The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-04-06
BOSTON BASEBALL.
W. [. Harris Writes of the Com.
Ing Seasons Probabilities.
LEAGUE AND PLAYERS COMPARED.
ahe Brotherhood Team Has the Advantage
Behind the Bat, but the Chances, APP
parently, are About Even.

The popularity of baseball in Boston i.
tremendous. There is no manner of doubt a.
tothe status of the capital of Massachusetts, a:
baseball city merely. It is the banner city
and the admission price cuts no figure. Price
is nothing, quantity everything. Boston
cranks are peculiar. They will cheerfully
give up fifty cents and dollar for gilt edged
bail, where they wouldn't pay ten cents fol
a third rate article. OF course cheap team
at twenty-five cents would draw a few hun
dred people every day, but the people whose
attendance makes baseball profitable would
remain away. The experiment has beer
tried there, and q great deal of money has
been lost from time to time in such ventures
No one knows these facts better than the
three men who are the owners of the Boston
League club. They realized at the very out
set that if they expected to hold their patron.
sge they must get q prize team together,
They wasted no time in law suits, and didn't
wait for one man to do this and another man
to do that. 1t was ''get up and hustle" and
they made a business of it, and the result has
been lesson for some other very slow people
to remember for many day to come The
Boston League club is ready for the fray,
thoroughly equipped with a first class team,
which is superior to the Brotherhood team in
some things and inferior to it in only one
thing, and even in that time may show that
the difference is not material enough to have
very great influence on the gate
A ten years residence in Boston has to some
extent qualified me to give an opinion as to
the baseball situation there, so far as the
question of patronage and the kind and quail
lty OF baseball it will stand. An absence of
two years, of course, disqualifies me as a
judge of public feeling as regards the League
versus the Brotherhood, except in general
way. 1t is my opinion that from May l to
Oct. Boston cannot have too much baseball.
There would be a good paying attendance if
there was game every day during that pc
Rod, provided always that the quality of the
game was of the highest standard. If there
is any city in America where two first class
professional clubs can live and both make
money, that city is Boston; hence the chances
for the success Of the Brotherhood are greater
IN Boston than anywhere else.
L do not know much about the public
pulse on the sympathy question Baseball
patrons are tickle. They like good ball. They
soon overcome prejudices if these prejudices
are not fostered by the newspapers The
chances are that among the people whose dol
lars make paying games possible in Boston,
the sentiment is a little in favor of the Play
ers, but L do not believe that it will figure to
any extent in keeping people away from the
League grounds. Ball cranks are like thea
tire goers. They are going to look at the show
and not the proprietors. If they get the real
article, personal dislike of the management
viii not have much influence The baseball
patrons go to see the game, and want it well
played and squarely played. That is all.
Sympathy for the Players won't make them
rich or make the Boston Leaguemanagement
poor. The present prospect is that before
the season is half over the patronage will be
divided in Boston. If there were eight Bos-
tons the brotherhood would surely succeed
if wisely and judiciously managed.
Now let Us see what kind of teams the
rivals are going to have. Here's the list of
each: