a question with manv of them whether they will be ablo to continue to operate. ''In many parts of the country the public had 'become disgruntled on account ac-count of the disturbed conditions of baseball and refused to attend games until the conditions had righted them- selves. It """as not to be expected that 1 the frame would reach its normal popularity pop-ularity iu one year, and yet, in spite of the adverse conditions, just see how the sport regained tremendous favor because of the spirited races in the major leagues. ' ' Sixteen Clubs to Share. As a change to remedy objectionable features in connection with tne world's series. President Tener suggested a revision re-vision of the rules so that the players on the two competing clubs would not get the entire share of the players' receipts. re-ceipts. He believes that this crucial series has grown to such a large financial finan-cial proposition that the receipts of : players have outgrown the original conception. con-ception. President Tener 's plan is to divide the share of the competing players play-ers among the players of the other clubs of the two" major leagues according ac-cording to the position thev gjiiu in the championship races. He believes that the players of the winning club should receive 'about $1500 each and the players play-ers on the losing club in the series about $1000, Then he would distribute distrib-ute the remaining amount of the players play-ers ' share among the players of the clubs. "I believe that changes "will be made in the rules governing the series before the series this fall," said President Tener. ''The ball players will continue to receive re-ceive salaries commensurate with their abilitv on the playing field, " said Mr. Tener. "As the game prospers, so will the players. At the present time thero is no tnought of a general or horizontal cut in salaries. As a result of unusual and unavoidable conditions during the last two years, a readjustment of salaries sal-aries is necessary because some players receive salaries greatly out of proportion propor-tion to their real value. This readjustment read-justment is necessary not onlv to bring about a return to normal condition, but also in justice to the other piavers. The readjustment is now being made. Many players who have demonstrated that they are worth more will have their salaries increased. " There is one subject in baseball on which President Tener disagrees with a great manv fans. That subject in the umpire. He is the umpire's friend and his admirer and lavishes words of praise when he talks of the indicator holders, who play such an important role on the ball field. What greater praise could a man desire than the appended ap-pended remark of President Tener? "The umpires,'' he said, "form the thin blue line which stands between honesty and corruption in the game. All honor to the umpire! I am glad to see that there is a growing disposi-Hon disposi-Hon on the part of the fans to accept without protest the decisions of ' the field arbiter, as gentlemen and sportsmen sports-men should. The fans are always divided di-vided in their decision on a play. It remains for the umpire to make the decision de-cision for all. This he must do on tho instant. He cannot, like a judge, consider con-sider the question at his leisure in hn own chambers, but must, without tha slightest hesitancy, decide on every ball hit" or thrown during the progress of th game. Again, I say, all honor to the umpire! " i |