Evening star., 1899-03-28
THE NEW. BROWNS
Team That Win Represent St. Louis
in the League.
OLD MEN WILL CD I'd CLEVELAND
Mr. Becker Discusses Plans for
the Coming Season.
CURRENT SPORTING NOTES

CURRENT SPORTING NOTES
ST. LOUIS, Me-, March 2S.-Edward c.
Becker, vice president of the American
Base Ball and Athletic Exhibition Com
pany of st. Louis. which has succeeded the
Sportsman's Park and Club has returned
from the National League meeting in New
York. In the course of a talk on base ball
matters he said:
"It is Mr.. Robisons Intention as well
as my own, to bring last years Cleveland
team 10 st. Louis In body. Last seasons
Browns will be transferred to Cleveland
and become the property of the new CIeve-
land club. which is operated by Stanley
Robson, president. and NJ. j. Muir
The team that makes its home at Sports
mans Park this year will not contain a
single member that represented St Louis
last season. The old organiza lion has been
wiped out, and no players will he retained
to remind the faithful fang of the past
days. Mr.. Robson and myself are of the
opinion that the old Cleveland team is
plenty strong enough to repLssent St Louis
with credit in the coming campaign and
none of the old Brownies will be given a
berth"
Outside of reading and digesting the news
that comes from the Senators at Hampton,
the local base bah enthusiasts have been
busy for the past two days discussing the
politics of the National League and the
sensational ousting OF Col. Rogers the
Philadelphia magnate, from the temporary
leadership of that body There is no ques-
ton that the breach between the mag
mates is widening and there is no telling
when the final rupture will come. Messrs.
Brush. Robson, Hart, Wagner and Won
Der Horst make up strong combination,
their opponents, Freedman, Rogers and
Dreyfus, being weak, while Messrs. Soden
and Kerr are strictly on the outside. Col.
Rogers voices the sentiments of his party
and the two mentioned last when he says
that the league will not put up money to
buy out clubs SO as to reduce the circuit
This brings the dissolution up to 1901, the
end of the 10-year agreement But is 1t not
possible to bring forward arguments that
will make Messrs. Rogers and Freedman
take to the high grass and agree to about
anything proposed by the Brush following?
For instance, isn't it possible for the west
ern crowd to form cumblnation whereby
Messrs. Reach and Rogers will be frozen
out of the league and Magnate Freedman
shipped to oblivion by the same route The
western part of the National League cir
cult is all right. Cincinnati, Chicago and
st. Louis can be relied upon, with Pitts
burg more than possibility. In the east,
Brooklyn is certainty; leaving but three
clubs to be organized and plaeed to advan-
tage The Messrs. Wagner are training
with the Brush following and can be de-
pended upon to fall heir to the Philadelphia
end of the deal. In New York, Freedman
has almost killed the igau1e and new cap
italists can easily be- secured, while the
will ha sur,t tn' MeCSrS
Soden and Conant; they can come in or
stay out, and possessing the common sense
they do, can be depended upon to come in
This arrangement would leave the Messrs.
Rogers, Freedman and Dreyfus to organize
another organization. and from present in
dicatons their success would be of the very
doubtful kind.
The latest wall comes from the direction
of Louisville, and Mr.. Dreyfus is evideAtly
feeling the bad effects of lining up against
the interests that have benefited him in the
past. The original schedule gave the Louis
vile club seventeen Sunday games al home,
but the schedule adopted at the recent
meeting Of the league pulled this number
down to seven. In a state Of desperation
Mr. Dreyfus turned toward Col. Rogers tor
relief and wired him if ne would stand by
the Louisville club in its demand for re-
vision of dates. The colonel answered in
the affirmative, and in addition said: Il
also replied to Mir. Dreyfus. in answer TO a
what it all meant, that it was the begin
ming of an attempt to be made to freeze
Louisville out of the league and advised
him not to let himself be frozen out. The
whole thing in a nutshell is this, and the
public might just well know all about
it, for it cannot be kept secret any longer.
There is a conspiracy in the league to re-
duce the circuit to eight clubs before the
expiration of our indianapolis amalgama-
ton agreement, which has still three years
to run Mark you, ! say conspiracy.
I'm brief, the conspiracy amounts TO TINS:
Cleveland and Baltimore are to be provided
with losing teams by their owners, so as to
force the league into buying them out to |
get rid of them. All clubs will lose money |
going to those cities, and their teams will |
not draw people to the games they play
away from home, so that every club Will |
have fourteen bad days with each of them, |
seven at home and seven abroad, or twenty |
eight, all told, during the season. To |
escape these losses the promoters of this |
the two clubs named and give their owners |
from So, coo to $4,000 to quit.
This is all very nice, but the Phila- |
delphia, Boston, New York and Pittsburg
clubs have pledged themselves not to pay
a cent toward such a fund, and that will |
block the conspiracy, for it requires unani- |
nous consent to change the present circuit. |
This Louisville business is part of the |
scheme to reduce the circuit to eight clubs.
With Baltimore and Cleveland out of the |
way, as per the scheme concocted, and
Louisville bankrupted then only one club
would remain to be gotten rid OF to secure
an eight-club circuit
(which club is marked l do not know but
presume it is Washington, and these men
would then expect the league to put up
Messrs. Wagner from base ball-a PROPOSE
ton that cannot be entertained with the
money in it's reserve fund but in this they
will be very much mistaken.
Things in the National League, I am
sorry to admit, are In 1rlgnt1u1ly pad