BASEBALL WORK COMMENCES

The baseball work for the University and Freshman teams will begin this afternoon when the battery candidates for both squads will report to the manager in the Cage at 3 o'clock. All other candidates for the University team will be called out on Monday, February 15, and the Freshmen on Tuesday, February 16.

Coach Pieper will be assisted in coaching the battery candidates by Mathewson of the New York Nationals. The regular coach for the Freshman team will be appointed in a short time. For the present Captain Currier and Coaches Pieper and Mathewson will have charge.

For the first few weeks the work will be of an elementary nature consisting in limbering up the battery candidates and in fielding practice for the rest of the squad.

The Season's Prospects.

In view of the fact that only two men are lost from last year's team, the general outlook for a successful season seems bright, provided the team does not get into a rut and allow last year's mid-season slump to occur again.

There are reliable and experienced substitutes who will make a keen competition for each position, and there is no reason why the team should not play winning baseball.

All the members of last year's team except Leonard, and McCall, who may return, are in College this year. The following men who played in the Yale and Princeton games last year are again eligible for the team: Captain E. P. Currier '09, catcher; S. T. Hicks '10, and N. K. Hartford '09, pitchers; T. Briggs '09, and R. W. Hall '10, first base; J. W. Simons '09, short-stop; R. H. Aronson '10, E. T. Dana '09, C. W. Harvey '09, and C. L. Lanigan '10, outfielders. Of last year's championship Freshman team, R. G. McKay, J. A. McLaughlin, W. M. Minot, A. Sweetser, J. A. Sweetser, and P. S. Twitchell show promise of developing into valuable men. In addition to these there are also available several members of last year's second team who can be used to advantage this spring, including S. D. Bush '09, D. Crocker '10, F. L. Foster '10, R. Haydock '10, J. C. Hamlen '10, R. P. Jordan '10, R. S. Marshall '10 and J. A. Paine '09.

The University team is very fortunate in being able to start the season with a good string of pitchers. In addition to Hartford, who has pitched against Yale successfully for the past two years, Hicks, whose work last year stamped him as one of the best college pitchers, will also be available. McKay, whose excellent pitching enabled the Freshmen to win from Yale 1911 last year, will also be eligible and should greatly strengthen the pitching staff. Currier, Simons, and possibly McCall, who have played together for three years, will doubtless continue in their same positions in the infield. For first base, Hall and Briggs will be eligible, and F. H. Burr '09 will also be a candidate for this position. In order to fill the vacancy at third base, Lanigan will probably be moved in from the outfield, and together with Twitchell and A. Sweetser from last year's Freshman team should make valuable material for this position. A reliable substitute for Captain Currier should be R. C. Brown '10, who was captain of his Freshman team and has had much experience behind the bat. In the outfield, Aronson, Dana, and Harvey will be eligible and should make a good nucleus for starting the season, though they are liable to be supplanted by members of last year's Freshman outfield, of whom the most promising are McLaughlin and Minot.

Yale's Outlook.

Yale loses by graduation five of last year's team, but there are many good men available from last year's Freshman team. The members of the university team lost are: Captain T. A. D. Jones, catcher; H. H. Jones, pitcher; T. M. Dines, second base; C. G. Williams, third base; J. J. Clifford, centre field. The men who are back and will be eligible for the team this year are: Captain F. J. Murphy, left field; S. H. Philbin, first base; G. C. Fels, shortstop; R. S. Rose, pitcher; H. M. Wheaton, right field.

The Yale Schedule.

The Yale baseball schedule for 1909 presents several changes from that of last year. Including games played in case of ties, it calls for 35 games, seven more than in 1908. The Harvard games will be played on June 24, 29, and July 3, a week later than those of last year.

Another change is the resumption of the Southern trip during the Easter vacation, which was abandoned in 1908 in favor of the plan of keeping the team in New Haven for practice. The number of games with professional teams has been increased since last year from two to six.

The schedule is as followsApril 1-Georgetown at Washington.April 3-University of Virginia at Norfolk.April 5-Norfolk League at Norfolk.April 6-New York National League at Norfolk.April 7-New York National League at Norfolk.April 8-Norfolk League at Norfolk.April 10-New York National League at Norfolk.April 14-Hartford League at Hartford.April 17-Trinity.April 21-Fordham.April 22-Tufts.April 24-Cornell at Ithaca.April 28-West Point at West Point.May 1-University of Pennsylvania.May 5-Brown.May 7-University of Virginia.May 8-Andover.May 12-Williams.May 13-Wesleyan.May 15-University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia.May 19-Amherst.May 20-Syracuse.May 22-Holy Cross at Worcester.May 26-University of Vermont.May 29-Columbia at New York.May 31-Brown at Providence.June 2-Holy Cross.June 5-Princeton.June 8-Dartmouth.June 12-Princeton at Princeton.June 19-Cornell.June 22-Princeton at New York. (In case of tie).June 24-Harvard at Cambridge.June 29-Harvard.July 3-Harvard at New York. (In case of tie).

Unless otherwise stated the games will be played at New Haven