| OCR Text |
Show URGES ABOLITION OF FOUL FLTOUr RULE Mitchell Has Reform Planj Specialization on the Chicago Club. CHICAGO, Dec. 19. L E. Sanborn, veteran vet-eran baseball writer, has an unusually pertinent article in the Tribune. He says: "Professional baseball would profit tremendously tre-mendously if the policy of tho Chicago National league club, placing its executive execu-tive authority entirely In the hands of practical baseball men, should be generally gen-erally adopted by the veteran league. "By the choice of Manager Fred Mitchell as president of the club and the selection of William L. "Veeck at vice president and treasurer, tho playing play-ing end of the sport and the business end of it have been divorced in a way that ought to lead to great efficiency. "Mitchell is given absolute control of the game that is played out there on the diamond, without any executive veto to handicap hie, because he is president as well as manager. A'eeck has been given complete charge of the business of setting the stage for the -sport the manager provides, and of handling the club's finances. "Mitchell will not he bothered with any business details, but can concentrate his mind on the team. Veeck will not be bothered both-ered with player troubles or tangles, but can devote his whole attention io making the patrons comfortable. Loses by Manager Ban. "Nothing could be more absurd than the National league's antiquated ( rule that no manager be allowed to sit in at the deliberations of its officials. There i Is no doubt the club owners of that j circuit could gain a lot of practical I ideas of value by listening to Fred I Mitchell for a few minutes while in an- J nual session. McGraw of the Giants could tell Hempstead a good many things aboy the business end of ba sol -all that t executive officer of the Giants never learned in a dry goods store. "The American league never has barred managers from its meetings, provided pro-vided they were financially interested in the club. Connie Mack has been the real representative of the Athletics, although one of the ?hibes may have cast the actual vote of the club. Clarke Griffith never has been locked out of a . session because he was manager of tho Senators. Sena-tors. One of Mitchell's Ideas. "As an example of the benefit that could be derived by listening to the practical suggestions of a manager... one of Mitchell's ideas for Improving the game itself has been approved by nearly every practical baseball man In the country, but never has been considered con-sidered by tiie 'magnates,' because they were too busy looking after their own interests to think about the sport of baseball. "That idea was to eliminate the out on a foul fly. It is a paradox that no play can be made on a grounder that is foul, but that a man can be retired re-tired on a foul fly. If a batsman bunts a foul toward third base, why Bhouid he not be thrown out at first on it, if it. is fair to retire him on a little pop foul to the third baseman? The batsman can gain no possible advantage from a foul, whether hit on tiie ground or in the ail-. Why should he be subject to a penalty for hitting a foul in tiie air within reach of an opponent? Batsman Needs Help. "Elimination of that paradox would help the batsman, and. there is no doubt he needs it. for the pitcher's supremacy . has become so great that pitching about all there is to baseball. PitcliV Ing has decided most of the world'sA, series of tiie last fifteen vears, and a ' manager with a swell pitching staff and a wipe catcher needs little else. "Baseball fans have come to consider the pitcher's dominance as an- accepted ac-cepted fact, and to believe they get the greatest possible return for their money out of a l-to-0 game that lasts about j fifteen rounds. But the real fan the greater enjoyment out of a go-rfT, old-fashioned slugging match, in which the lead changes hands several times. "A Glasgow newspaper man put , the thing in the tersesi possible language -n describing a baseball game there between be-tween teams made up of Yanks and Canadians. He summed it up thus: .J' 'There was a lack of movement : the negation was perfect, but the positive achievement was smail.' "No better wr.y could be found to describe de-scribe the i'erage baseball game.'' |
