The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-17
THE NATIONAL LEAGUE
HAsEBALL SEASON OF BIG
 LEAGUE OPENS TODAY.
Much Uncertainty, Which Means the Life of the Sport, Exists This Year-Fight Between
 the Two Leagues.

At St I,o,,is-Pittsburg and St. Louis
 At Brooklyn-Boston and Brooklyn:
 At New York--Philadelphia and Ne" York. ,.,,,,
 The championship season of the Ma, tional League opens this afternoon ana Montgomerians can now begin 10 picH winners from the diamond as wen as oi, oi the race tracks Speaking of the baseball muddle in the major league an Eastern paper says:
 Never before was there so much of the uncertainty which means the lhe or spors as exists this year. Not only are there two pennant races to be decided. both or which look interesting. but much more depends upon the next six months. lne fate of more than one league. especiahy among the minors. Is to be decldeu. anu the two big leagues will pass through crucial period, unless some unforeseen agent acts as arbitrator to bring them together.
 ed for time as if it would not have any schedule at all, will be the first to open it's season. The opening games are as follows: Chicago at Cincinnati. Pittsburg at St. Louis. Boston at Brooklyn, Phila- delphia at New York. It strikes one as peculiar at first glance that both Brook lyn and New York should open at home on the same day. The reason is not ap- parent, ana II IOOhS ilhc pOOI WOin py the Schedule Committee. but probably is not.
 The American League only partially opens it's season, by playing holiday game in Boston on Saturday, which iS . holiday in the Massachusetts city. There will be conflict between the two leagues in the Hub cn that day in consehuence. The American League SeaSon proper opens a week from Wednesday,. but the holiday ralnm in RngfOn rich to be pessed up. so one game was advanced to keep Soden, Conant and Billings from getting all the best of it,
 The National League steals march on the American in Chicago by opening the season there just two days in advance of its rival Although the Remnants begin at Cincinnati, they are brought back to Chicago for two games week from to. morrow and Tuc sday to take a little wind out of Comiskey's opening at the South Side grounds on Wednesday, the 23rd But the White Stocking magnate will show his rIayers. to the home fans first Sunday dn the return of the team from Notre Dame. And he will also have the added prestige of flying pennant-Chi- cagoy second in many years-for an opening attraction.
 FPom that time on Chicago fans will have almost continuous baseball flor so Well did President Hart of the Remnants, s.s a member of the Schedule Committee, IOOk HIS OWn 1nteTeStS tlldl tueEc are only seven conflicting dates there during the season. That means prac- tically 126 days of baseball here in about 150 days on the calendar.
 The American will have the advantage of having nearly all the stars of the dia- mond under it's standard, and these are so well distributed that the race looks to be close one, so far as form can be fig ured on paper in advance. It will also have the advantage of last years rec ord, which it has only to sustain to re- tain the public's favor. The National, on the other hand. will have a better outolok than last year in some respects. It has in every team except one a lot of new material which may or may not develop into anything, but the novelty of the thing is sure to attract fans at the start. They are always anxious and ready to see new performers, and except in the Pittsburg Club the National League has plenty of these. Moreover. the rid ding which the old league has suffered adds new elements of chance to the race, and almost any of the clubs have a chance to get into the running. Every | thing depends on how the youngsters
 turn out. Pittsburg, of course, ought to | make runaway race of it if the Pirates l try" but a club which can stay in the | first four will draw patronage. If the games are lively and well contested be-
 tween evenly matched teams lot of fans do not care so much about the
 class" of the players.
 The fight between these two big leagues has developed new angles in the last few days It Is apparently now to be a test of endurance to see which can survive the longest. All talk about "$100 900 corr,lp- tion fund.- to steal the American League $ players sounds foolish. That sum would
 be exhausted before any appreciable hole was made in the American Leagues ranks even If players enough could he fcund willing to jump"
 1T such move was contemplated i, was started too late. The young league alreadv had most of its players collected l together at different training places and | after a player has once reported it is
 pretty hard to get him to deliberately de. sert hls team nowadays The player
 know too well in what light contract. 1 Jumpers are regarded by the better part | Of fandom. If the move had been start. | ed two months earlier something might | have come of 1t, but now the part O | wisdom Is to wait and plan for next sea | son. That seems to be the plan adopted | by most of the magnates, and, proftinl | by experience, it is a safe guess that tho | campaign for next year will begin early | Long before any one can foretell the re- | suit of the pennant races many player.
 will be quietly signed for the season o l 1903 by the widcawake manager. and tn, | struggle will be an interesting one. Only | the players will profit by 1t. for If riva magnates get to bidding against each oth
 
 no limit. and it will only be a question
 of time before somebody goes to the wall | But it will rot be the player.
 | It would not be bad idea for tho | American League to let the Nationa have a number of it's stars back again al | inflated salaries rather than keep then | at even greater cost. The old league fig | ured on the American League bankrupt. | ing itself with too heavy salaries. That was the argument used last winter by 1 some of the magnates, vet they ar, 1 threatening to attempt to lift part of the | burden onto their own shoulders by out | bidding the younger league for the stars. | That would soon empty both cash boxes and would bring about a reconciliation.
 Then. again. the American League has picked the Nationals rooster too clean. It has stripped off so many of the feath- CTS on which 'he old earnecock prided it. self for so many years that there is lit tie left for the National to fight for. If it had even half the stars of the coun- trv if might be willing to compromise rather than risk losing that half. But the Johnsontes> have done their work so well that the National has practically nothing to lose by continuing the war; It has little to gain bv compromsing with it's enemy. That would not give 1t back any of it's lost property. II would only servo to protect propertv which It is but - - ~