New Baseball Coach Floyd Stahl Expects a Better, Hustling Nine

To say that Floyd Stahl, the new baseball coach is over optimistic would be unfair. He merely is looking for and expecting the best. He is full of ideas on how to improve and popularize baseball at Harvard and is positive on one point; "We're going to be a hustling ball club."

Baseball officially opened in the eyes of the press and the University athletics yesterday afternoon when the call went out for battery candidates for the Varsity nine. But the newly appointed head coach started work with his pitchers and catchers immediately following the football season.

Stahl is admittedly out to bring baseball out of the slump of recent years. In doing this he wants first to improve the play of the team and second to secure the interest and support of the Undergraduate body.

According to Stahl the two aims are intertwined. The ball team plays better when the college is behind it and attends games, and popular support is largely dependent on the success of the nine.

Batting and Pitching Machines

In order to improve the calibre of Crimson baseball, Stahl has introduced several plans. Batters are aided by a batting machine intended to improve the swing. Another machine is used for throwing, so that catchers and pitchers can concentrate on accuracy. The new coach recognizes the difficulty that college pitchers have in throwing curves, so intends to stress aiming at the corners.

During the three weeks of unofficial drill, Stahl spent most of his time on fielding and teaching the pitcher how to keep a man on base. "With these fundamentals out of the way, we'll be able to concentrate on the other things more carefully," Stahl stated.

More important than new-fangled machines, will be the new spirit that Stahl hopes to institute. A graduate of Illinois University, Stahl never played professional baseball but has had all his dealings at colleges and with college men. For this reason he emphasizes the need and importance of spirit.

More Interest For Spectators

The new coach also has some very definite ideas on how to make the games next spring more interesting for the spectator. In the first place, the games will be speeded up with less delay by catchers hitching and unhitching their pads; there will be shorter warm-ups by pitchers; and less stalling by umpires. He repeated, "it's going to be a hustling team."

Stahl's career started at Illinois where he played baseball, mostly in the infield. Following graduation he spent four years at Stiever High School in Ohio, coaching baseball and football. For the next eight years he was at Ohio State with six of these years being spent as head coach of the Buckeye nine. His teams were always right near the top and one year came within 1/2 a game of the winning Minnesota Gophers, who dominate the Big Ten baseball Conference.