The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-09-24

Provides for n Limit of Twenty
Players TO Contract with One Club
and Gives Two Years of Service.
While the owners of the National
League teams are having their own
troubles, they are at the same time
causing the proprietors of minor league
clubs lots of woe. The system of draft
ing the best players of the minor or
ganiZations plays havoc with the clubs
which compose them, since the people
who support the teams by their ad-
missions at the gate become provoked
and stay away when favorite players
are allowed to go. The following wall
from Columbus, o., published in the
Sporting News, explains the situation:
AS the season grows on apace, and
the players of the Eastern and West
ern Leagues develop their strength, and
the people grow to love the team and
its members, to take pride in its pres
ent achievements and hope for greater
things in the future, the ghost of the
draft rises to spread CONSERVATION and
dismay among them. The better we
are this year the greater danger we are
in, and the more certainly will we be
called upon to pay tribute to the grasp
ing greed of the league octopus, which
has spread such havoc and finacial ruin
and distress among some of our clubs
in years gone by.
THE INJUSTICE.
Is there not some way in which this
one-sided and discriminating law can
be set aside? Is there not some way
to convince the major league that the
policy of might making right is not a
profitable one? The robbng of clubs
representing such constituencies as the
Western League clubs do Of their best
players and giving them probably less
than they have paid for their men,
savors very much of the stand-and-d de
liver spirit.
The disadvantages to the minor
league clubs are many. Everybody is
familiar with such instances as Min
neapolis, which from a great baseball
town has fallen so low in its patron
age that its managers have been COM
PEELED to transfer games to other cities.
It's management has lost thousands of
dollars; but not only that, every other
club has lost a considerable sum on
account of the weakness of that club
this year. SO the great injury to the
one is shared by all.
There were several other clubs in
the Western League that suffered to a.
greater or less extent by the draft III
the loss of valuable players, whose
places the managers have found it
hard to fill and have failed to fill sat-
isfactory to this day.
There is one item of expense that the
draft system entails and that is the
high price paid to players to fill up the
ranks.
The Western League is a very fast
league, and requires players of a cali
bre second only to that of the National.
National league managers have fire.
quently expressed their astonishment
at the strength of the Western League
clubs. The consequence is that after
the National League has gotten
through with the draft, there are but
few men available in the minor leagues
subject to draft by the Western, and
as consequence our clubs are not only
compelled to buy men from the Ma
tional League but pay National League
salaries to them. This makes our sal
airy lists unnecessarily burdensome. 1t
costs every club in the Western League
today too much for salaries. They can
not stand it, for their business won't
support it.
The National agreement is founded
on the right principles and is necessary
for the perpetuity of the game and
for the protection of clubs and players.
But there are abuses and inequalities
under it's operation that clearly should
be reformed.
Tom LOTUS idea of a man remain
ing in league two years before he can
be drafted is a good one and would
prove very advantageous not only to
the drafting club but to the club from
which he was drafted, and also to the
league in which such club belonged.
There is an additional restriction that
should be put in, and that ii limiting
each league to the number of men
it should have under reserve and con-
tract. This would make every club
drafting players, much more careful
and prevent the wholesale drafting
| resorted to by some of the National
| League clubs. Why some of them
have every year from 25 to 40 players
Everybody knows they cannot use
| them. 1t works a great injustice in
other clubs, and also to the players,
| many of whom never get an oppor-
| tunity to show what they can do 1t
| has even been charged that the League
| clubs do quite a brokerage business
in selling out players to minor league
clubs when the season opens, and they
! find themselves weak. Whether this is
true or not in intention it is true in
! operation. Nearly every club in the
! Western League had to purchase Ma
tional League players last spring. This
is certainly not as it should be.
1t is not advantageous to anybody
the National, minor leagues or the
players themselves. If a club in the
National were confined to 20 players II
would be very careful whom it tool;
If it wanted extra men it would make
room for them by releasing others
/ Twenty men are enough. A good man.
ager can get as good team out of q
as 80; the latter number is unwieldy
He don't get a chance to see what they
can do. A large majority of the play.
ers cannot do good work unless worked
regularly. We see dozens of instances
every year where men are let go from
| on 1.lh