BASEBALL SELECTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 March 1939, Page 6

BASEBALL SELECTION

(To the Editor.) Sir— Owing to my absence from town, I; have only now had my attention drawn to a letter published last week in the “Times-Age”' criticising the selection of players for the Possibles v Probables matcji during Keep Fit Week. May we assure’ the writer that there are none who desire less to see the game lose its popularity than the members of the Management Committee of our association and there is no group of sports officials who work harder in the interests of the game they control. Admittedly the selectors of the teams in question were players who selected themselves and other committee members. But does “Fair Play” realise that when the game started in Masterton this season, there were only two experienced players to form a nucleus of active participants in the game? All other players, and we have approximately 70, have had to pick up details of the game as they have gone along. Can “Fair Play” kindly put us in touch with non-players who have had sufficient experience in the game to select our teams for us? If “Fair Play” is a baseball player, and we hate to think he is if careless criticism is a characteristic, he will surely know the difficulties under which we work. None, of us know the game other than by the little experience we have gained here. We started' the association's activities only two months ago and all we have tried to do is to provide facilities for play and some form of control. To us baseball is a game to be enjoyed and we want every player to play it in that spirit. We knew we have many faults and hope that next year most of them will be eliminated. Meanwhile we deprecate the criticism of “Fair Play,” preferring his constructive assistance and help to add to the growing popularity of the game. —I am. etc., ,1. D. BAYBUTT, Chairman, Wairarapa Baseball Association.