New Britain Herald Newspaper, October 12, 1915, Page 13

SOME LEADING MEMBERS OF PAT MORAN’S PHILLIES. NATIONAL LEAGUE PENNANT WINNERS FOR YEAR 19 T —— Photos by American Press Association. i, Adams; 2, Baumgartner; 3, Demaree; 4, Moran; 5, Alexander; 6, Niehoff; 7. Mc- Quillan; 8, Chalmers; 9, Mayer; 10, Burns; 11, Tincup; 12, Paskert; 13, Weiser; 14, —Stock; 15, Dugey; 16, Cravath; 17, Becker; 18, Whitted. HERE'S A QUESTION, BASEBALL sharp asks, can't & man who has all reached second go back to first if] presence on first is of more value on second?” There are several g tions along this line which could asked. For instance, why can't a |who has made a home run run A the other way for two If that would of more value to his team? MEREDITH GREATEST RUNNER 2 OF THE SEASON. VVHEN the list of athletic marvels ot 1915 is made up Ted Meredith, Philadelphia’s great middle distance runner, must be placed at the top. Mere- dith finished a wonderful season on the track at San Francisco by beating the fleetest quarter milers in the country, winning the national champlonship at thbat distance for the second consecu- tive year. Meredith alone of all the eastern star runners who went west showed his true form at games. ton, Taber, the sprint the edly ordinary one. To Meredith must be given the credit the greatest middle distance feats of the year when he ran the quarter mile at the inter- collegiate games in 48 seconds and then went out and took for performing the champton, great Kolehmainen were the swing in the west. true, but his performance was one and all Koly even upset won, of the half mile in minute 54 3-5 seconds. PITCHER BENDER NOT ALL IN, SAYS MACK Photo by Amerlcan Press Association. 7, | A TANAG ! I i recently lot 'R CONNIE MACK of the BIG CHIEF BENDER. Athletics s ys Big t out by the Baltimore Feds, is not all in by any means, Chief Bender, who 3 .‘dedur-w that if the big Indian would keep in condition he would almost Las good os many of the leading twirlers in the big lepgues, . Panama-Pacific Caldwell and Higgins of Bos- record miler; Meyer, the by tis a decid- l(‘\( EPT for technical changes, tend- ing to better the game particularly from the standpoint of players and officials, football will be played this fall under the same code as last year. There are one or two parts which are made more stringent, others are given clearer and more definite meanings, several disputed rulings are decided, but as far as the spectator is concern- ed there will be little or no difference in the gridiron games they watched in 1914 and the contests that are to take place this fall. Two definite . alterations have been made in rules governing the forward pass. One relates to throwing the ball out of bounds and the other the pen- alty for a member of the side touching the ball after it has first been touched by another player of his team. Last year, particularly down near the goal line where the distance was not suf- ficlent to make a punt, it was cus- tomary for many teams to throw the ball out of bounds when it could not make its distance, and the ball would then go to the defending eleven at a point two or three yards in front of the goal line instead of being brought out from touchback, which would very often result from a punt. This year a forward pass when thrown out of bounds is simply an incompleted pass and will not be made on fourth down in such cases as that mentioned, be- cause the ball would go to the oppos- ing team, provided it were fourth down, at the spot of the previous down. Under the code of 1914 when a forward pass touched a player of the side mak- ing the pass after it had already been touched by a member of that side the ball went to the opposing eleven at the spot of the foul. That has been qualified, and now the ball, if touched by a second eligible player, will sim- ply go as an uncompleted pass also. Of course if the ball at any time touches an ineligible player it will go to the opposing team. Undue Roughness Prevented. There was considerable difficulty ex- perienced by officials last year in pre- venting the interferers knocking down unsuspecting defensive players after the ball was dead. It was a common oc- currence last fall to see men have their feet cut from under them and spill- ed long after the play was ended and the ball had been declared dead by the referee. A provision has also been in- serted to keep the defensive players from running into their opponents un- der just such conditions. The use of substitutes in the last quarter has been considerably abused. After the antagonism aroused against football in 1909 had reached its zenith a provision was placed in the code al- lowing players to be resubstituted in the last quarter, so that a coach or trainer could remove a man who ap- peared more fatigued than usual in order that he might not suffer injury on that account. The best use, though, to which this been put was the sending in of substitutes with infor- mation from the coach to how the game ought to be run. The tide has been changed in many games because some coach has got information to his quarterback in this way. There have been cases where the coach sent a player on the field and even be fore he reported to the referce has gone to the quarterback and told him the information he bore and was then re- moved from the game and his prede- cessor again substituted without hav- ing taken part in a single play. The rule about “roughing the full- back” has been divided into two parts. It was realized that in the majority of instances when the fullback was “roughed” it was not due to such in- tention on the part of the player ad- judged of being so guilty, but resulted from his efforts to block kicks. It was almost impossible for a powerful line- man to halt his progress quickly enough to keep from running into the fullback while charging fast, yet the severe penalty of disqualification awaited him unless he did. This has been changed, and in such cases the penalty will be fifteen yards, while in the intentlonal instances of roughing the penalty will be fifteen yards for the team and disqualification for the player. The penalty for unsportsman- like conduct, too, has been lessened, fifteen yards being the result of such an act instead of disqualification. The officials have been given power, though, to disqualify in flagrant cases. Ball Must Leave Center. A play that has been practiced con- siderably is that of having the center pass the ball back, but instead of let- ting go ot it hold it against his leg so that a lineman could come around and take it from him and run with it, perhaps in another direction, after the backs had gone off as in a regular play. This was deceiving many times, yet it was not adjudged a play of real football merit, and all chance of such a method advancing the ball has been eliminated by changing the rule gov- erning passing back the ball to make the ball actually leave the center's hands. The method of blocking, heretofore exercised, by placing one or both of the hands on the ground and throwing the body and legs in the air is ruled against. If a man now blocks with his lower leg in this manner his team will be ‘penalized fifteen yards. A great many of the minor injuries resulting from striking with the heavy cleated shoes and from the tipping at times should thus be eliminated. No definite rule relative to number- ing the players was made, but the com- mittee recommended that this be done. Another official v made mandatory, provision for a field judge being made. The fleld judge will also keep time in- stead of the head linesman. Whenever the ball goes out of bounds it will al- ways be brought back fifteen yards. In other years it has been customary for the referee to ask the captain how far he wanted it placed from the side line. Several Rulings Approved. A ruling which came up times a year ago and which w puted on numerous occasions was that relating to the catching of a forward pass simultaneously by a defensive and offensive player. The contention that 0 Several Changes Made In Football Rules ¢ should go to the man of the side making the pass was 1d. That the ball is not autom dead when an offside member of the | kicking side is hit with it after a punt | was also declared. The penalty may be refused by the side not making the kick and piay go on as In any other case of a declined peraity. If a ball is kicked a second time it will go to the opposing side, even though it has not gone ten yards. It was also brought up and the opinion given that the whistle should be blown whenever the forward progress of the ball ceases. If there is an uncompleted forward pass after offside play or holding has been called the penalty shall be made for offside or holding and no forward pass considered. The first offense always takes precedence and holds good in this regard. To judge from the slight changes of the last two years in the code, football is now reaching a stage similar to that held by baseball, one where no radical alterations in the playing code may be looked for, but in which slight changes to clear up certain points or to benefit the game technically are likely to oc- cur. Football is now more stable than at any previous period in its whole his- tory, and with the minor improvements in the code each year it is likely to grow more and more in favor. One of the chief drawbacks for coaches and players alike previous to three years go was the continual alterations in the code, and the high development of the game now is undoubtedly due to the stableness of the rules, which has given time to work out some few of the many problems the sport affords. Use Three Baseballs, But to No Avail THE tunniest baseball yarn? Well, how about this one, related by Out- flelder Bill Speas of the Portland (Ore.) team? “It happcred in 1906,” asserts Bill. “I was playing with the Columbus (O.) team against the Mansfield (O.) out- fit. Mansfield had two men on bases. The batter fouled off the first ball along the right fleld foul line. The umpire quickly threw in another, and the batter shot another foul toward right field. Another ball was put into play by the umpire, and the batter sent it zipping through the infield and out to me in left. “I caught the ball on a bound and heaved it in. It went wild and hit the grand stand. In the meantime the right fielder had recovered both foul balls and had thrown them to the in- field. Our first baseman grabbed one and started chasing down the batter between first and second. Our short- stop grabbed the other ball and raced after the runner, who was trying to go to third. Meanwhile our catcher, hav ing recovered my throw of the real hit, raced toward the home plate in an ef- | fort to overhaul the other base run- ner, who was trying to score, while our pitcher, who was covering the plate, howled at him to throw the bll” the ball | declared tically ‘ Mumpca to the Pittsburgh Feds, |cause, he says, any player who pref HARLEY HERZOG, manager of the HW Jitney circuit to the big time w Cincinnati Reds, is =ald to have not fit in on his club. “Comstock is that he Is glad Comstock | a good minor leaguer,” says Herzie HERZOG GLAD COMSTOCK JUMPED. PITCHER RED AMES STILL TWIRLING GREAT BAL Photo by American Press Association. RED AMES. O\I-‘ of the season's sensations in the pitching line is Red Ames of the St Louis Nationals. Early in the year many figured his days were about over, especially when he was let out by Cincipnati, but Red fooled "em and bas, twirled brilliang ball for the Carda..