When Floyd Stahl started this, his second year as baseball coach at Harvard, he had everything to lose and nothing to gain. In his first year at the Crimson helm he had inherited a generous sprinkling of veteran ball players and led them to a first-place tie in the E.I.L. June graduation tore that pennant-winning nine apart at the seams, and the outlook this spring was anything but promising.

But the worst was yet to come. Injuries, bad luck, and player trouble struck hard at the band of diamond hopefuls Floyd Stahi had left on Solidiers Field. Bill Tully was slow to recover from a serious appendectomy; Captain Tom Healey has been bothered by a sore arm much of the spring; Charley Brackett went on probation; Torble Macdonald hurt his ankle; and Gene Lovett and Charley Spreyer decided that the team could do without their services the rest of this year.

Columnist Glueck

Here's where our eagle-eyed football reporter comes into the picture. Diamond defeats plus player trouble equals news for Dave Glueck '39, former substitute guard under Dick Harlow and currently a Boston American sports columnist. Coaching troubles are right down Glueck's alley; whenever he sees a losing team, he knows it must be the coach's fault. Already he has worked out an elaborate succession for Dick Harlow's post as head football coach at Harvard, including Chief Boston, Skip Stahley, Joe Nee, Alex Kevorkian, and a few other Crimson grid lumninaries.

In fact, Glueck has so many extra coaches on his hands that he may be trying to line some of them as baseball mentors, replacing Floyd Stahl. Glueck hasn't decided on the exact successor yet, but he feels that a change must come. He points out that Stahi has lost Lovett and Spreyer and goes on to work out an Imaginary scrap with Lou Clay. The Sophomore pitcher is getting a raw deal this spring, avers the ready Mr. Glueck, who has yet to see his first Harvard ball game of the year.

Floyd Stahl gave Harvard the snappiest brand of baseball it has ever had and last year performed the difficult feat of working a group of Seniors into a well-oiled unit. This spring he had green hands to work with, and there were many headaches. Gene Lovett has never been a coach's ball player and has been a continual problem-child for Stahl.

Stahl had nothing to do but to hand him his walking papers when he flared up in the Penn game. Charley Spreyer made his exit less ceremoniously and for different reasons. He simply didn't have enough interest in baseball to warm the bench until June. He was definitely relegated to a substitute's role, and the question of staying out all spring was for him to decide. As for Lou Clay, he has only begun his pitching career at Harvard.

Only the Beginning

The weather has been miserable for baseball ever since the start of the season, and undergraduates seem to have lost interest in the Harvard nine. The league campaign has not been crowned with success, but the Crimson athletes can salvage much from the wreckage with a good performance against the high-riding Elis from New Haven.