Waterbury Democrat., 1902-01-01
BASEBALL BREEzEs.
Still Harping on the Spahhng anu
 Freedman Quarrel. y9


 The following bits are from the Mer~ iden Journal:
 The ter-club league for one year at least is the fair solution of the state base ball situation.
 President Charles Clark and lew more men of that stamp would make team go in Derby.
 Bristol has not given up hope or being in the league in 1902 and there is no reason why it should. The chances are no worse than ever for ten-club league.
 Secretary O'Rourke is fair minded man and it is safe to say that when the whole aspect of the base ball sltu- ation is fully considered by him that he will take a position that will be far to all interests concerned.
 s.Iron Man. McGinnfty, the pitcher, has signed q three years contract to play with Mclsraw's Baltimore team. Charles Dexter, who went into the first rank of all round players last sea- son. is mentioned as captain of the Chicago Nationals next season. Dex- ter started out as a catcher and since then has swung clear around the circle of positions except the pitchers box.
 Herman, who played on the Cam bridge varsity eleven, will play on the Harvard base ball team this summer, going behind the bat. Harvard men think he will be a worth successor to Reid the best catcher Harvard ever 1 had. The outlook for q strong nine IS particularly good. In Clarkson and Stillman the Crimson is well supplied with first class pitchers, and another 1 valuable player, F. Frantz, the big first baseman, who is q hard hitter.
 Pitcher Nichols is in Boston He is now q full fiedged magnate and says he will have several good players for his Western league Kansas City team before he returns to the west Speak ing of the situation in Kansas City, the veteran said: George Tebeau now has three ball grounds on his hands and is making lot of talk about what he will do, but we are not paying any attention to him. as his association has no chance to get back to organized ball and minor league ball cannot live otn- erwise." Nichols says the American | association is bluffing.
 The warlike statement of Frank De Hass Robison of St Louis to the effect that A. c. Spalding is not needed in the affairs of the National league and that Freedman has done much for the good of base ball, is singularly incon- siStent when it is recalled that Robi- son was the first magnate to suggest the name of Spalding for president of the old organization. Robison has not been cutting much of a figure In base ball affairs this winter, except as a mark of the American league, which has located a club in St Louis and has. taken the cream of Robison's players away from him. Just why Rohison has been so antagonistic to Spalding is mystery to base ball men. In years gone by the St Louis magnate has enjoyed the reputation of being q thorough sportsman and n good fellow generally. He declared during the re- cent league meeting that he never took orders from Higher Up'' and that he was absolutely Independent. Yet he could not explain why he advocated Spalding's leadership last summer and then fought it tooth and nail in the corridors of the Fifth Avenue hotel when the matter came to an issue. Brush and Robison have been closely identified in many of the formers schemes and both have been followers or Freedman ever. since the New. York magnate assumed the dictatorship of the league. Brush has $25O00 worth of stock in the New York club. which Is partial excuse for his affiliations but Robison is not tied up in any such manner. Robson, by the way, was the only magnate to vote for the disso- lution of the league when the question came up for settlement. Why he vote,i this way is something that base ball men are anxious to know The rumor that the New York club has been try ing to sign Jesse Burkett was denied 1 yesterday by Secretary Knowles, but if it is true it means that Robison, who has employed Burkett for the past ten years, has turned oyer the players ser vices to Freedman. Burkett. however, l has already signed q St Louis Ameri- can league contract. The New York club, by the way, signed Jim Delehan- l ty yesterday.