Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1894-05-15
HUGH DUFFY.

er Kennedy Of the Brooklyns and Amos
Rusie of the New Yorks. All OF them,
however, sacrificed business ambitions for
the good OF the game" and will play ball
again this year If they starve. What noble
sentiment Still know several merchants,
manufacturers and farmers who would eX-
change prospects with any one Of these suf-
fering baseball paupers and take 40 per cent
off the salary for the chance.
remember the remark Of u New York
Judge who was called upon in 1880 TO try
case wherein n League club was appealing
to the law TO compel a ball player TO keep
a conditional contract, and the ball player
was setting up defense OF oppression and
slavery. When the testimony showed that
the club offered the player and stood ready
20 pay him 5000 IA month, the learned judge
leaned forward on his woclsack. looked
long and earnestly at the defendant fgur-
ed little on his own salary by dividing it
by 12 and noting that the quotienJ was
considerably less than the bail players sti-
pend and then remarked sotto voce to the
clerk, II have made mistake in my voca-
tion."
On the average baseball salaries are not
so high as they were three or four years
ago by 80 per cent, but they are more uni.
now, whereas In tile days Of strife and dis
aster sums were paid out from 81 800 to
$500. / know OF very few salaries this
year which run in excess Of $2,50O, and IN
most of these exceptions the extra money
is paid for extra services as catcher or man
ager Two thousand dollars seems TO be
the average salary in the League. At that
figure there is a chance for each club to
make money this year and offset the last
four years of disastrous losses. ] say last
four because, although no money was lost
by the League last year, the big debt which
remained TO be wiped out ate up most OF
what otherwise would have been profit.
This season the chances are that thou
sands of dollars will be made in the League.
The clubs are literally clear Of debt, and the
"boom" of last season Is going to be almost
doubled. 1t may be noticed that / make
the statement without any saving clause.
There Is good ground for such assurance.
The spirit of baseball revival is in the air,
and il pervades the land. 1t Is heard on the
streets, in families, in the stores and shops,
on the cars and in the schools
Where there was one amateur semipro-
fessional or professional club last year there
are two this. In 1883 six leagues aud asso-
Citations included all the professional base
ball clubs of the country. This year before
championship season Is opened we have
on the list the National league, the East
ern league, the Western league, the West
ern association, the Southern league, the
Pennsylvania State league, the Connecti-
cut State league. the New York State
league the Tristate league, the Virginia
State league and other state leagues too
numerous to mention. The baseball rage
really seems to be epidemic.
Besides all these professional clubs the
great army Of amateur associations which
have been formed throughout the land are
sttesting TO the genuine popularity Of the
sport.
Another sure indication OF the popular re
vival Is the space which metropolitan news
papers are devoting 10 baseball reports and
gossip this spring. A measurement Of
space devoted TO such print will show that
It is nearly not quite double what 10 was
last spring The daily newspapers are good
thermometers 20 mark the popular pulse,
and whenever they give up valuable space
In their columns TO any particular line of
news and gossip II can be a-surcdly decided
that the reading public demands il.
In New York city the receipts from The
first few practice games, in spite of cold
weather, have been two ard one-haf time-
larger than they were last season under
more favorable circumstances. Three Of