Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-19

times am inclined to think that 1t has dom
all. 1t is something very curious to int
nowadays that the officials of Q clul
are not to be the sole judges of the player
Is to determine this point for them. Thi
arrangement is based entirely on the -
sumption that the outsider knows more
about what is good for the club than thos'
who have their money invested in the club
and who manage the club. So far this ar
rangement has been q failure and 1t vii
continue to be so.
| We are told that this plan 10 to keel
down expenses and equslize the merits o
the team. The latter is almost impossible
and as far as keeping down expenses is con
cerned, that may be accomplished, but re
ceipts are being kept down at the same time
The long and short of 1t is that mechanical
baseball is not designed to be successful i
club can afford to retain IA players why II
the name of common sense should it be
| compelled to have only 13? Is not thli
mechanically weakening teams2 And Is
not the object of all to try and make base
ball better? The whole trouble is the re.
suit of too many clubs being in An organi
zation and the tallenders are 50 far in the
rear as to make their appearance in the race
at all ridiculous e.
Combinations to further financial inter
ests is all right if carried on within certain
limits, but when it comes down to the theory
of trying to make us all alike,it is fail.
ure. Good and generous competition is the
great hope of baseball as well as many othel
things.
another Plan to Curtail Expenses
There was another plan to curtau ex-
penses tacitly indorsed BY the League mag
mates and that was to reduce the salaries of
PLAYERS One is forced to smile whenever
the plan is mentioned because it has been
dealt with so often and sos toolishly that
one is inclined to think there Is little seri-
ousness about it when it Is brought to the
front Doubtless all the magnates would
like to have the salaries of players reduced,
but the truth is they cannot trust them
selves. They have played fast and loose
with each other on the question so often that
it would be strange if they would try 1t
again. Why, the Eastern League and
Western League have the Limitation of sal
ary rule and open violations are common.
Not 1ong ago the Western League club
signed Pittsburg player for more than the
rule would permit The player signed q
contract for the limit, but had another
agreement by which he was to receive GER
tain "expenses!' And so 1t has ever been,
and let me say that when most money was
made in baseball there were none of these
fossilized and stupid rules or limitations
in existence. Everything was. contest
from top to bottom. There was no lottery
bag chances or prize-package luck.
The officials of the Boston club COM
planned at the late meeting that their salary
list was so big that they wanted the visit
ing clubs shares of the receipts cut down.
But would like to ask if there would have
been such a strong and attractive team in
Boston if the salary list had not been 90 big?
1 think there would not The best players
will always command big salaries despite
any rules made to the contrary.
The National League was prosperous
when it was unhampered. While enemies
have rallied it and somewhat changed its
course, its own conduct has been Its most in
furious blow. 1t allowed three or four
bankrupt clubs to take possession of it at
Indianapolis, even paid these clubs to
reap the benefits of its prestige and the
genius that had built it,. To-day that
League or the remnant of it is saddled
with the evils of that serious blunder.
Something about Sunday Cycling.
Amid all the noise and hypocritical cant
about Sunday observance it may be inter-
esting to mention the fact that in old con-
servative England the wheelmen had q
gigantic Sunday service in the open air and
were preached to by no less dignitary than
the Bishop of Newcastle-on-Tyne. The
parade to the preaching ground was a grand
affair, and handsome sum of money in the
way of collections was realized for charita-
BILE purposes. There were about 1, 900 BIZ
cyclists in line and after they had dis
they took. a very enthusiastic part
in the religious service. Here Is what an
English authority says about the gather
ing:
"Had anyone veutured to prophesy seven
or eight years ago that cycling would ever
become as popular as 1t is at the present
time, he would have been set. down as q
harmless lunatic Of course, the introduc-
tion of the safety bicycle has had much to
do with the rapid growth of cycling as .
pastime, and had this class of machine not
been invented it is not too much to say that
thousands who now pedal gaily all over the
country would never have known the de-
lights accruing from the ownership of
a 'whirling wheel Carping critics
there have always been, and we
suppose always will be, who will not allow
themselves to see beyond their noses. Cy-
clists have been subjected to Is great an
amount of imbecile cant as any class. but as
a rule they have treated such inanity with
the contempt it deserved, and have gone on
their way as if it had not been uttered.
Many puritanical people there are, how
ever, who have not objected to cycling on
week days, but have not scrupled to pour
their vials OF wrath upon those poor be-
nighted heathens who went In for Sunday
cycling. Such persons forget that the great
body of wheelmen have not the necessary
time to indulge in long rides during the
week, or if they have, their bodies are SO
wearied with arduous toll that they are
to rest themselves at home.
Hence it naturally comes about that Sum-
day is the day for cyclists"
Frrd Johnson's Training Metbods
Everything is going smoothly on for the
battle between Fred johnson and Dixon
Latest reports from the East have johnson
the favorite, and the contest promises to be
a great one. The Englishman has quite
different method of training from methods
practiced here. He works more in day
than an ordinary American pugllist does in
two days An Eastern writer who recently
visited johnson thus speaks of his training
method:
''The work done by johnson would break
the hearts of the majority of American
fighters, and some of the hardest tasks i'm
posed upon him are those which compel him
not to do certain things There are many
things he does not do which local lights of
the riag do and believe unharmful He has
not smoked since he started to prepare for
the mill, and, more than that he will not
sit in room or in a group where smoking
is being INDUCED in. He arises at o'clock
every morning and retires at $50 o'clock
at night, and during the 15 hours and 80
minutes his every move is regulated by
a timetable. Fifteen minutes before Z
o'clock in the morning johnson has cup
Of hot tea with an egg in it, at o'clock he
starts on four-mile walk, at S:15 he is at
breakfast, at $50 A. M. he is taking a
sweat at noon he has a hath and 90 Il ero>.