The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-13
PLAYERS HOLDING BACK
INDIANAPOLIS BALI. TOssERs INSIST
ING ON MORE MONEY.
MOtz and other Stars Among the
Number-Massag Treatment at
the OhiO-Street Park.

With the opening of the BASEBALL season
| only two weeks away the Indianapolis club
is shy the contracts of several of its lead
ing players. Nothing has been heard from
Motz, Foreman and Phillips. Several let
ters have been sent this important trio,
but no word comes from them. 1t is rea-
sonably certain, however, that Manager
Allen will have some definite information
concerning them within the next week or
ten days. He says he will not write again
to Motz, who has been favored with several
letters, which he has not deigned to notice
Allen thinks that Foreman, who is at Bal
timore, and Phillips, who is at Allenport
Pa, will either sign or report March %
for practice and sign after that. OF course
he expresses the opinion that all the hold
out players will come to time, and probably
he is right. Stewart shows no signs of re-
lenting, though he has little, if any, griev-
ance. 1t is a little hard, the management
claims, to have to cut the salaries of play
ers like Foreman and Phillips, who con-
trlbuted SO much toward winning the pen
nant for Indianapolis, but the law of the
League compels the reduction Of the pay
roll. In the matter of contracts with dis
satisfied players, baseball laws and Gus
toms are such that the men who hold out
generally get the worst of it.
Fleming the outfielder Cincinnati drafted
from the New Castle, Pa, team last fail,
mas finally come to terms, and the only
thing that is holding his contract back now
is the question of advance money, which
always looms up even after the mctter of
terms is disposed of. He will certainly be
here for practice two weeks from to-mor-
row, and it will not take long to get a line
on on his ability to fill John McCarthys posi-
Ilon. There are several candidates for this
left-neld vacancy, and it is very doubtful
whether any of the aspirants can approach
McCarthy in all-around value to the team.
Cincinnati is reasonably certain to return
Mcfarland in his place here, and Hog
r1eVer can be counted on to put up a salts
isfaetory game in right field. The infield
Stewart, Allen and Hoffmeister. With
pitching corps composed of Foreman, Phil
ups, Dammann and Scott and Kahoe and
Lyncn to do the catching, the team looks
Strong enough for the best there is in the
western League. Neither Kahoe nor Lynch
mas yet signed, and both are holding out
IN mild sort of a way. Kahoe thinks that
ms contract should call for more money
than It does. Lynch claims that he received
something on the side from the Mansfield
management last season, and wants Indian
apolls to pay the aggregate amount of his
iast year. compensation. Manager Allen
has offered him the same salary he received
from Mansfield, knowing nothing of anv
side arrangement he may have had and
that is all that he will be given. In fact,
gard1ng the matter told by Lynch and the
Mansfield management.
Manager Allen is negotiating for the re-
Lease of minor league outfielder whom he
thinks is a wonder. He hopes in the course
of a week to be able to close a deal with
this man, until which time he does not wish
the latter'S identity known. The man in
question played on tail-end team last sea-
son, in spite of which fact he batted in
eighty-seven games a .349, stole seventy-six
bases and averaged more than run to a
game: Allen thinks a man with such a
record as that on losing team, where there
is little incentive to play that sort OF ball.
should be a wonder on team like Indian
apolis. Louis Knau, who played with In
awarded to this club by President Nick
Young, a dispute having arisen as to
whether he belonged here or in Austin,
Tex. He has gone South to Austin, but will
be ordered to report here. Last season the
Austin team got considerably behind in SAL
aries, and that fact released it's players
from any further connection with it. Moth
ing has been heard from Wiley Davis, but
Ewing, of the Cincinnati team, has let
ter from Davis which he is going to send
to Manager Allen, and which will probably
give news of what the big TennesSeean in
tends doing this season. "Dibby'' Flynn
has written that the terms offered him are
perfectly satisfactory, and that he will re-
port on March 20 for practice. He has not
sent contract, but says he will sign and
Hoffmeister has decided to leave Hot
Springs two weeks hence and will COM
mence practice then with his team here.
1t is the intention of the club officials to
have an arrangement at the grounds dur
ing the month Of April by which the play-
erS can take steam baths and receive
massage treatment at the clubhouse. They
are on the point of concluding such arrange
ments with professional masseur in this
city. This is an excellent thing for the
players, as it inSureS a quick radiance of
all soreness and brings them into condition
raDi0lV.