St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-29
Manager Thompson Talks on
the Outlook for the Sea-
son of 1890.
He Thinks It Much More Fa-
Vorable Than 1t Was a
Year Ago.
The Players League. He Says,
Has Few Chances to Live
Year.
John M. Ward Talks on Con-
tract Breakers and Other
Matters.

isTbe prospects for base ball in the
Western association are far better than
they were a year ago" said Manager
Thomson. OF the st. Paul team, yester-
day afternoon. IF they weren't L
should go out Of the business at once.
Last wears experience was rather
serious one for the St. Paul club. We
made money ND to the middle of July,
but after that the drain upon the treas
ury was constant and heavy. A great
deal of this was due to manipulation OF
the schedule. We had games i'll st.
Paul during the Twin City Jockey club
races and a game for about every day III
September. besides all cur holiday
games were played elsewhere. L am on
theschedule committee myself this year,
and l don't propose to allow other teams
of the league to get away with us
this time. St. Paul doesn't want any
the best of if, but it is possible to make
schedule that will come a good deal near
er doing Justice to ali clubs than that of
last wear. 1t is probable that the clubs
in the north Will play with one another
at the start and wind up the same way.
This would throw st. Paul and Minnie
apOlis together
AT BOTH ENDS
of the season. AMI interest here Is, OF
course. always greater in the teams of
the Twin Cities. have been quoted in
some Eastern papers as favOrIng the adj
mission of Louisville and St, Louis to
the Western association. This is a mis-
take. | have not looked on st. Louis
with favor since Won der Abe
dropped out of the Western asso-
citation in 1855. Had he joined
rs again it would have been
simply temporarily. until he could have
jumped to some larger organization.
Louisville was out of the question from
the start. owing to distance. We
couldn't have dropped out Sioux City or
Oes MOineS without their consent. A
club which has cOnfOrmed to the rules
of the association cannot be dropped.
The only way to have disposed of these
teams would have been the purchase of
their franchises. The fight between
the brotherhood and National league
will ultimately result in favor of the
latter. The brotherhood players are
taking into account the ShadOWy nature
of their contracts. and are drifting into
the older organization. This is going
on slowly now, but | expect it to
increase at such a rate that
the Players league will seek
10 make terms with the
National league in the next six weeks.
II this should not occur. the Players
league will not last the season through.
The men who are behind it have been
led to believe there was chance to
make q mint of money. The moment
they find out it is about four TO one that
they lose money. they will run to COW
er. At the present time players are ask
ing for big money, but plenty Of them
Will be on the market before the first of
Augusta.
THE ST. PAUL TEAM.
I'VE haven't signed many men for the
season yet. The old men. however, will
nearly all he with us again. Meekin
has just signed contract. / regard
him as one OF the coming players of the
day. He handles the ball nicely, has
good head and plenty of speed and curves
Young Ira Phillips, who is to play third,
is an honest. earnest player, who will
catch on with the spectators at once.
He covers a great deal of ground, is act
i've and a hard hitter. Cantillon is a
brother of the CantillOn boys who have
appeared occasionally III the local
teams. He comes well recommended.
GlasscOck is simply an experiment. We
shall give him trial, and if he doesn't
come up to expectations, we will let
him go. Burks is an especially fine
fielder. He is cool-headed, handles
himself gracefully and throws accu-
rately. He is not quite as strong with
the bat as l wish he was. We shall
have TO play on the old West Side
grounds. We tried hard to secure the
piece of land at the right of
the Robert street bridge on the West
side, but just as we were getting an Or
dinance before the council it was dis
covered that the last legislature had
passed a bill forbidding the use of the
land for anything except levy purposes.
Suitable grounds elsewhere are hard to
get. The tract at the corner of Victo-
ria street and Selby avenue is a long
way out, and the street railway COM
pany rather discouraged the using of
this tract because of the heavy grade
on the Selby avenue hill. On the East
Seventh street line the same objection
as to distance was raised. We shall ask
the Kansas City road to furnish better
and more frequent cars, fix up the
grounds to some extent, and attempt to
play in the old place."