WE have heard several complaints lately in different quarters about the Nine, and while we are not prepared to say that these complaints are either wholly true or wholly groundless, we think that it has grown altogether too much "the thing" to depreciate the Nine. Of course it inevitably follows, that after a college organization has been defeated for a year or two, the popular enthusiasm in its welfare is lessened. Men wish in the long run to stand by victory. But it seems to us none the less necessary that the College should do all in its power, by expressing its interest, to help raise our position in any branch of athletics from second to first place. This is the least that can be expected from the students at large, and if it is shown, they naturally look for corresponding hard work on the part of our representative athletes. On this account we are averse to wholesale praise and to wholesale blame of the Nine, and we firmly believe that, if those who are foremost in circulating derogatory reports would put them in the shape of judicious suggestions to those connected with base ball, more good would result.