The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-17
PUEBLO OR SIOUX CITY
DROPPED FROM WESTERN
LEAGUE
PROSPECTS FOR GOOD SEASON
MAMA gers All Over the Circuit An
ticipate notwithstanding At
tendance-HOVv Pitcher
McNeeIy Trains.

Sometime between now and March 1.
the Western league magnates will hold
meeting in this city. This statement Is
rather indefinite, but it is the only one
that can be ventured at this time, as
President Hickey is supposed to be In
Pueblo, looking over the situation with
view Of determining whether that town
or Sioux City shall be retained in the
league As soon as he returns he will
probably issue a call for the meeting and
then we shall see what we shall see.
There are some puzzling questions up
Tor a decision just at present, and the
manner in which they are settled may
have not a little to do with the success
Of the season as a whole. Pueblo and
Sioux City are both loath TO drop out
of the league and the business men in
both towns are straining every nerve to
retain the franchise. In both places the
disadvantage has been the location of the
grounds. The ball park in the Colorado
town is several blocks from the end of
the lire and the man who attends a game
has to tramp the distance through fine
and deep sand. At Sioux City the con-
ditions are not much better.
The business men, anxious to have the
teams retained, have promised to raise
the money to secure grounds easier Of
ances of strong teams and have signified
the intention of complying with any de-
mand that the president of the league
may make as a condition of keeping the
franchise This will be the most i'm
portant question the club managers will
have to decide at the coming meeting.
President Hickey has sent to all the
other cities on the circuit to learn which
is favored. The answer generally return
I'D &c hot iS int ed with the
exact conditions and that no preference
will be expressed until representatives Of
the towns explain in the meeting what
they can do to keep place in the
league.
The owners of the clubs on the cir
cult feel jubilant over the prospect of
q money-making season. They say each
of the managers garnered no small
quantity OF sheckels last year and that
the prospects are vastly better for a
still more prosperous. season with the
recent additions TO the circuit. One of
the managers, aIluding to the difference
the new cities will make, SAID:
The league ought TO be money
maker. One of the smaller towns will
have been replaced by a city of 24O,
in playing ball in a city of that size
and in one of say about 10000 as either
Pueblo or Sioux City is.
THE Twin Cities will make about
$4,000 more people to play to than We
had before Then there will be a big
saving in mileage by every club. See
how the cities are arranged now. Take
it up north and there are Minneapolis
and st. Paul side by side 1t costs MOTH
ing to make one of these towns when
you go TO the other. With Kansas City
and St. Joseph it is very nearly the same
They are only a few miles apart.
Z think Pueblo will be allowed to re-
tain the franchise rather than Sioux
City for no other reason than that it
is SO near Denver that it costs practical
ly nothing for a team to so to one town
when they are at the other. There is no
other league in the country having such
an arrangement as we have for saving
mileage
A Denver paper is authority for the
statement that chasing jack rabbits on
foot is the daily occupation of Pitcher
McNeely, who is hardening his muscles
for the season at baseball. He is do
ing his training at Charles RelIy's
ranch, near Deer Trail and is already
In fine condition. In letter which Mr.
Reilly received McNeely told of ten
mile run on foot after an able bodied
Jack. The letter did not state whether
or not the rabbit was caught, but as
there was no statement to that effect it
is safe TO presume that it was not
One who has not seen McNeely after
a jack said Mr. Reilly, "can form no
idea of the speed of the Denver pitcher
or of the persistency with which he fol-
lows up chase when once commenced.
All the rabbits down there know him,
and when they see it is McNeely who
is after them they cut loose from all
domestic ties and start for the Missouri
When l go out on a horse with my dogs
the jacks don't pay much attention to
US. They run, of course but tslev do not
dust like they do when they iScognze
that red sweater Say, when he starts
in next spring he will be able to run
bases ike tbree-year-old. Why every
morning he takes a bucket three miles
to the spring for his morning drink of