The Bitter and the Sweet Flavor Sports Seasons

Crimson athletic teams and expert sportswriters seldomly see eye-to-eye. Last November the Crimson football team defied the experts by beating Yale 21-16 in The Game.

This spring the paper-and-pen jocks tabbed the Harvard baseball team as the squad to beat in the Greater Boston League (GBL) and the Eastern Baseball League (FBL.)

The hardballers charged onto the field this spring only to stumble through a 25-10 season and fall far short of the successes predicted of them

Harvard lost only three starters from last year's Cinderella squad that won nine straight games at the end of the season to win a berth in the College World Series

'Pineapple' Core

Second team All American Milt ("The Pineapple") Holt as well as all GBL players Leigh Hogan and Eddie Durso returned to form the core of this year's team.

Power hitter sophomore Tom Joyce and slick fielding juniors Barry and Fran Cronin (no relation) added depth to the team.

After a string of twelve straight victories in the Florida citrus league. Harvard came north with hopes of defending its GBL and EBL titles. But injuries darkened those hopes when first baseman Leigh Hogan and second baseman Jim Thomas were sidelined early in the year.

And the opening day loss to Tufts, 7-5, cast more doubt on those winter hopes. Crucial losses to Penn. Northeastern and Boston College all but shattered them.

After being mathematically eliminated from any title hopes, the hard-ballers compounded the ignominy of the season by losing to lowly Brandeis for the first time since 1954.

The spring campaign, however, was not a total disaster. Harvard played well at times, well enough to lose by a little instead of a lot.

The Crimson was weakest with men on base standing many throughout the season. Against Northeastern one afternoon the Crimson stranded 13 base runners

No Heart

In a scar of unexpected successes for many Crimson squads, the baseball team was an unexpected failure. The team never seemed to put its heart into the game.