Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-10-15
BASEBALL NEXT YEAR
Rock Island to Continue Mem
bership in the Western
Association.
OTHER TOWNS BEING HEARD FROM.

Oneers of LEGAL Club to Arrange For the
Payment of the Remaining Indebted
ness and shape Matters For the Coming
season-The Reorganization of the
! League
| Matters are shaping themselves for
placing the Rock Island Baseball as
sociation on a sound financial basis in
order to insure the continuation of
the national game in this city the
coming wear. Other towns that de-
sire to be in the Western association
are waking up. and several of them
have communicated with the officers
of the local organization with a view
to ascertnining what it is proposed to
do here, and they all have been in
| formed that Rock Island intends re-
tanning her membership in the league,
and will be prepared to have repre-
sentatives at n meeting which it is
hoped will be called in the near flu
ture for the purpose of reorganizing
the association for 1899.
While the sudden termination of
the professional game in Rock Island
the present season had somewhat of
n dampening effect on the enthusiast
tic interest in baseball. the spark,
nevertheless, burns brightly, and it
will only require the assurance that
we are to have the sport the coming
year to fan it into large, spreading
blaze.
Rock Island has what is conceded
to be one of the finest parks in the
circuit. The ground is leased and
the rent paid up to next April. The
association, however, has an indebt-
edness of $400 hanging over it-a
small amount when contrasted with
the conditions of other cities in the
league when the clash came few
months ago. This obligation is in
the shape of an incum brance against
the park, and it is necessary that it
be liquidated before we can expect
to arrange for the future. 1t has
been proposed-and no doubt the plan
will be carried through-to give
series of dances during the winter,
and perhaps an entertainment, to
raise a fund with which to clear off
this debt and have a nest egg to start
on when the robins MARBLE again.
The officers of the club will prob
ably hold a meeting next week, and
outline their plans.
Rock Island is and has always had
the reputation of being in the front
row among the crackerjack baseball
towns of the west. The games here
at the opening of the season received
better patronage than was the case
elsewhere in the league, and notwith-
standing the discouraging conditions,
of which the weather was the princi-
pal factor, the association came out
almost even, after building its park,
etc. A few of the players, unfortu-
patelv, were little behind in salary,
but they will have reason to congrat- |
ulate themselves if they will confer |
with their professional brethren who |
belonged to other teams, and inquire |
of them how they stood in salary |
when the curtain dropped on the big |
show.
We want baseball next summer,
and we're going to have it, so say all |
the fans.
Bloomington is candidate for a
in the Western association
in 1899. st. Joe's team, which got |
into Ban Johnson's bunch after the
Western association went up,
is DESTROYS to keep in it's present
company, although the town proved a
oser to Johnson's league. One thing
seems sure, and that is that the Mis-
souri, town will not be taken in the
Western association again. 1t has
been a heavy load in the past. and
,ther towns will not stand for it.
With St. Joe out of the deal, the
necessity for the selection of success
'or to President Thomas j. Hickey
presents itself. There are plenty of
rood men. Hugh Nicol, of Rockford,
wants the job, but he is liable to get
he frosty stare. if he hobs up in a
Meeting with a candidate tag on him.