v DEVOTED TO BASE BALL, TRAP SHOOTING AND GENERAL SPORTS Title Registered IB TT. S. Patent Office. Copyright, 1910 by the Sportins LU» Fatttahing Company. Vol. 55-No. 6 Philadelphia, April 16, 1910 Price 5 Cents RACES! The New National oring Base Ball and League President, Predicts the Most Thomas J. Lynch, Successful and Reviews the Con Eventful Season ditions Now Fav- of Record. EW York City, N. Y., April 11. are the rules, and by them the players and On the threshold of the major the public must abidq. All the umpire need* league championship season, to know is the rules, but know them he N Thomas J. Lynch, the new presi must. dent of the National League, yes UMPIRES MUST BE ALERT. terday gave out the first lengthy "The ball players today, with all due »e- < interview of his official career to gpect to the men who played in the past, a special writer of the New York "World," are better as a class. Again, the advent which paper made a big feature of the story. of the college player is responsible. The. President Lynch was quoted as saying: "This brains on the ball field today are not confined is going to be the greatest year in the his to the umpire, but they are to be found be tory of American©s national game. That it neath the caps of every player. No better is the national sport I can prove by a desk- illustration of the keenness of modem ball ful of facts and figures. In the cities where players is to be found than in the game be organized base ball exists 8,000,000 persons tween New York and Chicago, in 1908, that last year paid admissions to see the games. cost New York the pennant. ***"Wliat hap This year at least a million more will at pened in that game shows what an tuapir* tend. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were must be prepared for. I hare instructed tha paid last year and will be paid this year in men who are to act this year as umpire* in salaries to the young men who will repre the National League to post themselves on, sent the cities in the various organizations. every point. They must be ready to settle Invested in base ball, as a business, are mil every dispute the moment it arises, and when lions . of dollars. they are right they will be upheld, a* matter PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. what the cost. MODERN CLOSE GAMES. "Base ball owes its popularity today to its honesty. If there is one thing above "The character of the game has £n&&- another that an American likes, it is a ally but undeniably changed. Scores of 2O square deal. Let him get it into his head to 18 and the like of the past hare stven that a game is crooked and he is through way to scores of 4 to 3, and even smaller with it. A square deal, tnough, doesn©t ones. The ability of teams to make runs mean that the home town can©t lose, al has grown smaller and smaller, and it has frequently been asked what has been ths though this used to be so in the old days. effect 011 the public. The fact that morei Twenty years ago the base ball fan was a people now attend ball game* than ever be man with the idea that the home town should fore, it seems to me, proves that, they lik» never lose. ©Be honest, but don©t you dare the games with the1 smaller scores. That a lose© that was his admonition to the home game ends with a score of 4 to 3 «r less- team. And heaven Help the umpire that does not mean that it is less interesting, nor made the home team losel It was this spirit does it indicate that the players of today- that was have less skill than had those of the past. THE GREATEST ENEMY On the contrary, it indicates a higher quality of ball playing than ever existed before. The. base ball ever had in this country. The HARRY CASPAR, ball players today, for example, are just as game 20 years ago was just as good as it Pitcher of the Cincinnati Club of the National League. good batters as they were 20 years ago. is today. The men who played were just as True, they do not get so many safe hits, but good in many respects as they are today, but Harry Caspar, the young pitcher who has become the mainstay of the Cincinnati Club©s this is due rather to the marvelous skill they had the spirit of the "rooters© in them, pitching corps, hails from Kingsley, la., where he was born 26 years ago. He learned to play shown by the fielders in covering their po too. It was the knowledge that they were ball on his native lots and made his professional debut four years ago with the Bubuque sitions. The infielders today are making expected to win in fact, that they must win Club, of the I. I. I. League. Subsequently he played with the Wausau, Freeport and Water stops that in days of old were considered that made them go to limits which today loo teams. With the latter he struck his gait in 1907. That season be pitched in 44 games impossible, and the outflelders are catching would not be tolerated on the ball field. It altogether. He won o2 out of 3G full games pitched and his control was so good that he long hits that in the past would have meant was the fact that often intimidation went far only gave 36 bases on balls on the whole season. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Club, sure home runs. In no pursuit that I know; toward aiding them in their purpose to win, at once made good, and has since been a valued member of the Cincinnati team. that made scenes on the ball field that drove of is there from the games the hundreds and thousands A TRUER EXAMPLE whom we are getting today. We got 50 cents of the survival of the fittest than in pro for the games in those days. Today we are fessional ball playing. Take for example this not only getting these 50 cents, but we are ever before in its history. So much credit do banner year for base ball, and I©m going present Spring training season. Each of thu getting the $1.50 spectators as well. And it clubs representing cities in our league t»ok I give the college ball players. As much, to do it. By its steadily increasing attend between 40 and 50 men with them to tha bas been brought about by raising the stand however, if not more credit for elevating ance the public has shown the kind of base ard of the men who are playing the game. South six weeks ago for preliminary training. professional ball playing goes to one man. ball it wants, and I intend that it shall have Half of these men will never play a single GOOD INFLUENCES. As an ex-umpire, and as present head of the National League, it is doubly pleasant for it. ***Mr. Pulliam said: ©I will support my game. Scores of others will play for a time "The advent of the college ball player into me to be able to give credit for©the cleans umpires,© and he did. He never hesitated to and then be cast into the discard. The re the ranks of the professional has had much ing of base ball to the late Harry C. Pulliam, suspend a man for a week or a month if the quirements of the game today are such that to do with the change in the attitude of former president of the National League. occasion arose. The result was, millions of no finer examples of manhood can be found the public toward professional ball. In the ***He did this by supporting his umpires. people at the games last year. I intend to than the professional ball players. They past six years no less than 135 men have do the same. I have had my umpires here must possess not only perfect bodies, but been graduated from colleges into the ranks HIS POLICY DEFINED. and have given them the rules under which they must be of superior intelligence. of the professional ball players. And the "That I may follow In the footsteps of they are to work this season. They are the THE UMPIRES© IMPORTANCE. attitude and influence of these men have so Mr. Pulliam is not only my desire, but it is laws that are to govern professional base ball "So much for the players©; new for tlhft permeated the professional organization that my intention. Every man wants to succeed. for the season of 1910. It is no matter today the sport it 011 a higher plane I want to succeed. I want to make this a whether they are good or bad laws. They (Continued on the second page.} SPORTING LI?E first game; one month©s laundry work for the tional League team this year, were named best hitting average in first series; a box of today by President Robinson. The make-up cigars for player longest maintaining a per of the team follows: Pitchers Willis, Cor- LATEST NEWS fect fielding average and a loving cup the MAJOR RACES ridon, Lush, Sallee, Harmon, Geyer and Hig- season©s best hitter.