The morning call., 1893-05-19
PAY OR NO PLAY.
Robinson's Ball = Players
on Strike.
THEY ARE ANXIOUS TO EAT.
The Habit They Have of Living Re-
quires That They Have Ger
tain Amount of Coin.

When Umpire Meegan yelled "play
balP yesterday afternoon al Halght-street
grounds there were nine men distributed
at various places around the diamond.
These nine men were upon the interior of
! Stockton uniforms.
Mr.. Harper was one of the nine men,
and he was there to do some pitching for
his employer, the Duke de Santa Clara,
alias Mike Finn of Stockton.
Slowly his right arm numbered and
began TO describe circles in the adjacent
atmosphere. Suddenly it shot forward
and from somewhere among his anatomy.
| like shot from catapult, came the ball
1t passed up.oyer the plate aud was buried
in the ample folds of Pop" Swett's nit
tens.
''Strike one," said Umpire Meegan.
There was nothing to oppose the ba lis
progress. BY good rights there should
have been a man there with a bat to at
least hit at it, but, alas. there was no one
there.
The man who should have been thereis is
Unhappy" McGucken, who was never
more unhappy in his life than he was at
| that minute.
He had struck! So had eight more men
who are in the habit of playing ball with
him. They are hired by Colonel T. Peren-
nial Robinson. and they come from Oak
! land. over the bay.
All of them were down in the little
! house in the corner whence, in the happier
! days gone by, they were wont to issue
! forth. all arrayed in their padded panties
and tGeir pretty red shirts. when it was
| time 10 play ball.
| But Yesterday they didn't issue forth
until after Mr.. Harper had passed up the
hoiI fIran
| cared that the game was won by Stockton,
with a score of tn 0.
! Then they filed slowly out of the front
! door, with their store clothes on and their
grips packed for travelling.
a fair-sized crowd. that had gathered on
! ihe seats 30 witness the game. arose as one
man and filed out through the gate, where
| rebats OF % cents was allowed each one,
| and no charge whatever made for the
/ pleasure they might have had in witness
/ ing those three balls come up the lane
One man, more merceuary, perhaps. than
/ the rest, wanted his carfarr paid. too: but
/ Tor some reason or ether he didn't get it.
After the crowd had left Mr.. FiEn. sec
/ reta1y of the California Baseball League,
was seen and asked to throw few rays of
incandescent light upon the affair.
Colonel Robinson has not paid the men
their salaries" said he.
The men have notion that when they
play ball they ought to get something for
it, and so they refuse 10 play until they are
paid what is now due them. It's a way
they have fallen into lately.
Robinson hasn't paid his men ANYTHING
since they struck before, when they were
about starting for Los Angeles. Baseball
! players eat and wear clothes and live gen.
orally, much like other people, and any
body, except perhaps Colonel r bin On,
Will tel yol II takes q certain amount of
money TO do this and do it as it ought 10
be done.
We'll. that's about all there Is of it. The
/ players have struck and the colonel is not
here to pay them; SO | get the game and
lose the gate receipts," and something like
a tear glistene ed in the Dukes eff eve, not
wthstanding the tone Of gentle cast-irony
which he had assumed.
But that may not be all of it, There
NAV be considerab Bile more.
The men stated they were back just
three weeks in pay. They were to receive
their pay every two weeks, and now the
last payment is just one week overdue
They said Colonel Robinson had been
promising them settlement all the week |
Wednesday they informed him that they
would not play unless the sack hove in
sight before yesterdays game was called
The colonel promised to meet the men
at 10 o'clock yesterday morning He
failed To do so. but he sent n telegram from
this city 10 Tip ONeill, in which he stated
that he would be at the Haight-street
PEbunuS HL Z.OJ, anu tDaI tuB coin WOul1 !
accompany him.
But the colonel that they longed for
never came.
Mr.. Finn was free to state that there was
no V&ild reason why the colonel should
not pay the men all that was due them.
lie has drawn more than enough to
cover all the expenses of his team. includ-
ing their full Salaries" said Finn, "and
where tie money has gone to, unless it
has been sunk in outside business ven
lures, is more than know"
just what outside business ventures the
Duke was hinting at is hard to say. be-
cause the colonel has had no other bus-
ness except baseball for some time.
lie was formerly partner in the Pio-
neer warehouse on Battery street. but dis
posed OF his interest there on March l
last.
Since then he has devoted all of his time
to baseball and 10 the scar back OF his ear
where prune-boX flew up and hit him
some time last winter
Colonel Robinson, in explaining the diff
hcuity last night. asserted That il grew out
of nothing but a disagreement bnt ween
himself and the men in his e,rnlov regard-
ing the manner in which their wages Shall
De pald-whether advance money shall he
held out or not. OF course ali that the
colonel says would make Il book-a large
LIMO DOCK. win gilt edges bound in Mo-
rocco or any other foreign country. bnt the
Substance OF Ii Is that the men are trying
TO lorcr him to pay them really more than
is coming.
The men say not. Mr. Finn hints that
the colonel Is not able 10 pay. though he
might be wiiltng-and there you are.
Late last night it was given out that
matters had been Strengthened out so that
the games would hereafter go on in an
easy, Hnent manner, and that no more dis
appolhtmehts snch as yesterdays game
are IN store for the baseball enthusiasts.
III Mr.. Robinson cannot hold the Oak
land team together there is n man IN Oak |
land who can, and who is ready and will |
ing TO do ST., said Nr. Finn. The colonel
mas only to name the price he wants for
MS contract Ihis man is a well-known |
business man in Oakland and has nmnl. |
means TO carry on The business"
But most people in California thjnl, that |
baseball wltliaht the c. lionel would he lye |
''Gentleman jack without Nlr. Co-hettN
and so it goes.
Barring further strikes there will he a
game at Piedmont to-day between The
Stockton and Oakland teams.
A