In the course of a discussion, which is part of the assignment work at the Postgraduate School, several student officers expressed opinions concerning the state of athletics in the fleet. The conditions pictured are perhaps familiar to all. The broad idea presented was that things are not all they should be. The question arose as to what to do about it. The basic idea here presented was evolved in answer to that question. The writer lays no claim to being an athlete, he wears no “N,” and will undoubtedly be taken to task for approaching the sacred altar without the proper vestments. However, here’s the idea.
First, let us consider for a moment, is there anything wrong with athletics in the fleet? Let me quote sections 242-244 U. S. Fleet Regulations 1931:
242. It is the desire of the Commander in Chief that all athletics be conducted so that the majority may participate and that participation be not limited to a few highly specialized men.
243. Commanding officers will encourage to the maximum degree, compatible with the mission of the fleet, athletics such as boat racing, swimming, football, baseball, field sports, boxing, wrestling, etc.
244. Every effort will be made to foster the spirit of clean sportsmanship and to discourage the spirit of professionalism.
Is there something wrong? What is this spirit of professionalism which is to be discouraged? Is it abroad in the fleet? Or do we merely fear that it might be there at some future date? What is professionalism?
We are all acquainted with Babe Ruth, and his high-priced slugging. Organized baseball is perhaps the best example of professionalism. But, you say, we haven’t any Babe Ruths in the fleet. Haven’t we? What is the difference in principle between paying a man enough money to enable him to refrain from all other gainful occupations except baseball, and relieving a man from watches so that he has nothing to worry about except that same colorful pastime; Have any of you ever heard of an athlete being excused from watches—considering his watches as stood—if he were out with the team? The man draws his pay for the duties of his rating. If he doesn’t do those duties but plays baseball instead and draws his pay isn’t he being paid to play? Show me the difference in principle.
We all know about players being bought, sold, exchanged, bartered, or drafted around the big leagues. Have we anything like that? Have you ever heard Dame Rumor whisper that a certain flagship was after a certain pitcher? Did you ever know of a man’s being promised a rate if he would put in for a transfer to a certain ship? We develop a few stars, and they do get transferred about. Some of them are famous and correspondingly temperamental. Are they professionals? Isn’t it true that certain ships get hold of, or develop, a few good athletes and build around them winning teams? Isn’t it true that most of the other ships have to be forced to compete and to provide opposition for the ship with the “Iron Man?” How many ships have division teams for every division in each major sport? Why shouldn’t they have? Why is it so difficult to arouse interest in a division team, boat race, or boxer?
I believe the commander in chief has recognized the trouble. There are too few people engaged in athletics. Too much of the limelight is occupied by the highly trained and specialized few. I believe we are cursed with professionalism. Too often it is that the crew are in the bleachers and a few specialists on the field. We are too keen to see a perfectly organized machine representing our ship, and by hook or by crook, we are all out to get us some of those good players. Too much honor and reward go to the ship’s team—the champions of force or fleet. There is not enough incentive for bringing out division teams. There isn’t enough “sand-lot” baseball and football. Why? Isn’t it interesting? Of course it is. Who will admit to being such an old fogy that he can’t get a kick out of watching a couple of rival towns or rival boys’ gangs battle with mask and bat and ball behind the barn at the racetrack? Then why can’t we get out division teams to battle in the sand-lots?
Are we in agreement that something is wrong? Or are there those who stand upon Principle that “whatever is is right”— this is the way it’s always been done?” If you come in one of these categories, drop this paper, you won’t be interested. What I am proposing is not a new idea. It is merely an application to a new field of an idea which has been in use for years quite successfully. You are all familiar with the small arms trophy and the rules under which it is awarded. Hasn’t the department pointed the way? Can’t the same idea be applied to the award of the “Iron Man” that has been applied to the award of the small arms trophy? There can be no doubt but that the ship which gets out and does the most rifle work, does the most training of men. Incidentally, the trophy can’t be kept from that ship. Points for marksmen, points for sharpshooters, experts, pistol shots, machine gunners, squad fire, interdivision matches, or any activity with small arms go toward the trophy. Why not the same with athletics? Make your qualified swimmers count for the “Iron Man.” Give so many points for an interdivision match on a ship and so many points for a complete card of wrestlers and boxers at a ship’s smoker. Don’t make everything depend on the championship. That takes away the incentive for the second or third rater to train. If he can get one lowly point toward that “Iron Man” by hard work, he will work just as he will sweat and hold and squeeze out on the range under a broiling sun for that expert rifle qualification. Give the ship which has a lot of hard-working people—“everybody out”—a chance to make more points than the ship which has “recruited” a lot of stars.
And now comes what will probably be considered a radical idea. Make the recruiting of stars less profitable in another way. Lessen their value. Make it mandatory during the season that the team representing a ship be the champion of that ship’s division teams. Legislate the picked team out of existence. You say—“Oh, but you are lowering the standard of play.” Not granted! The execution of plays by those teams will not perhaps be as smooth as if we had a team picked from the entire ship’s company, but won’t we get more interest? If John Jones (Seaman 2 cl.) thinks he can beat that quarter back on that forward pass, won’t he be more likely to come out for his division team than if he watches a perfect fifty-yard pass? He might as well be watching a movie or the “Galloping Ghost” with his team of professionals, as watching that team of selected men from the flagship gallop up and down the field. Make it possible for the smaller ships to get into the running. A team representing a destroyer or submarine could meet on more or less even terms the champion division team representing the fleet flagship. Doesn’t that make for sportsmanship?
My auditors immediately objected that the same poor sports who want a winning team at any price, even the death of true sportsmanship, would be seeing to it that all the athletes got into one division. No doubt that the same sort of officer who recruits pitchers and quarter backs and champion boxers with promises of advancement would get the stars concentrated in one division if it were worth his while. Let’s use the old lead pencil to strike him out. It’s a poor mathematician who can’t outfigure an athlete. Let’s rig the rules to force mass athletics instead of championship teams.
Try this formula:
Let ship’s score for baseball.
Let N=number of divisions in the ship’s approved organization.
Let N'=number of division baseball teams.
Let SI = Division score—figured same as any league.
Games with any division team on one’s own or another ship or with any regular team representing approximately the same number of men.
Sb=N’/N x (S1+S2+S5+S6+Sn)/(Nx5)
Any division challenged must play unless excused for cause by the immediate superior in command. Failure to accept a challenge, unless so excused, should score double against the offender, and score for the challenger simply as another game won by default.
With the mathematics of the situation forcing the formation of many teams from each ship, it will be unnecessary to have a set schedule. Let teams arrange their own games, if they play the minimum required. A schedule could be arranged but it would have to be complicated and more difficult than the fleet schedule we now have. The division and fleet athletic officers will be busy with mathematics, getting sufficient fields to play on, getting permission for teams to play in dungarees or shorts, when there is not enough gear to go around.
If you work with the formula for a moment, you will see that any ship getting out a team for each division and winning half and losing half with each team would have a score of 1.000. Figure out what happens to the ship score if a division or more are unrepresented! See if the star isn’t effectively smothered in mass athletics! Put them all in one division and you are simply robbing the other divisions on your own ship. Of course a star’s services will boost a ship’s score, if he can win some outside games, but “Old Man Percentage” will make him look pretty small before the end of the season. When the ship’s athletic officer has to look after fourteen teams instead of one, he won’t have time to bother with any temperamental prima donnas. Make each team play a minimum number of games, say seven, under penalty of a zero score. The division officer would be required to certify membership of his team to the umpire for each game. Any proved lack of sportsmanship would forfeit the game and any professionalism should give that team a zero score for the season, just as though the division had not been represented at all. Using a ringer would thus be made unprofitable. Rest assured the stars would be forced to stick to their own teams, if every division in the fleet is interested in the score of every other division. It can be readily seen that the aggressive ship, the one out winning games from other ships with each division team, would at once step out in the lead of the league. I hear a remark that everybody would “pick on” a known weak team. Granted. But has it occurred to you that our purpose is to get a team out to represent every division? If a division team is weak and has a challenge for every available playing date, haven’t we accomplished our purpose and got out on the field playing the most baseball the team that needs it most? And in this class of game, can’t you see the biter bitten, now and again?
The same formula will work for any sport, even boxing and wrestling. Perhaps a division would have only three or four weights and might not be able to get bouts in its own ship, but only lack of men of the necessary poundage would excuse failure to take up a challenge. Having the ship’s score in each sport, it is easy enough to weight the scores according to the number of individuals on a standard squad for that sport and combine them for the ship’s aggregate or final yearly score for the “Iron Man,” or whatever the symbol of athletic supremacy is chosen to be. The gunnery officer of any ship can build you a formula in five minutes. Have I convinced you that a mathematician with a good lead pencil can figure professionalism out of the picture? Very well! Let’s do it! The professional is the product of our system. Let’s change the system and watch the professional disappear.
Is the world’s series necessary to organized baseball? Must we have intersectional games, Rose Bowl exhibitions, and other postseason games with all-American personnel and the like? Must we have some such scheme to foster interest in a sport in the fleet? Very well, if we must have them in the fleet, let them be postseason. If athletics cannot live without these picked professionals to perform for us, let us make their activities frankly an exhibition and not part of a prescribed schedule. Let there be a challenge cup for picked teams. That would afford an opportunity for the pampered pets to get out and earn the year’s pay they have been drawing down while others did their work. Let them get out and show the people who stand their watches how a real hot sport can peg down to second or run through a broken field.
But as for real organized and scheduled athletics that count for standing of ships and divisions and squadrons, let us put the professional athlete back where he belongs, no favors shown him, no discrimination against him. Let him stand his own watches, and work for a rate with the rest of his division and the rest of the ship’s company. Let the “Iron Man” be awarded to the ship with the highest composite score. Rig the rules so that the score represents mass athletics, not the efforts of specialists.