Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-10-24

S3TS.75, and the club was i'm debt ST :.
2O2.3O, leaving net Indebtedness
representing the loss for the year OF
SS23.55.
| Weather Cuts Figure
| These figures are accounted for by
the fact that the club commenced the
year with less than $400 in subscrip-
tions, and these only partly paid in
and by the fact that II games were
either not played on account of rain
or were rained on during the season.
with the result of keeping the crowd
away. Only 50 out of 63 games were
played at home. So the adverse wea-
Their conditions accounted for the
loss, and the unpreparedncss of the
club TO meet the drain has left the
deficit
Manager Hayes was seen and stat
ed that i'm view of the conditions it
had been decided to take one of two
courses. These are:
l. To call q public meeting and
give any Davenport citizen or body
of men the chance to take the fran
chise and assets of the club and as
sumo the Indebtedness.
>. To circulate a paper for sub
scriptions for 500 shares in stock
company, the stockholders to meet
and elect their own directors. take
over the assets and debt of the club,
and run il.
Il don't think for a minute that
the city can afford to do without a
baseball club said Manager Hayes.
ut has been splendid thing. Hun
dreds of papers all over the country
have been printing the tabulated
scores of the Three-I league, the Chi
cago papers giving it more attention
than they did to the Western or any
other league except the National and
American. Every score published has
been a standing advertisement for
the city, which has kept in public
print all over the country clear
through the last two summers.
Started In Debt.
The handicap here has been the
fact that the club has always had to
start out in debt Cedar Rapids rails
ed $4,000 in about twenty minutes
with which to commence the past sea
son. Rock Island started with ST.
$40 pledged to the support of the
team. Davenport had less than $500
promised.
THE result was that at the be-
ginning of the season the directors
had to indorse paper for $500 bor-
rowed from the bank here. This note
was paid June 6, but when the club
returned home after its long trip
away from home in June il was up
against a months payroll, and no
means of paying it. So another $500
was borrowed, and this note remains
among the liabilities of the club. BY
indorsing that note the directors
saved the franchise, for if the play
ers were not paid on the day their
pay was due everyone of them was
free to quit his job on the spot. In
the same way at the close of the sea-
son the situation was saved by pay
ing the players in full. and if the club
has some debts il still has the fran
chisc.
THE club has some good assets in
the grounds, on which it holds lease
for another year, and which are in
fair shape for next season. In get
ting them ready the management
went into baseball two years ago un-
der debt of $1,000, and it is only fair
to ask whoever runs the club next
year to assume half that amount of
along with the assets"
AS soon as possible the directors of
the club will adopt one of the two
courses that have been outlined. Not
much is hoped from the proposition
of public meeting, however, as two
previous calls for a mass meeting
have been issued, according to Man
ager Hayes, and one brought out
three people and the other four.