Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-10
THE SALARY CUTTINGPLAN
Unfair Dealings With Good Players
on the Part Of Magnatos.
THLf PRIZE PACKAGE SYSTEM.
Phflsdelphia Amatsun and Their Treat
Hsnt Of Those Who Eslp Them.
7ALK ABOUT THB LEADING PuGnIsrs

been won The hrst race ends that day and
two days later the second contest starts
There is comparatively little enthusiasm
concerning the first race, certainly not as
much ss was anticipated and not a. much as
there should be.
The first contest has been Q good ono, al
though the Boston team have had the best
Of 1t all along Had they been just . little
weaker the argument would have been .
very exciting one. Besides their being
very strong they have been extremely fort
innate and 1 venture to say that had the
Brooklyn and Philadelphis teams been as
fortunate as the Bostons from first to last
the Bostons would not now have been in first
place. But altogether the race has been Q
very good one, and the finish will be e1-
eeedingly interesting. We cannot say for
certain how the clubs will stand at the fin
ish and this shows that in some respects the
contest has been . good one.
To be sure, almost every club intends to
do better in the second half, particularly
those clubs whose team are below the first
four or five in the race. This is very
cheering but 1 question very much whether
the second half will be as good as the first
half has been, in the way of enthusiasm. 1t
seems to me that the public has nearly
had enough of this over-grown thing, the
l2-club league, and the second half of the
season may be so devoid of enthusiasm as to
cause several of the clubs to drop more
money than has been anticipated One
thing is quite apparent, viz, that the
magnates should, by all means, see that the
Baltimore team is made into something
like ball team or else 1t will be difficult toi
hire gate keepers to oficiate when they arg
playing 4
And would II not be better to abandoA
that very foolish and arbitrary rule conft-
ing each club to 13 players during the Sd
ond halfY 1 imagine 1t would This rule
of Limitation is simply an undue curtall-
ment of individual right and decided eAn-
barge on individual enterprise. If clA lAb
can afford to carry Is men so as to be gfre-
pared for emergencies and give the pull 8lic
q good article as much as possible, 4hv
should that club be confined to Is nien?
This system is dragging the standard down
TO the lowest instead of irving to lift the
lowest to the highest This Is very bad
policy indeed.
Troubles of the Western League.
Those people who have beer all along
trying to bolster up the Western League
and have been from time to time misrepre-
senting the state of affair, concerning 1t
must now change their trne. The present
condition of things prevents any further
misrepresentation of facts The Western
League and its very childish prize package
system OF organizing clubs is doomed.
At the beginning of the season there ap-
peared in THE DISPATCH an interview
with Manager Cushman, of the Milwaukee
team, regarding the system of casting lots
for players or teams Mr. Cushman, at the
time strongly opposed this method of rum
ming the baseball business, and expressed
opinions regarding it similar to those that
had been advocated in this paper on many
occasions. As manager, he contended
that it simply made him powerless in the
selection of his players Outsiders gave
him ms team, the tate of lottery bag
was the principal agent and the players
were made into teams according to the ca
prices OF men who were not to manage them.
The leading principle of the system will
not bear the slightest investigation. Its
most direct aim is to kill all individual
effort and originality in the formation of q
ball team;. indeed, it would be just as if the
lottery bag was held out daily to see
what teams were to have the victories.
Baseball must be run on principles of
honesty and air competition and if this
cannot be done it will never be run by the
infantine and mechanical method of q lot
tery bag
1t is quite true that other factors have
Western League, but hold that the prime
cause has been the system on which the Or
ganization is built Rainy weather mas re-
duced the attendance on many occasions
certainly, but on the finest days and with
10 counter attractions games have been
played to less than 100 people. Lack of
enthusiasm is alone responsible for this
and claim that the mechanical method of
making up teams and assigning players to
This haf ~ has heen the death of
thusissm in the Western League to q very
great extent
Baseball magnates must know that public
sentiment has almost everything to do with
their business. There are many occasions
on which that sentiment desires q certain
player, and ii that sentiment is pandered to
and big successful effort made to secure that
player, depend upon it the public will re-
spond with q great patronage. No further
proof of this need be cited than the case of
Mr. J. Palmer O'Neil in getting team to-
gether the first season after the collapse of
the Brotherhood League. These elements
must not be lost sight OF. Beyond all, any
baseball organ nization that las to last must |
be built on solid principles and not on
wrong-working notions that are only attrac-
tive as little nursery room theories, and |
which vanish entirely when investigated by
matured common sense. |
The Salary Gu ling Method.
The magnates have finally hit upon what |
seerls to be a very effective plan of cutting |
down the salaries of the ball players, and |
they are putting this plan into operation |
with determination that looks like busi |
ness. Players whose salaries are too high |
to suit their employers are notified that |
they must submit to reduction. If the |
players refuse, they are given ten days |
notice OF release and when the ten days |
have expired their names are put into what |
is called the pool" Clubs that want |
players put in application to President !
Young, who assigns players from the pool
to the respective clubs. But the clubs that
have released the good players because of
their salaries being too big apply to the
pool for the same players, and of course
they, the players are assigned to these
clubs at a much lower salary. IF these
players still refuse to accept the reduced
salary they are, to put it mildly, boycotted,
as none OF the other clubs are allowed to
engage them.
Now, / don't for q moment contend that
salaries have not been too high, but I do
contend that there has been no law COM
pelling magnates to pay high salaries. Only
the expectation OF realizing profitable re-
turns for the big salaries paid have prompt
ed club officials to pay these high hgureA
And the magnates have just as much right
to refuse to pay high salaries, but l ques-
tion their fairness in dealing with the ball
player as they are doing now.
At the beginning of the season certain
players were signed at certain salaries the
latter to obtain for the season. This condi-