Bill Veeck Recommends Alterations for Baseball

"All is not well in the wonderful world of baseball." Bill Veeck told a Winthrop House audience of 200 last night.

The noted baseball author and controversial former owner of three major league teams went on to say, "Baseball has been sold on the won and lost column--not on the basis of the game itself."

Comparing the rise in football's popularity with baseball's decline, Veeck noted, "Baseball is still the greatest game; it has to be, for what we've done for it." Citing that football can be exciting no matter who is playing, the baseball showman stated that baseball games must become more fun for the fans.

Veeck urged that William Eckert, the newly elected Commissioner of baseball, use the minor leagues to test needed changes in the game. He added that in the past 40, years, two of the game's only satisfactory innovations have been the elimination of colors from uniforms and the compulsory removal of gloves from the field.

He suggested for a start that a less lively ball be used. Reeling off facts like pitches in batting practice, Veeck said that today's average game takes 22 minutes longer to score 20 per cent fewer runs with 600 per cent more relief pitching and 40 per cent more bases on on balls.

To quicken the game, he suggested that an intentional pass should be automatic without the pitcher's having to throw four balls, that the ball should not be chucked around the infield after every out, and that relief pitchers who have been warming up for seven innings" should not throw eight warmup pitches when they enter the game.

He recommended that employing a permanent pinch hitter for pitchers could prolong a star's career by five years.

Veeck, a thorn to all major league baseball owners, opened the evening with 20 minutes of baseball stories.

Speaking of the extremes a team will go to win, he cited the "two World Series of 1965" one in Los Angeles with a cinder-block infield, enabling ground balls to get through and the Dodgers' speedy runners to make use of their talent, and one in. Minnesota with a sandy, sloping infield which slows runners and ruins good bunts.

"It was a world series to prove that a great pitcher (Koufax) was better than a good groundskeeper," Veeck said.

During the question period, members spot, but he warned them to "take some of the things I say with a grain of salt." of the audience tried to put Veeck on the

He referred to Walter O'Malley, owner of the Los Angeles as "the assistant commissioner"; to Willy Mays. San Francisco's star outfielder, as "loving the game so much, he would play for nothing"; and to Leo Durocher, the new manager of the Chicago Cubs, as the man who may fire Cubs owner Phil Wrigley before his contract runs out. "When asked about the interleague competition, now vetoed by the national league, Veeck replied that it was so logical that it couldn't happen.

Who does Veeck pick to win the pennants? He likes San Francisco and Cincinnati in the National League and the White Sox along with the Twins in the American League.