The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-02-16
What the Players League Has
Before It.
A STEEP AND TIREsoME ROAD.
W. L. Harris Points Out Reasons for His Be-
; lief That the Brotherhood Has a Lot
CT Snags Ahead Of 1t.

run along as smoothly as they have seen it
do under the direction of the National league
for several years past will meet with severe
disappointment. They might as well expect
to see the East River bridge duplicated in a
year. 1t won't move smoothly, it cannot
move smoothly, because the new league lie
not built on smooth tracks.
There is a possibility that in those cities
where large profits are made, if there should
prove to be any, the friction in the wheels of
management would not be SO noticeable or
Dsapt to cause trouble, but even in those
cities there viii be jealousies and chickering's
that the wisest heads in the new movement
Will find themselves unable to allay.
The method of management outlined is ex-
perimental. If it does not work it will have
to be changed. 1t will be changed, but it
will be difficult task and long task to in
augurate reforms when once the new League
gets start And during this gradual
change, which is bound to take years of ex-
perience to bring about, both capitalist and
player will have TO hold together as one man.
VIII they do it!
The rock on which the new League NAV
have its first wreck viii be the method of dual
management by players and capitalists. And
In this l do not mean to infer that the PLAYERS
do not possess among them men of sufficient
ability to run a business enterprise There
Sre a number of men SO qualified I do
sa, however, that the great majority, l may
saya vast majority, cannot do it. When you
come to the particular business enterprise of
running ball club successfully, the number
of players who could fill the bill is infinites-
NAL If the players would be content to
trust their end of the business entirely to the
how 70
In each club, and devote their energy to
playing ball, the scheme might work, pro-
yided those four men could work in har-
mony. But they won't, and the reasons are
obvious. Ball players are, as a rule, unedu-
Gated men, and often dull men in everything
but the ability to play ball, but never met
one yet who did not have his idea of how a
baseball club ought to be run, and venture
to predict that those FOUR player directors
Will be SO badgered by their fellows that life
I'LL be a burden to them.
y There will be strife among the four. and
there will be strife between them and the di-
rectors, who viii represent the capitalists. If
the public flock to the games of the Players
league, and the National league is deserted,
and money flows in as most of the PLAYERS
fondly imagine it will, this strife speak of
will not do great harm. But where losses are
met, where the incest kind of management
is needed to float the clubs at all, there will
be found the friction, and when it comes
down to a question as to whether the CAPT.
talists or the players are to run the clubs,
there will be circus, and there will be some
pretty queer Dall playing.
The chances of maintaining discipline in a
ball team, four members of which are direc-
tors in the club, and all of whom have a say
in the selection of these directors, seems to me
TO be an impossibility for any length of time.
The new League will discover this very early
in its career, and the men whose money is at
stake will insist upon an amendment, and
they will carry their point; but they will do
so only at the lack of success and consequent
monetary loss.
Without serious opposition the Players
League clubs in New York, Boston, Chicago.
Philadelphia and Brooklyn could make
money. With divided patronage they
might make little if they had any advan-
tage in the division of the receipts With q
divided patronage and an equal division they
will find it difficult to meet expenses and
~All4lies, especially in Brooklyn, Chicago and
Fniladephia. They may have the best of
De patronage at first, but each season will be
q harder than the one which preceded it.
Each one of these cities will have a salary
list Of $4,000.
The list in Buffalo, Cleveland and Pitts
burg may not be SO large but it will not be
less than $4,000. Can these cities support
two ball clubs! No. Can they support one
properly? Well, it's doubtful Cleveland
made little money last season. 1t never
did before. Pittsburg cleared something
a few years ago 1t hasn't made dollar
during the past three years; indeed.
the owners have had to put up some
thing out of their own pockets. Buffalo never
made dollar as League club, and has
never made anything worth talking about
with cheap team. OF course none of these
ciyies ever got half the receipts away from
home. That Mag make difference How
much? Nobody knows. Heretofore, when
the pig attracJioas drew good crowds at home,
Cleveland and Fittsburg got 20 per cent
Now they VIII set only fifty. Should they
prove poor attractions away from home, will
TIE extra - per cent. of poor gate away
from homo make MP Cor the same amount lost
from q gocd gate &t home?
Another factor is the capitalists. Will
they stick in poor paying cities? If they do
not, where is the Brotherhood to obtain cities
to take their places that can support $40, 900
jail bedAlSs w ia t!ie payers WHO are not
capitalists be satisfied to see those who are
reap the lions share of the profits, If there
are any! VIII they be discontented when
they find that they cannot purchase stock?
Will those who have signed for three gears
at 81, 600 and $500 be satisfied with these
Sums when they see men who have lost their
a1kp as players getting twice as much, and
perhaps not playing at all! If these discon-
tentments should arise, would they affect the
playing of those feeling aggrieved? and if the
cares and management and discomfort that
might arise affected the playing of the men,
would it affect the gate receiptsa And if so.
to what extent! Would the public be made |
to believe That there was no hippodroming?
These and a hundred other questions might |
be asked, and then not exhaust the subject.
The players will not have bed of roses to |
lie on. They will have fierce opposition to |
fight both in brains ard money. If they are
wise, if they are harmonious, if they stand by
each other, If the capitalists stand by them. |
if they change their methods of management, |
they may perhaps in four or five years build |
ND . structure that viii stand and will paw
profits, but there viii be pile of money lost |
In the operation. You see, there are good
many ''ifsn about it, and just al present most |
of them are not giving either the players or
their hackers the slightest uneasiness.
They'll be on hand Just the same.