EVILS IN THE PROFESSIONAL ARENA.

The two great obstacles in the way of the success of the majority of professional ball players are wine and women. The saloon and the brothel are the evils of the baseball world at the present day; and we see it practically exemplified in the failure of noted players to play up to the standard they are capable of were they to avoid these gross evils. One day it is a noted pitcher who fails to serve his club at a critical period of the campaign. Anon, it is the disgraceful escapade of an equally noted umpire. And so it goes from one season to another, at the cost of the loss of thousands of dollars to clubs who blindly shut their eyes to the costly nature of intemperance and dissipation in their ranks. We tell you, gentlemen of the League and Association, the sooner you introduce the prohibition plank in your contracts the sooner you will get rid of the costly evil of drunkenness and dissipation among your players. Club after club have lost championship honors time and again by this evil, and yet they blindly condone these offences season after season. The prohibition rule from April to October is the only practical rule for removing drunkenness in your teams.

PRIVATE SIGNALS IN COACHING.

The coaching of base runners by private signals is an improvement in the game which is bound to come into vogue eventually. The noisy method of coaching which disgraced most of the American Association club teams in 1888 is doomed to die out. In the case of the coaching of deaf mutes, like Hoy and others, private signals had to be employed, and it can readily be seen how effective these can be made to be when properly systematized. There is not a single point in noisy verbal coaching which aids base-runners. In fact, in five cases out of six, it is a detriment to the runner. The fact is, the whole object of rowdy coaching is to annoy and confuse the battery players and not to help base-running. The way to rattle both the catcher and pitcher with the best effect, and to do it legitimately, is by private coaching. In this way a pitcher is more likely to get bothered in his endeavors to interpret the private signals than by the noisiest of verbal coaching.

[Illustration: Brooklyn Grounds.]

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP CAMPAIGN OF 1888.

The championship campaign of the American Association in 1888 proved to be exceptionally interesting in one respect, and that was in the close contest for the lead between the St. Louis, Brooklyn, Athletic and Cincinnati Clubs. Another feature was the fact that the best managed and most ably captained team of the eight clubs deservedly bore off the championship honors of the season; and that, too, against the strong team of picked star players which the Brooklyn Club gathered together at such cost to oppose the champions. The season was also made specially noteworthy by the fact that the St. Louis Club came in victors in the race for the fourth consecutive season, a record no other club except the Boston has ever been able to equal, and in the case of the Boston Club it was done before the organization of the National League. The pennant race was commenced on April 18, on which date the Louisville team began play at St. Louis, and the Cincinnatis at Kansas City in the West; while the Cleveland team opened at Brooklyn, and the Baltimore at Philadelphia in the East, the victors being the St. Louis, Cincinnati, Brooklyn, and Baltimore teams. By the end of April the Cincinnati and Athletic teams led in the West and East, with St. Louis and Brooklyn occupying fourth and fifth positions respectively, in the race. Before the end of May, while Cincinnati stood in the van, St. Louis had pulled up to second place, and Brooklyn had secured third position, the Athletics being fourth. In June Cincinnati fell off and St. Louis went to the front, with Brooklyn a close second, and the Athletics third. In July, Cincinnati rallied well and pushed the Athletics down to fourth place, while St. Louis and Brooklyn still occupied the leading positions. It was during the week ending July 15 that Brooklyn held first place with a percentage of .676 to St. Louis .639; before the month ended, however, St. Louis pulled up to .662, while Brooklyn stood at .641.

August proved to be a fatal month for Brooklyn, they only winning 8 games out of 22 won and lost this month, the result of their tumble being their retirement to fourth place, Cincinnati rallying well this month, while St. Louis began to look sure for the pennant, the Athletics ending the month a good third in the race. In September the Athletics pressed the Cincinnatis hard, and drove them out of second place, and before the month ended it was made evident that the closing part of the campaign would see a hot fight for the second position in the race between the Athletic and Brooklyn teams, September seeing the St. Louis team a fixture for first place, while Cincinnati was kept back in fourth position. By the close of September, St. Louis held first with a percentage of .691; the Athletics were second, with .615; Brooklyn third with .606, and Cincinnati fourth with .574. October saw a close struggle between the Athletic and Brooklyn teams for second place, and had the former team been kept temperate they would have finished second; but they "boozed" too much in October, and this gave Brooklyn the chance to take the position from them, and when the campaign ended on the 17th of October the record left the eight clubs occupying the following relative positions:

| Won. | Lost. | Per Ct.
—————+———+———-+———-
St. Louis | 92 | 43 | .681
Brooklyn | 88 | 52 | .629
Athletic | 81 | 52 | .609
Cincinnati| 80 | 54 | .597
Baltimore | 57 | 80 | .416
Cleveland | 50 | 82 | .378
Louisville| 48 | 87 | .355
Kans. City| 43 | 89 | .326