19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

BOOBY BALL
Sirs:
I found fascinating, factual fun in Stanley Frank 's blithe blasting of baseball's booby traps (What Ever Happened to Baseball? Aug. 27).
W. CARLYLE SMAIL, M.D.
Jerome, Idaho

Sirs:
You should force every club owner, manager and league official to memorize it word for word. It would help some players, too.
W. W. MILLER
Terre Haute , Ind.

Sirs:
I agree with everything the man said. Baseball has become a real drag, and instead of doing something to speed up the game the club owners are content to sit on their dwindling gate receipts.

Furthermore, I wish baseball's big wheels would seriously consider having the World Series played at night, when the majority of fans could watch it. After all, if baseball is still our national game the series should be played when most of its adherents can enjoy it. The club owners are perfectly willing to schedule most of the regular-season games at night, so why can't they be equally accommodating for the World Series?
ART MORAN
Cincinnati

Sirs:
The decline of interest in baseball has a parallel in the church. I am a clergyman—ordained to the ministry 57 years ago. Interest in religion has not increased during these years. Church buildings have grown bigger, more efficient, more beautiful, and the pews are more comfortable, but the crowds have not responded.

Added interests have come into being. Folks used to go to church because there was no other place to go. They talked about the sermon, for there was nothing else to talk about. This generation has a mania for the new, the different. The best too soon grows old. Said a Kentucky citizen to me, "The mountains are beautiful, but I get awfully tired of looking at them."

Only yesterday men gathered in the coffee shop to listen to the baseball game over one Of the few radios in the community. There was animated and partisan discussion. Today we sit in our parlors and automobiles to get the results. There is little talk beyond, "How did the game come out?"

Interest demands participation. The game has gotten away from a fickle public. Present interests are quite confined to the pennant race. The World Series is a foregone conclusion. The All-Star games are performances. The average person does not seem to care.
REV. JOHN VAN PEURSEM
Zeeland, Mich.

Sirs:
Stanley Frank 's article is a cynical farce. He probably would rather see a shortstop throw the ball into right field than see a lightning-fast double play get a pitcher out of a jam. If Mr. Frank is so disillusioned with the improvement in baseball today, then he ought to start watching the New York Mets .
JAMES J. HESSINGER
Kenmore, N.Y.

Sirs:
Let's see now. Mr. Frank 's ideal ballplayer would be a guy who hit .258, didn't field too well (but had a hole in his glove), made crude gestures on TV, disdained endorsements and the pension fund and presumably wound up his life assuring bartenders, "They don't play baseball like they used to."