Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-28
Leading characteristics of This Base.
ball Season Discussed and
Compared With Others.
WHAT THE PUBLIC SHOULD Do.
Some Remarks About Manager RanlOn
and the Players of the Local
Players League Team.
THE SLAVIN AND MAULIFFE FIGHT.
A Few Deductions Made Prom the Result Of Ths
Remarkable Affair

season OF 1oSU VIII Oe over as ldE as Tue
leading cities in the country are concerned.
The season will then be matter oil history
and will, like lots of other things, take its
place down the burial aisle of the past and
venture to say the recollection of it will
never be pleasant. The fact that only few
days more will end the season of humbug,
quarrels and disappointment gives me
license to ask few questions.
1t is a time beftting for reckon
ing and for inquiring into causes and
effects as far as baseball affairs are con-
cerned. In taking retrospect OF the sea-
son 1 don't think any man, or woman either,
who has the least idea of baseball will for a
moment contend that the game has
not received very serious blow.
take it for granted that the lessons of the
season have impressed the fact on every
body who has mind susceptible to plain
everyday facts. I have never in my life
witnessed such a change. Such transfor-
nation in tact, in anything as has been
noticed in the surroundings of baseball this
year compared TO the surroundings of last
year or of previous years. | also am pre-
pared to say that if everybody would be
frank on the matter we would find very,
very few, if any, who had at all enjoyed
what we used TO call our GLORIOUS
national game" Everything has been mud
died; everybody has been snarling and
pulling each others hair, and respectable
and intelligent people have withheld their
patronage from the principals of the affair.
Features of this kind have been most
prominent during the season. All the en-
thusiasm about the merits of clubs and the
records of individual players have vanished.
1t has been buried by the very unpleasant
facts of the fight and the leading questions
have been: Who is going to die first?
Enthusiasm, forsoothI Where is it? Tell
me, somebody? Where is that baseball en-
thusiasm that caused thousands upon
thousands of citizens to 60 daily wild with
joy? We haven't seen it this year. How
many hats have we seen thrown up in the
air? How many iovial old pater- iamilias
have we seen jump from his seat, throw his
hands round and shout with excitement
because the team of his city
had scored a good point? Where
is that immense crowd of urchins, working
men returning from work and all kinds of
business people that blockaded streets in
front OF baseball bulletin boards near the
hour of supper time? / have not seen them
this year. Who has? have met nobody
who has enjoyed such a pleasure. And
after all these features; these essentials OF
baseball are what have made the game
glorious. Why an outdoor contest is not
worth a grain of sand that cannot create
enthusiasm. 1t is the latter that does us all
good; that makes us forget the hundred and
one trials and troubles of daily life
and in this respect the national game of
America used to be, unfortunately used to
oe, solace for many a wearied mind. But
the moribund season has given us none of
these good things.
Few Plain Questions.
Well, then, in view of the above facts
don't think that anybody will deny that
the baseball season in question has been
distasteful to everybody concerned. 1 fail
to see where or how anybody has been bene-
flied. Let US see. There are three factors
to consider, viz, the players, the magnates
and the public. Have the players gained
anything? This question has many ramif-
cations, but speaking generally 1 very
readily come to the conclusion that the ball
players are not one whit better to-day than
they were. The contrary is the fact. Their
business is less popular to-day than it ever
was and their calling, therefore, more inse-
cure. This is the general result and it
proves my contention. There is not space
at command to deal with this point in de-
tail, but to me it seems that in all respects a
ball PLAYER has everything to lose and
nothing to gain by the decreasing popular
ity OF the game in which he is directly
interested. The magnates. How have
they Jared? 1 refer to the capitalists of
both PLAYERS League and National League
organizations. Small motley crowds answer
this question in tones sorrowful to the mag
mates. In this connection ii is only fair to
say that as far as financial returns are con-
cerned l don't think the National League
capitalists have been much disap-
pointed. That old and very sweet adage:
"Blessed are they who expect nothing, for
they shall not be disappointed" prepared
the way for the National League moneyed
men. We have them on record as saying
that they expected to lose money, and they
have done so. But the new magnates have
been bitterly disappointed. They must
have, according to statements made by their
own trusted officials. We can all remember
how certain gentlemen figured ont profit
Of, think, S24O, 600 on the season for the
eight Players League clubs. Good gra-
ciousl where is it? When this figuring
took place imaginations were so dazzled
with bags of gold and piles of silver that
the most extravagant salaries and conditions
were granted to players. But let m Rgnate
express himself frankly on the matter to-day
and he will tell US that he was never more
disappointed in mis- life. The talismau has
not turned his $4,000 worth OF stock into
10000; nay, the witch has turned his &, 900
into naught, and, in plain parlance, the mag
nate has been called upon again and again to |
ante up. Well, then, without proceeding |
further, we can at Z glance see that the |
magnates have not been benefited bv the |
season. Have the public gained or bene-
hted? Not bit of it. l am one of the |
public and L certainly have license to speak
freely on this point. The public have been
losers In all respects, except that amount
OF money which has not been paid to base
ball clubs, and which would have been
paid had the season been free of conflict.
The public have seen the standard of ball |
playing lowered; they have seen that capt. |
talists were trying to down each dther not
because of their love for the game, but be- |
cause of their love Tor the almighty dollar.
The general condition of things has killed,
may say, entirely for a season, public en- |
thusiasm, and amid all these things how is
it possible that the public have benefited?
They have not; they have been losers.
Public Duty.
1t is plain to see that everybody concerned
has been loser, and: this suggests a very
serious question. 1t suggests that the pub
lie ought to see that its glorious national
game is not trampled in the dust by people
who are in it more for money than for love.
The public has duty to perform, and it is
to call halt to these ruinous proceedings.
This can be done by giving those directly
in the game definite notice that as |
long as this humbug lasts not a cent Of pub |