Evening star., 1898-03-19

same nature successfully but in the other
eight clubs the hold-outs might have their
bluf called and find themselves out in the
cold. The Baltimore club without the six
recalcitrant players would not finish in the
first division, and the management, as
consequence. would not clear dollar.
With the strikers satisfied and in their
places the club has more than a possible
chance of clearing at least $4,000. View
ing the situation from business point of
view, 1t would appear as if the best way
cut of the difficulty would be for Manager
Hanlcn to acknowledge having the worst
OF the controversy, give the players what
they demand and then resort to Buck
Ewings tactics of trading off objection
able employees.
No matter from what direction the situa-
ticn is viewed the Baltimore MANAGEMENT
has the short end of the argument Out
side of Bowerman all the strikers are more
than passing well-to-do, to say nothing of
influential relationships, as in the case of
Kelley. Individual strikers are of little
account, such Hawley's against Cincin-
iiau or Doyle against Washington; but
when The payers have the keen foresight
to band together there can be no question
that they have fully - per cent the better
Of the argument
The yell of disapprcval that has gone up
from the different prominent scorers of
the country over the abolition of the earn
ed run would lead the unsophisticaied to
beiere that the national game was in dam
appears that the earned-run rule was
adopted for the benefit OF the owners of
the clubs, and il they think proper to
abolish this feature CT scoring the scorers
should have a very small kick. The earned
run IS hard thing to watch in a game
and the public takes no interest in it what
ever; besides, il is unreliable Last years
averages placed McJaUaes ahead of Mer-
Ger IN the matter of effectiveness white in
reality he wen fewer games. and as to
ability he is not to be mentioned i'm the
same breath with the East Liverpool boy
OF course there is no way to prevent
scorers generally counting the earned run
II they want to. but the official scorers
can be easily handled. They are hired by
the league magnates. Under these circum-
stances IL Is a Collar to pennies wager that
the official scorers will not go out Of their
way to find extra work. Several of the
prominent writers have contended that
there will be no way of telling how effect
i've pitcher has been during the season,
but here again the scorers have gone out
OF their way to hunt for trouble Ii
pitcher helps materially to win games
conducts himself like a gentleman and his
health remains good it will not be neces-
sary to spring figures on a manager to tell
him that the player is valuable one.
Dinneen and Willis were Acknowledged to
be the best pitchers in the Eastern League
last year, but when the averages came out
they stood about ii and Is in the list of
twfriers- 1t didn't need figures TO tell the
Boston management that Willis was a
Lake thrown in. to secure him from the
Syracuse management The same case ap-
plies to Dinneen. Numerous offers were
made for him, but his good work stood out
in such bold characters that official aver
ages failed to smirch his reputation
In less than a month the chamriors,jp
season Of the National League will be
opened. and. as usual, the predictions are
coming in thar the race is to be the hot
test in TIE history of the game. But II
there is anything as uncertain as horse
race Is II base ball, and it is also true
sports ever devised The champions of last
year are likely to take slump for come
reason this year and lose their hold on the
top notch Then the fact that both strong
and weak take fast and slox winning and
losing streaks Is another element OF that
killing uncertainty that makes base hall
great sport Yet 1t Is quite true that
the National League teams are more evan-
ly adjusted this year than last which
The only teams that have not made mate
rial changes are Boston, New York and
Cleveland. The others have made trades
CT players that may and may not turn
out we'll. R1ttsbuSg and 81 Louis have
made the most changes. with Louisville q
good second. and It 70 altogether likely that
the teams OF the second division VIII play
much better han than last year. The uu-
known quantity Of The whole league II The
of old and new players no one. NOT even
Manager otalffn8B. ts able 10 ma3ke q guess.
DtA1lin8B made the bad break last year of
writing for the newspaper1 and claiming
the pennAnt for the Quaker city aEExeGa-
t3en before tho season Openod. Onoe Was