The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-11-13

State leagues have shown disposition to
topple over this year. The snug little or
ganization in the land of wooden nutmegs
was the first to yield to the cruel hand
of fate. Indiana followed Connecticut,
and New York and Pennsylvania we're the
! last to succumb. Up among the Badgers,
| however, baseball has thrived all the year,
/ and three of the six clubs of the Wisconsin
league are having neck and neck race for
the remnant The finish is exciting, and
! Green Bay, Marinette and Appleton have
/ been swapping places in the first division
( for fortnight. Twenty points have been
sufficient to cover them, while Oshkosh,
Fond du Lac and Oconto, in the second di-
vision, are not very far behind the leaders.
The rivalry evinced is intense, and the
! hopeful clubs have secured the northwest
for talent with the expectation that an
eleventh hour rush ma bring them sue
cess and the coveted flag
The Wisconsin league, however, is enter
ing upon ruinous campaign that will kill
the game there after the first fushes of en-
thusiasm die out. In baseball the road to
glory and bankruptcy is often the same,
and especially is that the case in minor
leagues. While the cheers for the victors
team, the rule Hang the expenses" is gen.
orally adopted. The reaction is ruinous.
Even Detroit, with team that had won
the worlds championship, could not live,
because their salary list was far in excess
of the receipts. Lima and Canton, erst-
while winners in the Tristate league, paid
dearly for the bauble, for the champion
ships they won were gained at the cost of
~, E h,ll
History, then, is likely to be repeated in
Wisconsin, which has proved harbor for
many of the players "let out" by the wreck
of the Interstate league and Western as
ISOLATION. No less a man than Elmer Fos-
ter, who began the season with the COM
ing champions of the National league
Chicago-found a refuge there, but he
found the pace too hot and was released.
No metropolitan journal gives the scores
of the games there, and even the sporting
weeklies ''skimp" the news from that &C
tive field, and yet men like Sam Laroque,
Hart. the exist. Paul twirler, and Catchers
Jantzen and Andy Sommers are on duty
in the ranks. Joe Quest, the once famous
League second baseman, is managing to
escape death while acting as an umpire
during the exciting series.
The National league is not the only
organization that affects the half dollar
tariff. Enthusiasts in the North Pacific
league pay that much for their sport with
bat and ball While the fratricidal war of
1890 was in progress and the game Ian
guished in the east, professional ball was
born in the new states Oregon was the
only pioneer to nave representation in the
new body, and Portland gave such royal
support to Il tail end club that the Cali
fornia league has grown covetOus and
would not be averse to seeing that city in
their circuit An Ohio boy-Jack Stencil
is the present leader of the batting band
in the North Pacific. Last year Captain
Arson secured him at the same time that
his old battery partner, Harry Luby, was
secured from the Texas league. Stencils
League life Was brief but he accepted re-
lease in lieu of a contracted salary.
There are many other eX-League and ex-
Association men engaged in the four cor
nered struggle for the North Pacific bunt-
ing Portland, Seattle, Spokane and Ia
coma are the members. George Borchers,
once with Chicago, is on Spokane's list.
Shoeneck, the giant first basemen, is with
Seattle. Glenalvin is chief of the Port
landers, and Arthur Sunday, once one of
Wards Wonders at Jamaica bay, is with
Tacoma. Joe Ardner, the veteran second
baseman, played most of the season with
that club.
In these rambles through the minor
leagues many face once familiar in more
preteatious company is recognized, and
the truth of the assertion, "Once ball
player, always a ball player" is empha-
sized by overwhelming evidence. There
have been exceptions, it is true, but they
are remarkably few. Jim Mccormick, the
big Cleveland pitcher, is one of them.
When he was awarded to Pittsburg he af-
firmed that he would retire before he
played ball there, and he kept his word,
deserving the diamond for the turf. John
X. Tener retired TO enter a mercantile life,
and VIII Sunday forsook the baseball
field to assume the duties of an evangelist,
and he is now laboring under the auspices
of the Y. NJ. c. A. at Chicago. You can
crowd a tally of these exceptions on the
fingers of one hand. Cincinnati pleaded
hard for Sunday, but he preferred life
work for the Great Captain, and he will
likely labor in that cause until the Umpire
of the Universe calls him out
Captain Comiskey has lost the flagin the
record that the Bostonians cannot equal.
The Brown Stockings can charge the loss
of the championship TO John Barleycorn.
The expulsion Of Denny Lyons and the dis
ciplining of Jack Stivetts and Willie Nc
Gill is the elimination of scandals that
have been like the intermittent fever all
season. Granting that the few games the
loss of which can be traced to riotous
ls.-s, 1,rI u
lead would melt away like dew before the
morning sun AS 1t is, st. Louis did not
lose a single series, while they tied the
Athletics and have won all the rest. Cap
tain Duffy's men have won five series, lost
to st. Louis and have chance to win from
Baltimore.
In the League Boston has been making
a determined squirt, but the few points
that remain in Chicago's favor are about
as hard 10 overcome as it would be to run
bases successfully without spiked shoes.
Chicago has lost two series. New York
and Philadelphis have each taken a major
ity of scalp locks from Uncle's young men.
Indeed, If the Giants had found the other
League teams as beautiful marks as they
did the Chicagos, New Workers would be
pursuing their lips TO whistle a champion
ship march. Boston has won every series
save those with Philadelphia and New
YORK. The picnic which Chicago has had
with the clubs in Ohio gave them their
commanding lead. BAD Boston done
equals 81 Viii t;4CI. III .<Lrf.nt would
fy at the Hub.
There is little or no prospect OF a worlds
championship series so far rs surface indi-
cations go, but these are sometimes deceiv,
Ing. The League in its resolutions GER
talnly does not reveal its hand
Rem MILFORD, JR