AND RUMORS OF LEAGUES

Upon first consideration the plan suggested by Director Blossom of Yale for an intercollegiate baseball league is appealing, but Major Moore's vigorous denial of the rumor that Harvard would enter such a league is based upon more than a recollection of the unfortunate fate of such an association in 1887. The problem of the increased expense involved in organization of schedules under an intercollegiate league could perhaps be met by raising the price of tickets, which would in turn probably necessitate a discarding of the present plan of admission to games on Soldiers Field by H. A. A. books. That this plan would cause unusual interruption of studies is an objection that might be obviated by a wise planning of trips. But Major Moore's last criticism is one that is quite in accord with the present tendency in collegiate athletics to avoid anything that smacks of professionalism.

With the mushroom growth of university stadiums during the past decade football, at least, has assumed the outward appearance of a great entertainment staged for the amusement of the public and the financial benefit of the college. In substance the amateur spirit has resisted the most obvious encroachments, but any approach to the methods of professionalism calls for immediate rejection. The proposal for a league organization of baseball among the eastern colleges seems to be just such an approach. In the bitter and prolonged competition for the league championship that would undoubtedly result, the position and powers of the coach would receive the usual undue emphasis. Moreover, the formation of a league necessarily means the resigning of some of the independence of each member; that the Athletic Committee must retain full powers over the management of Harvard athletics is in truth the vital objection to plans for intercollegiate league organization of baseball.