Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-24
A REVIEW OF SPORTS,
Tagaries of Baseball and the
Work of the Local
Baseball Team.
THE GENERAL SITUATION.
A Few Features of the Twelve-Club
League Monopoly Discussed.
MOVE TO POPULARIZE SWIMMING.
The Sullivan and Corbett Battle and the
hen in Training.
THE GENERAL SITUATION.
MOVE TO POPULARIZE SWIMMING.
REMARKs ABOUT AMATEUR SCULLERS

ball. The team who have been represent
ing US Gown in the East have fully demon
strated that during the week. They went
to Boston and won two excellent contest.
from the terrible champions. and then they
met the tail-enders at Baltimore and go1
golloped out of their boots. So much fol
public form in baseball.
Well. we must not lose heart concerning
our sluggers yet. The race is young, very
young, and there is plenty of time to make
a good showing before the season ends. But
/ am one who believes that we must have 9
stronger team than we have if we want to
have winning team. The Pittsburg LOT
must certainly be stronger in the pitcher
box than they are, or else we can throw up
our hands at once. That it was a mistake
for the management to refuse Clarkson and
to choose Terry in preference to Mcmahon
uze we must look to. The club needs one
or two good pitchers right away, aud il
they could be had we are all right.
Doubtless Mark Baldwin is dissatisfied
and that fact will certainly impair his
pitching. Pittsburgers have not treated
Mark any too well He is a fine pither, and
has had more hard luck in his games than
any other pitcher know of He would dc
well in some other club, and why not try
to get our old friend King back in his
place, if Lovett cannot be had.
A dissatisfied man on a team is ruination
to himself and to the team, and this is a
very important fact 1 know that Baldwin
is very anxious to leave Pittsburg, and his
late work shows that this anxiety is having
some effect on his work.
Regarding the General Situation.
More than a week of the second half of
the season has gone, but the time is too
short to form anv definite opinion as to the
probable outcoDe of the pennant contest
Except saying that the Brooklyn team looks
TO be the best have nothing this week to
saw about the comparative merits of the
various teams Taking everything into
consideration the Brookiyns are in the best
playing condition, and barring accidents
they will make great struggle for the pen
nant if they do not win it.
Although the second half of the season is
quite young there has been considerable
talk throughout the country about the 12-
club League ana the intentions of its mag
mates. This talk has generally been relat-
ing to changes that should be made or that
should not be made. One thing have OBJ
served, that is, that there is very strong
opposition to that very foolish rule regard
ing limiting each team to 13 PLAYERS
League magnates have adopted many
verv stupid rules in their time, and the
rule in question is certainly one OF them.
cannot for Tie life OF me believe that the
magnates ever had anv serious intentions of
acting up to that rule when it was adopted.
AS / argued last week, it takes away al
most all the enterprise from club and
tends to give the public an inferior kind of
bail playing. 1t seems to me that in pass
ing it the magnates only had one object in
view regarding it, and that was to use it as
a means of cutting down the salaries of the
PLAYERS. This very.-unfair scutting" has
been as much INDUCED in at present as the
nerve Of the magnates will allow, and, this
being so, there does not seem any intention
TO abide by the 13-men-to-a-club rule. The
sooner the rule is wiped out the better
The to-be or not-to-be of the 12-cub mon.
opoly itself is also being widely discussed
and from now to the end of the season we
NAV expect that very burning questions of
baseball will be a leading theme OF discus
sion. There is very strong opposition to
the monopolistic league. / am one of its
opponents and have never believed in it.
NV objections have been given in these
columns several times When it was first
established did not believe in it and now
nv faith in il is less than ever it was. The
more one sees of it the worse does it appear
TO be- 1t is formed on a very bad principle
and when foundation is bad we cannot ex-
pect the upper structure to be safe. The
predominating notion of this big League is
to gather all the baseball interest into one
little ring and keep them there and run
them in the most mechanical manner ]
do claim that this is very, very bad method
indeed.
The Opinion of Others.
To be sure there are other people who
favor the big League just as they favor
everything that tie magnates do. 1 had an
article written by an Eastern man forwarded
me the other day which termed those who
do not favor the big League "disgruutIed
and ignorant" Of course, the arguments
of the big Leagues opponents were not dis
cussed. People who have bad cause never
use arguments, but deal entirely in abuse
/ am sure it would tend to dIspel our 'ignor-
ance" if a little argument was given us now
and then, instead of everlasting twaddlings
and frothy rodomontades.
So far the big League has not been success,
ana the further we get into the season this
fact is becoming more and more apparent.
There are clubs in the League, and too
many of them, that are almost entirely
living at the expense of others. This sys-
TEN cannot exist, and it is safe to saw that
these clubs would fare much better if they
were in an organization of their own, and
run on principles which are peculiarly
adapted for the success of these clubs.
This question must be faced and we all
had better begin to become acquainted
with it. 1t is very simple one and can be
narrowed down to the query: Is big mo-
nopolistic League preferable to two major
leagues working under a national agree
ment? have faith in the intelligence of
the baseball public giving a negative an
sweE
The Failure OF the Western Leagus.
The Western League and its lottery plan
has totally disappeared, which is one more
proof OF the tutility of irving to run base
ball on utopian notions that aim at killing
ali individual effort. From the very first
mention 1 have emphatically opposed the
lottery plan. 1 even predicted its utter
collapse The other day L came across a
few words written on the subject by Mr..
Ben Mulford, of Cincinnati. They so
clearly and forcibly state the case and bear
out what / have from time to time con.
tended. that now reproduce them for the
benefit of my readers:
The death of the Western League crushes
the millennium plan to earth and in the
wreck OF tDat leaS ue is emphasized the lack
OF public faith in the lottery plank. In
baseball each club must stand on its own
bottom. Milwaukee, the first club to lie down,
was hit awtully hard in the distribution.
Most of the crack players who had been
corraled by Manager Cushman fell to the lot
of other clubs. Hughey and Stephens were
pitchers groomed by cash" and it was gall
and worrnwood to the people of Brewery.
vile to see them pitching good ball for Kan
sas City and Columbus and it was only nat.
ural that they should damn the plan tuat
had taken them away. The Western stran-