Many amateurs who would not for a moment have considered any other kind of proposition found that they had easy consciences when it was merely a question of taking a reduction in board and lodging. They seemed to fail to recognize the fact that by accepting such a reduction they were practically accepting the sum of money which the hotel-keeper subtracted from their bills at the end of their stay. In some cases, too, no bills at all were submitted to the baseball boarders. Thus amateurs were rapidly sliding into the path of professionalism, and the colleges found that they must take some steps to interfere with summer baseball playing.
All of the colleges now, I think, with the possible exception of Brown, have rules forbidding the playing of baseball on "summer nines," the penalty being that any member of the college who does this becomes ineligible to any university team. And thus summer playing for college men has been effectively put a stop to.
The colleges, however, cannot legislate against players who are not members of their institutions, and they have found it difficult to prevent sub-Freshmen or school-boy players from accepting the favors of hotel-keepers or others in return for belonging to the hotel's nine. Princeton, however, has seized the bull by the horns, and has issued a decree, which was sent around to all the preparatory schools last spring, stating that no one will be considered eligible to any of the university teams who has at any time played for any sort of compensation.
This is an excellent rule, and will effectively put a stop to summer ball-playing by young men who are preparing for Princeton, and who hope to achieve the honor of playing on the university nine. It is to be hoped that every other university and college in this country will adopt similar rules.
But aside from the penalties that are to be incurred for playing on "summer nines," there must be a number of other reasons that will prevent school-boys from running the risk of being looked upon as semi-professionals. I say "semi-professionals," although there is really no half-way house between amateurism and professionalism. If a young man accepts reduced board at any time, or a uniform, or a pair of shoes or stockings, or in fact anything that has any commercial value whatever, as a reward for any kind of services rendered in athletics, he is a professional.
NATIONAL INTERSCHOLASTIC RECORDS.
| Event. | Holder. | ||||
| 100-yard dash | 10-1/5 | sec. | W. H. Jones, New England I.S.A.A. | ||
| 220-yard dash | 22-2/5 | " | W. H. Jones, New England I.S.A.A. | ||
| Quarter-mile run | 51-2/5 | " | H. L. Washburn, New York I.S.A.A. | ||
| Half-mile run | 1 | m. | 59-3/5 | " | W. S. Hipple, New York I.S.A.A. |
| One-mile run | 5 | " | 10-1/5 | " | D. T. Sullivan, New England I.S.A.A. |
| 120-yard hurdles (3 ft. 6 in.) | 16-4/5 | " | A. F. Beers, New York I.S.A.A. | ||
| 220-yard hurdles (2 ft. 6 in.) | 26-2/5 | " | J. H. Converse, New England I.S.A.A. | ||
| One-mile walk | 7 | " | 53-2/5 | " | A. L. O'Toole, New England I.S.A.A. |
| One-mile bicycle | 2 | " | 36 | " | O. C. Roehr, Long Island I.S.A.A. |
| Running high jump | 5 | ft. | 8 | in. | { F. R. Sturtevant, Connecticut H.-S.A.A. |
| { T. Flourney, Iowa State H.-S.A.A. | |||||
| Running broad jump | 21 | " | 1 | " | H. Brown, Connecticut H.-S.A.A. |
| Pole vault | 10 | " | 5 | " | R. G. Clapp, New England I.S.A.A. |
| Throwing 12-lb. hammer | 129 | " | 10 | " | F. C. Ingalls, Connecticut H.-S.A.A. |
| Putting 12-lb. shot | 43 | " | 4 | " | F. C. Ingalls, Connecticut H.-S.A.A. |
The word "professional" means an individual who performs in athletics for the sake of the reward that he is to receive. It does not make any difference whether this reward comes to him in cash, clothing, or pie. And he cannot evade being classed among professionals if he once accepts any kind of remuneration. Of course it seems different to those young men who do not think seriously about the ethics of sport. They think that they are not accepting any remuneration if they allow a hotel-keeper or an athletic club to furnish them with a suit of clothes—a baseball uniform—and pay their expenses.
They argue that it is only just, if they are playing baseball, that their expenses to and from neighboring resorts should be paid, and they do not see why the hotel or the club, if it chooses to, should not present uniforms to the young men who are playing ball. But it seems to me that this very argument is strongest when looked at from the other side. The young men who accept uniforms or expenses do so because they feel that it is worth while for the hotel man or the club to spend that money to have them play baseball.
Therefore, if it is worth anything to the hotel man to pay them this money, their services acquire a commercial value. As soon as services are recognized to have a commercial value, and are paid for, either directly or indirectly, the one who accepts the reward or remuneration, either directly in cash or clothing, or indirectly in railroad fare and hotel bills, becomes a professional, for he has made use of his ability as an athlete to obtain railroad transportation or board at no expense to himself beyond his skill as an athlete.