Prospects of the Nine.

The outlook for a good base-ball nine this year is not very bright. A great deal of hard work must be done before we can hope to hold our own with Yale and Princeton. The loss of Wiestling Foster and Bingham will be severely felt.

For catchers we have Henshaw and Campbell of last year's nine; Knowlton, the phenomenal catcher of last year's Andover team, and Howland of the Law School. Campbell, however, will probably not catch this year.

It seems, at present, as if Boyden would do most of the pitching for the nine this year. Bates, '91, Willard, '91, and Luce, '91, are also candidates for pitcher's place, of whom Bates and Willard may do fair work, although it is too early to make any estimate of their abilities. Campbell will also try his hand at pitching this year.

Willard, captain of last year's nine, will fill his old position at first base. Second base is doubtful. Mumford, who played that position last year, may do so again this year. Quackenboss, captain of the Dartmouth team last year, is in the Law School, and will probably cover third. He is a good fielder and base runner and a very good batter.

Short stop is still doubtful. McLeod, '90, and Gallivan, '88, are at present trying for that position, both of whom are fair men and have played short stop on their class nines. Gallivan is the better man of the two both in fielding and batting, but he can hardly fill Wiestling's place.

There are a great many candidates for the fielders' positions. Linn, '90, will probably play right field again this year, and Boyden and one of the change pitchers will fill the other two places. Foster, our phenomenal left fielder, will be sadly missed. Codman, '90, who played left on his class nine, is a candidate for the place, but his chances are doubtful.

Of the large number of candidates, Henshaw, Mumford, Linn, Willard, Campbell and Boyden are members of last year's team. Quackenboss and Knowlton will doubtless play. Henshaw, Linn, Willard, Campbell and Boyden were all of them heavy batters last year, and Quackenboss and Knowlton have the reputation of doing good work with the stick. The number of candidates is large and practice regularly every day in the cage at handball and sliding bases; also in battery work. The prospects are not very encouraging. Captain Henshaw will do all in his power to make a winning team out of the material that he has, but he is hampered by the regulations against professionals, which the faculty persist in enforcing. If our team of this year could be allowed to practice with professional teams we would at least stand on an even footing with Yale, but without this practice, which the Yale team has, we are handicapped from the start. The freshman class has done almost nothing so far in regard to its base-ball team. Captain Bates has had very hard work to get even a dozen men to train. This ought not to continue. A large number of freshmen should be trying for their team.