The Fourth Hockey Game

After holding several long telephone conversations over the wires between Cambridge and New Haven, Harvard and Yale officials have finally come to the agreement not to hold the fourth Harvard-Yale hockey clash. According to reports Yale was anxious to continue the series and have the question of superiority settled and Harvard was opposed to the move. The H.A.A. officials have established a pretty definite policy against post-season games and saw no reason to break a precedent in this case. Only once has this been done and that was when the Crimson football team took a cross-country trip to the Rose Bowl to play Oregon in the Tournament of Roses game a decade ago. If a fourth game were played in the current ice series it would necessarily be a post-season game, for the schedule ended with last Wednesday's Garden tilt.

Not staging the game saves both Universities from receiving any comment that there would be a mercenary incentive behind a fourth tilt and that the "gate" prospect would decide the place of this encounter. But other factors probably entered into the consideration also. The hockey season has already gone its limit and only the professionals are still at it on the ice. But professional schedules always run longer in any sport. The teams at the other Universities have turned in their skates at least two weeks ago. Winter sports have heard the death-knell and spring athletic teams are in the stage of preparation. Several of the hockey players are already overdue to report for their respective spring sport. Then, too, the Seniors on the squad have dreaded divisionals looming before them which come shortly after spring vacation. Another thing to be considered, at least from a spectator's point of view, is that another game would most probably be a dull anti-climax to Wednesday's classic struggle. Hardly any game, no matter if it would break the tie--and there is no assurance that it would--could measure up for sheer excitement and good hockey to that 2 to 2 deadlock.

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The season now over one can look back and see how Coach Stubbs' sextet, after being hardly an average team in the first games 'way back in December, slowly came along and finally reached a stage where it held the best Yale team in years at bay. On paper Yale had the better team and probably still has, but unfortunately for the Elis hockey games are not played on paper. It makes little difference what either a Crimson or a Blue team has been before they clash because they are playing under a tradition and an atmosphere peculiar to a Harvard-Yale game alone.

"I Told You So"

The reports from the 16 major league training camps are pouring up. Ruth has signed for $80,000; Dan Howley says, "Give me a team that will fight after July 4"; Bill McKechnie has the delightful task of putting the Braves in first division and keeping them there. Every team has already played several exhibition games and they're already doping out how the teams will stand at various intervals during the season. As yet every manager hasn't made the statement that his team will be "right in there" if he gets the pitching, fielding and hitting. But they will, and sometime before April 15 you can have 16 copyrighted dispatches clipped out of the papers all starting with the name of the manager and containing some parenthetical phrase and a prediction of a position at the top of the standings for each respective team. The managers don't make these statements for publicity. They do it so that if by any chance their team wins out they can begin their after dinner speech at the Chamber of Commerce pennant dinner with, "Now back in April, gentlemen, I made the statement that if we, etc., etc."--And they'll acclaim him as "having the greatest foresight of any manager in a decade" in the press the next morning. --BY TIME OUT.