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Show wmmmm Released by Western Newspaper Union. IT WON'T be long before one more time-honored baseball argument goes by the boards. The controversy controver-sy concerning the "carry" of a baseball base-ball is likely to be settled by a prescribed pre-scribed formula, forever eliminating disagreement as to whether the ball is too lively or too dead. And science marches on. Scientific Scien-tific tests will replace the much more enjoyable hot-stove argu ments. The mathematician shall prevail over the bleacherite. It was back in 1937 that H. G. Salsinger, one of the nation's better sports writers, whose efforts appear in the Detroit News, had this to say concerning the mechanics of a baseball: "There will be objections to the ball regardless of what type is used. The lively ball is a serious handicap to pitchers and a boon to batters; the slow ball is a boon to pitchers and a handicap to batters." Agreement Just recently Mr. Phil Goldsmith, whose name is not unknown among manufacturers of sports equipment, made the point with the statement that "the question as to what a 'perfect' 'per-fect' ball is, will never be answered by the players themselves. Hitters ' will always favor a ball that can be propelled out of the park with little effort, while the pitchers will always insist the ball should be more or less lethargic." Mr. Goldsmith is also a bit terrifying. terri-fying. He says that baseball moguls will determine through "scientific tests that they want a ball that will travel 'X' number of feet when propelled by 'Y' amount of force." Doubtless he is right. Probably there should be some sort of a tried and true standard a basis upon which to judge the proper flight of a baseball. But the thought is disheartening. dis-heartening. It isn't hard to imagine the Brooklyn Dodgers taking time out to put a poorly hit ball through the testing machine, then wildly calculating cal-culating their chances for a protest. Goldsmith contends that the manufacture man-ufacture of a universally acceptable ball depends on a more scientific understanding of five factors, namely: name-ly: the center, the yarn, winding processes, cement and the leather cover. Compression Tests . Manufacturers have never agreed as to the effect that a certain type of center has on the performance of a baseball. But compression tests have proven that when one center differs from another, the difference in resiliency or rebound will be reflected re-flected in the performance of the ball, assuming, of course, the motivating moti-vating forces are equal. The yarn in the ball, Goldsmith explains, must be live, wiry, resilient and must meet rigid tests of tensile strength and twist. The cover, too, affects the playability and durability of the ball. Covers must be skived to uniform thickness, since the ball's flight differs with the thickness of the cover. The thinner the cover, the livelier the ball. And unless the covers are firm, they loosen under pounding. This slows up the baU to a considerable extent. Even the cement which seals the bond between cover and yarn has its effect. If the cement soaks too deeply into the yarn, it deadens the ball. An excessive amount may affect af-fect the official weight. One thing is certain. When the carry of the ball is regulated, managers man-agers will be able to evaluate better bet-ter the hitting ability of players in Class D to Double A baseball, taking into consideration the dimensions of the parks played in. Fans will have a better yardstick to compare the slugging ability of a fellow who hits 40 home runs in 1946 and a player who collects the same number 10 years hence. Basis for Comparison Right now there isn't much basis for comparing the slugging abilities of Home Run Baker, who hit 12 home runs in one season (1913) in the "dead ball" era, and Babe Ruth, who pounded the "rabbit" ball over the fence 60 times in one year for a major league record. After a baseball of regulated carry car-ry is used for a number of years, fans will have a better opportunity to compare the ability of pitchers . and hitters in 1946, say, with pitchers pitch-ers and hitters of 1960. But we will continue to hope that such arguments are not settled by a mathematical formula. There are already too many minor certainties certain-ties in life. The unexpected and the debatable problems are( what win and hold interest. SPORTS SHORTS C. No winner of the Kentucky Derby trial, run over the mile route at Churchill Downs since 1938, has won the Derby. C James Figg, father of modern boxing, box-ing, was 36 years old when he retired re-tired as the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world. C Fifty of the 7,000 odd major league ball players listed since 1876 were born outside the United States. C Xcw Yorkers give Notre Darr.e credit for making bajltct'csil ! ' :;u i..r m that city. I |