30 
SUMMER BASEBALL. 
Subject of Article in Last Sunday’s 
Globe, by L. J. Watson, 2d, of 
Beverly Farms. 
In a symposium on ‘‘Summer 
Baseball’’ in last Sunday’s Boston 
Globe, Lawrence J. Watson, 2d, of 
Beverly Farms considered one 
phase of the subject in the following 
article: 
Every year, at the beginning of 
the baseball season, the much-moot- 
ed question of ‘‘summer ball’’ arises, 
and for a time looms high on the 
horizon of college athletics. It at- 
tracts a great deal of attention from 
college men in all parts of the coun- 
try, and occupies much space in the 
daily papers until the commencement 
season brings to a close the college 
year. Then, for a time it disappears, 
but bobs up serenely in the fall, giv- 
ing the coaches many anxious mo- 
ments as they wonder whether or not 
any of their players have tasted for- 
bidden fruit and are in danger of 
incurring the displeasure of the fae- 
ulty and the ban of the athletic com- 
mittee. 
During all this period of diseus- 
sion the advoeates of the ‘‘simon 
pure’’ amateur, of the lad who plays 
only for love of the sport, are firm 
in the contention that no one who 
has ever indulged in the game for 
gain should be eligible to compete in 
athletics for the honor of his univer- 
sity; while those who favor letting 
down the bars a bit are just as firm 
in their contention that the poor boy 
should be allowed to earn his eduea- 
tion by means of his prowess on the 
diamond, without forfeiting the 
right to represent his college on the 
ball field. 
The problem is one of many sides, 
and the leading exponents of college 
athletics are nearly evenly divided 
as to it. The arguments pro and eon 
are familiar to all who read of mat- 
ters athletic. There is, however, one 
phase of the question which is of im- 
portance as regards the game itself, 
which most writers on the subject 
have tended to overlook or to neg- 
lect in favor of considerations which 
affect more closely the broader ques- 
tions of policy or sportsmanship 
which are involved. That is the 
fact that the lack of regular and con- 
tinuous playing during the summer 
is, in a great measure, responsible 
for the failure of the average college 
ball player to measure up to the pro- 
fessional in knowledge of the fine 
points of the game, and to play more 
consistently what is known as ‘‘in- 
side ball.’’ 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
We have 
all varieties 
HYDRANGEAS. . 
Hart Street - 
To any one who has witnessed a 
college contest and contrasted _ it 
with a professional game the differ- 
ence in finesse and knowledge of the 
the finer points of the game display- 
ed by the players is easily noticeable. 
The professional seems to know just 
what to do, how to do it and when to 
do it, while the college man, despite 
his superior mental training and his 
hours of study, is often at a loss 
when it comes to a delicate play or a 
perplexing situation. The profes- 
sional seems as if by magic and with- 
out thought to make the prop- 
er move, while the collegian thinks, 
r1esitates and is lost. 
Some may say that the reason for 
this difference in form lies 
fact that the professional is the pick 
of the land, the most highly deyel- 
oped product of the game, and that. 
a man who makes his living from the 
sport must necessarily excel one who 
enters into it only as a pastime. This 
is true; but it is not the whole truth. 
It is true that the players in the two 
big leagues are the pick of the pro- 
fessional ranks, but there are many 
very ordinary players in the minors, 
and yet the most of these men 
‘frame up’’ better in the fine points 
of the game than the collegians. 
Undoubtedly one of the reasons 
for this is the fact that the college 
Season is so short that the players on 
the varsity teams do not get the nee- 
essary training to develop to the 
highest extent their ‘‘baseball 
brains’’; that mysterious sixth sense 
which enables a player to do as if by 
instinct the right thing at the right 
time. 
‘Ball players are born, not made, ”’ 
is an old saying; but, like all adages, 
contains but an element of the truth. 
Undoubtedly the great ball players, 
the stars of the game, are born to the 
purple, but the great majority of 
ball players are made or developed 
by long, hard practice. One of the 
greatest managers the game has ever 
produced said: ‘‘Give me a boy with 
ordinary intelligence and a willing- 
ness to learn, let me give him a suffi- 
cient coaching and practice, and I 
TREES, SHRUBS, ROSES and VINES 
EVERGREENS And VARIETIES 
We dig all our Evergreens with a ball of earth, and they can be 
planted the same day from our nurseries: and they will grow. 
in . tubs 
THE PIERCE NURSERIES 
Telephone 97. 
in the’ 
IN ALL SIZES 
also 
and pots, if wanted, 
- Beverly Farms 
will make a player of him.”’ 
And it is the lack of this constant 
practice during the long summer 
months, this absence of baseball 
knowledge born in the experience of 
game after game, this failure to en- 
joy to the full the healthiest of all 
exercises during the season best 
adapted to sport that is responsible 
in a great measure for the fact that 
the college game, while a good game 
and interesting, lacks the finish of 
the professional. 
A Barnegat schoolma’am had been 
telling her pupils something about 
George Washington and finally she 
asked: 
‘“Can anyone now tell me which 
Washington was—a great general 
or a great admiral. 
The small son of a fisherman rais- 
ed his hand, and she signaled him to 
speak. 
“He was a great general,’’ said 
the boy. “‘I seen a picture of him 
crossing the Delaware, and no great 
admiral would put out from shore 
standing up in a_ skiff.’’—Every- 
body’s Magazine, 
9? 9D 
B@y-Have you a HOUSE TO RENT, or 
ROOMS TO LET, or do you want BOARD- 
ERS? 
g@"Perhaps you want a POSITION for the 
summer as GARDENER, or COACHMAN, 
or CHAUFFEUR. 
Whatever you want it ought not to require 
AN ALARM CLOCK 
to awake you to the fact that the easiest, the 
quickest, the least expensive way to gratify your 
wish is to patronize the 
Classified Ad. Column 
of the 
North Shore Breeze 
