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Show Would you please tell in c the a v -crao height of major league first basemen? Ah'o name some instance of tall amt short first basemen. L. D. B. Major Icaeue managers prefer tall first oase:ncn. Six-footers are much in evidence. evi-dence. There a re t wo reasons. They offer an excellent target, for the Inficld-crs. Inficld-crs. and boeauso of their height are believed be-lieved to be better able to handle high a nd wide throws. Of late yea rs, however, how-ever, a number of first basemen who mcTisure less than six feet have broken into tho majors and made good with a vengeance, stuffy Mclnnis was perhaps t he first to command attontioji. Joe Judce of Washington is another classy infielder who i.s several inches less than six feet. And there is Sisler, who. I am positive, will fall a bit short of the six-foot six-foot mark. Wally Pipp of the New York Americans is one of the elongated first saekers who uses his added inches Lo great advantage. Fo you believe Connie Mack will ever build another haseball machine that will win t he American league pennant? I was much interested in tho stand Mack took when ho broke up ids great team, and have followed closely his efforts to rebuild. So far I have been disappointed in my ; hopes, and am fearful Mack will not ! be able to turn the trick. R. D. L. For four or five years Mack has had a rather tempestuous time in his effort to get another pennant winner. Just as the United States got into the war, I began be-gan (o t hlnk Mack had a team pretty well shaped up. Almost overnight it was shot to pieces. 7 have such a great admiration ad-miration for Mack a a a manager, and such confidence in his ability to develop ply vers and teams, that I feel lie will come through shortly and have all the critics singing his praises. Tie ha s a great catcher In Perkins. In Joe Dugan. I believe lie has the making of ono of tho greatest shortstops in the history of the game. It would not surprise me if Jimmy Dykes filled tho hole at second base. He was a good ball player when Mack sent him sou tii for moro experience, and I understand lie had a big year with Atlanta. At-lanta. Naylnr is destined to be a great pitcher. Tn Witt he has a. natural hitter, who should round into a good outfielder. Then (here is the old reliable A mos Strunk, George Burns and a bunch of recruits. re-cruits. Don't give up hope in Connie, because he has another good race packed away somewhere. Would vou please give your opinion of the following: In a. game between two teams. A and F. the scoro at the beginning of the fifth inning Is " to 1 in favor of A. In the last half of the fifth. B ties tho score on a disputed dis-puted decision at home plate, the umpire declaring the runner safe. A is dissatisfied with the decision and walks off the field, whereupon the umpire announces to game a 9 to 0 forfeit to B. Should not the bettors on A to win pay their bets? There was none out at the time this run was allowed and two were on bases. If the umpire in charge forfeited the game to the B team because the A team refused to abide by one of his decisions. the B team surely won, 9 to 0, and A lost by the same margin. Will .vou please give ruling on tho following? There are three men on bases with one out. Batter hits' a short flv to left fuot an infield fiyl, which falls safe. Man on third scores, man on second stays on second, man on first, crosses second, but seeing mini on second goes back to first. . ball is thrown to third, forcing man that was on second. Ball then thrown to second, and umpire called it a. double play. Did the man that ' was on first have to be touched out because he had touched second, or was he still forced out? Docs the rim count? Have you staled your play eorreclly? A runner cannot pass a preceding runner run-ner on tho "base lines. Tt would scent from vour description of the play that tho runner originally on first technically passed the runner who was standing on second That automatically retired said runner, and removed any force. Hence the throwing lo third did not make .a force out at that baso, as the runner on second was privileged to stay there if he desired. What about this play? Three men on banes, two outs, batter has two strikes and three balls, pitcher winds up to throw to batter, base runners start to run to preceding buses, umpire um-pire calls ball delivered to batsman a ball, this automatically entitles runner on third to score, as it is the fourth ball, entitling the batsman to first and all runners to advance. In meantime, runner coming from second sec-ond overruns third, catcher throws to third and ball is put on runner before be-fore he can recover overrun bag; umpire calls runner at third out, retiring re-tiring the side. Tn the meanLime, runner entitled to score has not In scoring do you credit a pitcher with a strike out: (1) when the catcher drops the ball, but gets runner run-ner at first; (2) when the catcher drops the ball and runner gets to first? A. W. The pitcher is credited with a strikeout strike-out in both cases. When a player is called out he-cause he-cause of an act of an improper ba.fs-rnan, ba.fs-rnan, how is toll play ruled on and seored? o. F. L. The proper batsman is called out and the play is scored as a put-out for the catcher. Batter hits ball which first strikes about a yard on foul territory midway mid-way between home and third. It then bounds into fair territory and when it eludes tile third baseman it is about a foot on fair territory. What Is it, fair or foul? L. B." It is a fair ball. The faet that it first struck in foul territory has no bearing on the play, since no one touched it while the bail was in foul territory, and it eventually was fair when It passed third baso, makos it a fair ball. touched home plate, and, hearing umpire call man at third out. walks to his bench and does not. according to tho rule, touch home plate, which is necessary to legally complete all runs scored, and respective teams resume re-sume their positions to continue the game. What would be your ruling upon the play? Would the run count or not? T would say the run counted, despite the fact the runner on third failed to touch the home plate. Tho base on halls to the batsman, with the bases filled entitled the runner on third to score' and common sense in baseball would say that run counted. Please decide these two dispute-1 dispute-1 First man up gets to first base on balls: next batter hits pop fly to second baseman. Man on first stands fast thinking the second baseman will make catch. Second baseman lads to catch the ball, but recovers and throws the ball to the short stop, who covers second. ; meantime, thc man who lilt reaches first safely while r: who hit before liini continue;: i first, refusing to leave claiming that as ho liolr! t'u( man who hit the pop fly is cording to Section S of "r.ult and second, or first, s.;. third bases must be ocrnpii a batter can be called out o: . field fly. A claims tire man '; the pop fly is out. B claiiiii .. tho second baseman muffid but recovered and relayed th tile shortstop, who coverei : ... that tile man first at bat iw- .J a force play at second, sine: .. , ter cannot be charged with lij field fly with only first ta:: pied, who is right? 2 Man on second. Batter that is good for home run. y second, having lots of time ; after touching third, steps'. says something lo tiie man at third, then conlninrs on to tho plate. A cktinis the : j out. as he went over thr; -of line when he spoke to the ; third. B claims the man t -out. as there was no play i him. 1 B is right. Infield fly ta-: -! apply with only first base m runner originally on f i rst r. .ts : :' at second. The batsaian wj -first. 2 B Is right aeain. T. play on him and it made n how wide he ran alter toat-base |