So intent have been the general class of batsmen on making big batting averages that the science of batting and the advantages to be derived from "playing for the side of the bat" have been entirely lost sight of until within the past year. Now, however, the best judges of play in the game have begun to "tumble to" the benefits and to the attractions of team work at the bat, as illustrated by skillful sacrifice hits, batting to help base-runners around and to bring runs in, and not that of going to the bat with the sole idea of trying to "hit the ball out of the lot," or "knock the stuffing out of it," in the effort to get in the coveted home run. with its costly expenditure of physical strength in the 120 yards spurt in running which it involves. There is one thing the season's experience has shown, and that is that field captains of intelligence and judgment, like Anson, Comiskey, Ward, Irwin, et al. have come to realize the fact that team batting is a very important element in bringing about pennant winning, and by team batting is meant the rule which makes everything secondary in the work of the batsman to the important point to forward men around the bases and to bring runs in. The batsman who excels in the essentials of the art of batting is the true leader, though he may not make a three-bagger or a home run more than half a dozen times in a season's batting. And a part of team work at the bat is sacrifice hitting--sacrifice hits being hits which, while they result in the striker's retirement, nevertheless either forward runners to the bases or bring runs in. After a batsman has become a base-runner, whether by a hit, a fielding error, or a battery error, if he be forwarded to second by a safe bunt or a neat tap of the ball, both being base hits; or by a sacrifice hit, the batsman is equally entitled to credit if he forward a runner by such hit. In regard to the slugging tactics which the batsman goes in for extra hits at all costs, it may partly be regarded as a very stupid piece of play at the bat to endeavor to make a home run when there is no one on the bases to benefit by it, and for the reason that it subjects the batsman to a violent sprinting of 120 yards, and professional sprint-runners who enter for runs of that distance, even when in training for the effort, require a half-hour's good rest before making another such effort. And yet there are batsmen who strive to make hits which necessitate a 120 yards run two or three times in a single game. Do field captains who go in for this sluggish style of batting ever think of the wear and tear of a player's physical strength in this slugging business? EVILS IN THE PROFESSIONAL ARENA.