INTRA-MURAL GAMES

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I presume you are acquainted with the articles by Messrs. Boyle and Angell in Sports Ilustrated and the New Yorker, both about the pre-Yale game week, and which I thought were superb jobs. About the former I had a letter in the 19th Hole in the issue of January 7th, which you may have seen, and which, I think caught the spirit of the article.

However, it somewhat disturbed me to learn from Mr. Angell's article that players to varsity caliber were taking part in the intra-mural games. You may be sure that I have no fault to find with their not wanting to go through the rigors of a varsity season; that is entirely a matter of their own choice, and their reasons are probably perfectly sound, but I do not think it is fair to the other players of the House teams who are not varsity material.

Let me draw an analogy. In my days we had a baseball tournament for the Leiter Cup--whether this is still going on I do not know. Teams were organized by various individuals, these teams being made up of players who were not good enough for the varsity squad, and were entered in the tournament. Graduate students were also permitted to take part. I fielded a pretty good nine in the four years I was there, but we were beaten in the semi-finals by the Law School the first two years in very close and exciting games. It was a lot of fun. In the third year we faced the Law School in the final round. We really thought we were going to take them for the first time. Imagine my horror when I saw warming up for them none other than George Davis, a perfectly eligible Law School student, whom they had not called upon for the preliminary games. Now Davis, a Williams graduate, had been the best pitcher in intercollegiate baseball for three years. His record was strung with one and two hitters, and he was almost unbeatable. Later on that summer he was to join up with the Boston Braves for a short spell, and was to pitch nine innings of hitless ball against the Phillies, composed of such sluggers as Gabby Cravath, Fred Luderus and others, only to lose the game in the tenth inning.

If you think that our bats were distinctly silent during that game you are right. I guess we got a couple of foul ticks, and were beaten 4 to 0. Robert W. Wood '16