Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-21

work injury to the entire organization and
it is, therefore, incumbent that each club
kill in every possible way the piratical
spirit. 1t can easily be killed. Ali that is
necessary is for each club to act faithfully
to itself and to its colleagues. If that is
done there is no fear of the County League;
it will go along all right and will give US
some good ball playing.
That Salary Scheme.
On several occasions lately have had
some words to say regarding the unsound-
ness of any method of fixing" the limit of
ball players salaries. A statement of such
a scheme, prompted by magnate, has been
published, and as have emphatically as
sailed the principle, I give the favorable
side of it, per request. Its weakness will
be apparent to all who are interested in the
matter.
ga plan for the payment of fair salaries
in 1893 has been formed by the magnates
and will SURELY be put in force. The off
cials of the II clubs are in hearty accord on
the question, and the negotiations which
have been quietly carried on for some time
past have come to a satisfactory conclusion.
In substance the plan is that when club is
prosperous just in that proportion will the
players be benefited. The first move will
be to make salary limit, which will be
fixed at 81, 500. BY this means the treasury
limit of a team could be kept down to $780,
600. At the close of the season, if club
has made money, the capitalists will insist
on first getting a fair return on their invest
ment, say or 8 per cent OF the remain
der fair sum will be set aside to be divided
among the players on some equitable basis,
and what is left will go 10 the capitalists.
In case the club loses money or fails to do
more than clear expenses the PLAYERS will
get their salaries inside the 81, 500 limit,
and the managers will not be compelled to
make good out of their own pockets more
than trihing loss.
"In fact, the aim of the officials is to get
the players benefciaries in the event of the
clubs prosperity and protect themselves
from heavy loss in case of an adverse sea-
son. The argument might be made that
the tendency of such plan would be to fill
all players with desire to leave the clubs
of small cities and join the teams of New
York. Boston or Chicago, where there are
prospects of large profits That objection
might go in former seasons, but now, with
an equal division of gate receipts, the teams
representing the smaller cities have a
chance to make quite as much money as the
big teams, and profitable season would
yield quite as much to the player"
The Latest Boxing SwindIe.
To be sure everybody who takes an in.
terest in boxing or pugilism, has read about
the great effor..' of the greatest heavy
weight boxer of modern times" Tuesday
night last, of course we have to term Cor
bett the greatest" because his advertising
agent says he is and few of the agents
friends who write in newspapers endorse
the statement. Now let us talk plainly
about this gigantic Catching" of the pub
lie and on the theory that that it is always
best to call spade spade, L deem it best
to call the affair in question, one of the
boldest frauds ever perpetrated on the pub
lie, and q very innocent and gullible public
at that. Why, isn't it astounding to find
about 8, 900 or 10, 900 people paying money
to see such swlndle and such sell?
And the manner in which newspapers that
have from time to time censured everything
of fakish kind, have bolstered the rank
fake up, both before and after the event, is
one of the remarkable features of the pro-
ceedings If we take the New York papers
as guide we'll at once find that there was
a remarkable timidity among all Of them to
speak plainly about the affair. The SIN,
of course, may be excepted, and that paper
said it was huge disappointment. But
there was one gentleman to whom often
events who had nothing to say
about the quality of the event e1-
cept saying Corbett was disappointing.
That gentleman is our friend Mr.. Donohue,
and his silence on some very important
points was one proof of the rank nature of
the business. L mention the New York
papers because they were eve witnesses.
Corbets on His Merits.
But although the affair was fake as far
as the knocking of three men out was con-
cerned, there was an earnest and what we
may call an honest part in the business
That was when Mr.. c. tried to knock
Lannon out in three rounds. Just Is sure
as we lived Corhett tried to finish the Bos-
ton bruiser and failed miserably. And the
excuses and apologies that have been made
in his behalf since he failed are exceedingly
amusing There are three facts which go to
show that Corbett tried his best to polish
off Lannon. One is that at the end of the
three rounds Corbett expressed the wish
that there could be another round, believ-
ing he could finish his man in it. A second
reason is the statement of Lannon to the
effect that he was led to believe that the
"go'' was to be friendly one or else he
would have made the result different when
he found that Corbett was out for ''glory."
The third fact is the contest itself
The contest shows conclusively what I
have all along intimated, that Corbett is
d
man before him, who, when at his very best,
was degrees behind the front rank, but on
Tuesday night that man was as much in
condition as a prize heifer at Christmas
beef show; and Corbett couldn't knock him
out in three 3-minute rounds, notwithstand-
ing the fact that Lannon stood up and
fought. The truth is, to use ring phrase,
Lannon did lot of banging himself. Why,
according to every report of the contest
Corbett never displayed the elements of a
irst-class fighter He couldn't deliver
straight; had a bad notion of distance, and
when he did land fairly he had compare
lively little effec.. In short, he showed up
in different style to what he does when
mauling in his fancy boxing Why, he re-
peatedly worried slow and winded man,
and Mike Donovan time and time again was
telling him to hit straight. And Corbett
claims to be champion! He's humoug.
How long would Lannon have stood before
Sullivan on Tuesday night? Not six min
utes. The fact i, good hitter with good
wind would have finally bested Corbett at
Madison Squaae.
Corbett's effort against Lannon fully veri-
fies what has often been said relative to his
(Corbett's) contest with Jackson. Had the
Californian stood up and fought against
Jackson only half as much as he fought
Lannon, he would have been defeated in
short order. Excuses will not defend his
failure against Lannon; indeed they will
only make matters worse, and will go to
show MP his knocking out of Spillings and
Caffey as ridiculous. As "show" card and
as a pugilist Corbett has damaged his
renutation, and I firmly believe that Slavin
wonld finish him in six rounds in small
ring. and that a man like Joe McAuliffe |
-.1id dafast him in a finish fipht If he |