Eddie Collins Upholds Sponsorship of College Baseballers by Big Leagues

Colleges are unfair unfair to organized baseball was the general theme of an interview with Eddie Collins, General Manager of the Boston Red Sox, yesterday at Fenway Park.

The former second baseman in the Connie Mack "million dollar infield" of two decades ago was outspoken in his criticism of the attitude taken by college toward ball clubs who send players through school and then sign them up. A second peeve was intercollegiate restriction of undergraduates participating in semi-pro games during the summer and "maybe picking up a little spare cash."

College Shout "Botrayal"

During the past year rising indignation by university officials has become apparent because young players are sponsored by professional teams through school, with the understanding that they will sign on the dotted line immediately after graduating. Too often, the irate colleges maintain, the boys are deceitfully betrayed into leaving academic lists before the end of four years.

Collins looks at the problem in a far different light. "Why, it's just like alumni and societies providing scholarships. The boys get a college education and we get ball-players. Sure, it's a gamble, but it doesn't affect the colleges.

Encourages College Education

"Why we even oncourage boys to finish their college careers," Collins continued. "There's a young follow named Sayles on our ball club new who played on the Olympic nine as a Freshman. We agreed to help defray his college expenses, but he wanted to quit school right away. The coach at Oregon, that's where he was playing, came to our scout out there, all upset, and we influenced the boy to take another year at least."

At present there is a committee of representatives from the universities and ball clubs investigating the problem of sponsored college ball-players with a report forthcoming next year. With demand for new talent at such a high premium, the big leagues are all indulging in this practice with the philosophy, ably expressed by Collins, "If we don't get him, 101 others will be after him."

Summer Ball

Another thing Eddie can't understand is the colleges "straight laced" attitude toward students playing summer ball for a semi-pro team. Collins argues that there's no difference between picking up money in baseball and business.

"And Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are the worst. My boy, who is quite au athlete at Yale, and Lupien out at Harvard are burned up because they can't play in the summer, when there are innumerable boys at Dartmouth, Cornell, and Pennsylvania who get jobs every year with some semi-pro club."