Sunday Washington globe., 1902-05-04

well bred and thorough gentlemen playing
the game even in the old days.
Such men as John Ward, Billy Sunday,
Arthur Irwin, John Morrow, Jim O'Rourke
Ted Iarkiu, and many others would have
in their professional days compared favor
ably with any other group Of men earning
their living in some one Of the learned
professions.
grant you that there were some weird
ones among the players of long ago, but
not near so many as the reporters in those
days would have had you believe. AT any
rate l am glad to say that the false i'm.
pressions which for years were fostered by
ignorant reporters and believed by an en-
tiTely too confding public, have nowadays
been proven to have been nothing more
than a tissue of lies, for a professional
ball player, today, stands just as high in
the estimation of the people at large as a
doctor, lawyer, or any other professional
man, and why should not this be?
Is $1,000 made by law any better than the
same amount made by playing ball? And
how many young lawyers after ten years
hard work can command a practice which
in one year will net them $1,000? Yet a
youngster just from college can make this
much money in six months time if he can
play good baseball. Is it any wonder then
that college men are breaking into the game
by the scores every year in preference to
embarking in some one or the other pro-
fessiOns and waiting years for practice
enough to enable them to live. The pre-
judice which has heretofore been held
against the professional ball player has
rapidly vanished into the thin air, am
glad to state, and now fond mothers and
naughty papas only pray that their off
spring at college will be able to make" the
baseball team, and afterwards by their
good work attract the attention of some
league magnate, who will give the boy a
position and a chance at drawing a fancy
salary, for l can tell you that it is a mighty
pleasant thing to be possessed of abilities
which will enable a young man to draw
several thousand dollars for a summers
play, and which gives him the entire fall
and winter to embark in some other line of
work, and great many ball players to-day
have other businesses which they attend to
when not playing ball
As I said in the foregoing portion Of the
above paragraph, l am heartily glad that
the honest, hard working and gentlemanly
ball player has at last been recognized &C.
cording to his true worth, and today the
players of the great American game stand
shoulder to shoulder beside the members of
any other profession, as far as intellect,
refinement education and breeding GO and
also in the estimation of the general public.
Coming around to the interests of the
players themselves, where they should be
strongest they are weakest and this lies in
their woeful lack of organization. For some
reason or other professional ball players
have never been able to establish an organ
ization that would hold together long
enough to affect favorable results for them
selves. We, who know the ins and outs of
the game, are perfectly we'll acquainted with
the inside history of the rise and fall of
that deplorable brotherhood affair where
internal chickering's, petty jealousies and
childish behavior ruined the prospects and
bank accounts of several square and honest
men, as well as putting on the black liSt as
hne group of ball tossers as ever trod the
diamond.
Speaking of the present, 1t has only been
few years ago when Charley thinner, a
clever, honest player, was elected to high
position by his fellows, when thinner tried
to do his duty well and honestly; then this
same petty jealousy, which has wrecked
ball player organizations always, began to
come to the surface, and Charley was ac-
cused OF using his high Office for his own
seli-laudation, foolish senseless charge,
but nevertheless sufficient to split up the
organization. But ! sound the warning
right now that if there doesn't soon get to-
gether body of men and effect an organi-
cation, which will pass laws and stand By
mem to the interest of players, then you
may expect every man of you to get
through the trouble which Lajoie is ex-
perlencing at the present time for let me
give you warning right now, and that is,
IN the near /HfHge there will only be one
6fg league, and that will be a twelve.club
league, so that the conditions of former
days-providing that you will still stand
idly by and allow twill come back again
TO your detriment just as certain as there is
a day and night.
Then man will not be allowed to work
Tor whom he pleases but he will work for
whoever he is assigned to; for if am not
altogether wrong the players will be
pooled as they were once before, when
the difference between the two warning
factions are settled and twelve-club major
league will have become a reality, as il is
bound TO be, and soon too. Then if the
players do not heed this warning now and
organize, the conditions of ball players will
be worse than ever, as many a magnate has
grievances against a player now whose
future he will forever ruin if given the
opportunity Any player who doubts my
assertion about the magnates paying off old
scores has only to remember what was done
to many good fellows when the brother.
hood scheme fell through
So say to all of you that now is the time
to organize for as surely as the sun sets in
the evening so surely will there be but one
leage in the near future and that a twelve
club league. The lovers of the game the
world over would rather have a twelve club
league than to have the state of affairs con-
tinue which at present prevails, for in one
big league you would be sure toi get the
best players together, and be satisfied that
you were witnessing the highest and most
finished exponents of the game at play.
AS It is now it is hard to tell just what city
possesses the fastest team in the country.
With the exception of Pittsburg all the Ma
tional League clubs have lost great many
Of their best men, and those that remain
are forced to work with a lot of minor