TALK CENTERED ON BASEBALL

The eighth annual convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Association was held in New York on December 30. Over 100 delegates representing 112 universities and schools took part in the discussion of various athletic problems.

Dean Briggs compared the spirit of sportsmanship in football as it exists today with that of several decades ago and said that on the whole it was much better. The clean cut play of the last Yale game furnished a pleasing contrast to the somewhat questionable tactics sometimes employed in former championship matches. In baseball, however, Dean Briggs still found much to condemn, censuring particularly unsportsmanlike talk by the players. He urged that the umpire be not only empowered but instruc- ted to stop any unnecessary noise and to enforce chivalry among the contestants.

Summer Baseball Condemned.

Dr. E. H. Nichols '86 spoke strongly against summer baseball. He said that he held no serious objection to boys playing for money but that if they do they should not be permitted to play on college teams. He thought it right, however, to play ball temporarily in order to earn money toward a college education. He pointed out that the longer a man plays baseball the less fitted for a business or professional life he becomes. The temperament that makes a man a good ball-player generally makes him a poor business man.

Dr. Nichols said it was hard to deal directly with summer baseball on account of the indirect way in which a player often received his recompense. He mentioned instances of a boy jumping over a bat for a bet of $50 with the manager of a baseball team, or of tending a soda fountain at a summer hotel for half an hour a day at $50 a week. He could see no objections to a bona fide resident playing with a summer nine provided he received no compensation either direct or indirect.

Dr. Nichols also advocated giving the umpires more authority and restricting the powers of the coaches.

No Coaching During Game.

Dean Beavier read the report of the summer baseball committee. It recommended the abolition of the coaching system when the game was in progress and stated that the ordinary rules of the game were not sufficiently followed by college teams, this being due to the fact that professional coaches generated a spirit of unfairness on the part of the participants. The report was adopted with the recommendation that the authority of the coaches be curbed to a large extent and that they be prohibited from taking an active part in any of the games played by the teams which they have coached.

H. L. Williams of Minnesota offered a solution to the summer baseball problem suggesting that each athlete make an affidavit that he has never taken money either directly or indirectly for his playing with a threat of expulsion if his affidavit is found to be take.

George Huff of Illinois University said he could not see any difference in a ball played receiving money and a runner a gold watch, yet one was a professional and the other an amateur. Dr. Young of Cornell upheld essentially the same view.

Garcelon Champion of Fair Play.

The theory of Dr. Endicott Peabody of Groton that the American system of athletics was demoralizing and aristocratic was refuted by W. F. Garcelon L.'95 who maintained that fair play was characteristic of our games. Dr. Peabody also compared the ideals of sport in England and America.

Dean Briggs was re-elected president of the association for the coming year, while W. F. Garcelon L.'95 and P. Withington '10 were elected members of the soccer and swimming committees respectively