The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-12
BALL IN MONTGOMERY
QUESTION TO BE SETTLED AT
 ATLANTA MEETING.
Squire Brown Points Out Reasons Why Franchise Will Not Be
 Transferred to Chattanooga Other Gossip.

sf In Atlanta next Tuesday morning will , be held a baseball meeting that is fraught
 with peculiar importance to Montgomery. It win be- the annual meeting of the
 Southern League when all the affairs of
 the 19os season. financial and otherwise. will be finally disposed of and. prelinni-
 nary arrangements will be made for play
 Ing ball in the good old summer time
 of the season of 1904.
 l At present the league circuit ia com- posed Of New Orleans, Shreveport Mont l gomery, Atlanta Birmingham. NashyiIie Memphis and Little Rock, but a fight will
 De made in certain quarters to trop Mont
 gomery from the 1904 circuit and substi- tute Chattanooga. Whether this fight
 VIII pc successful or not Ia problematical. "A member of the local association said yesterday that he has had assurances mat makes him absolutely certain that the franchise will remain in Montgouery ana that baseball will be even more of
 sS succsss next summer than it was during
 tne highly successful season just closed. Ine nght against Montgomery seems to
 De led by Newt Fisher. manager and part owner of the Nashville franchise Who
 VIII support him in Atlanta Tuesday re- mains to be seen. So far nobody besides
 Fisher has been outspolsen in regard to the pro or con of the Montgomery mat ter. but it is probable that Charlie Frank ane the New Orleans vote. Lew Whistler
 ana the Memphis vote and the Nashville
 vote will be in favor of cutting out Mont gomery.
 On the other hand it is reasonably cer- saln that Messrs Morgan and Jackson of bHmlngnam, Alb Powell and the Atlanta vote and Mike Finn and the Little Rock vote VIII hold out to the end In favor of Montgomery. This would make 1t and and 1t takes six votes to throw club DAtx " and the Shreveport vote is rather an un- known quantity, but it is probable that they will be with Little Rock and in that event they will cast their vote in favor At all events the prospects are bright as regards Montgomery remaining mem Der of the l904 Southern circuit for if Hart Newman of New Orleans. the vice president of the Southern League, has the disposition of the vote of the Crescent City 1t will be in favor of Montgomery. Newman may be in the minority when the meeting comes off and if he Is it is
 possible that New Orleans may vote The baseball situation in the South and montgomery especially is too we'll known
 to need reorganization now. Just one
 year ago was held the rather stormy when the peace pact between the South ern and outlaw league was ratified. Chattanooga, then a member of tho
 Southern League. was dropped at that meeting and Montgomery was substituted.
 Chattanooga had always been a losing proposition not only to itself, but to the league. and while Montgomery was some- l thing of an experiment the magnates felt
 that even if this town did not come up to their expectations 1t could not be any worse than Chattanooga.
 From Nashville to Birmingham the
 jump was not so bad. but big part of the gate receipts were eaten up by the
 railroads in the jump from Birmingham | to New Orleans. With Montgomery in | the jump from Nashville or Birmingham
 to New Orleans was broken and the | geographical situation of Montgomery
 was another point m it's favor.
 Everybody connected with the Southern League was agreeably surprised at the
 showing made by Montgomery the past season. Something like 64,000 paid ad-
 missions went through the local gates
 while in proportion to the size of the | town, Montgomery paid as much money \ Into the sinking fund of the League as | any town In the circuit.
 | During the exhibition games with De- | troit, Chicago, Boston and St. Paul 1t will be remembered how miserably in- adequate the car service of the Traction Company was. making 1t necessary to
 have the Western Railroad run trains to
 the grounds every Sunday. During the first part of the regular championship
 season this was the ease. The public
 had just begun to take keen interest
 
 of people got disguested. lost interest and l finally quit going to the games altogether.
 During the latter part of the season the | Traction Company received trailers and
 big motor cars enough to handle thou sands of people. It wss too late then. lots of former enthusiastic patrons of
 baseball having Jumped the game" With these troubles to contend with the | Traction Company cleared over 5000 net | on the fares to and from the ball park | during the season while the local asso- | ciation quit the season ahead of the game l financially even with a 5000 debt staring | it in, the face at the commencement of the season and the altogether too fancy | salaries paid the local team.
 l When the flowers bloom next spring Il there will be none of these difficulties in | the way. The Traction Company has cars enough to handle the largest kind | of crowd. and the patrons of the grme. ] having had taste of professional base
 ball last summer, will be so eager for the
 season to open that the attendance, not
 only at the exhibition games. but during l the playing season, win be great deal
 larger than they were this summer. l A number of exhibition games have
 Graw's New York Nationals, the Cincin- | nati and Boston Nationals, Comiskeys Chicago Americans, the White Sox, Bill Armours Cleveland Americans, possibly Clark Grifiths high priced New York
 Americans and other dates to i'll in. Last season. it will be remembered. when the exhibition games started the grounds were in a very crude condition, | the bleachers not beimg up and the grand
 stand only partially finished. When the exhibition season opens n xt spring every thing will be as fit as fiddle and things will be in as good shape as if it was | midseason.
 An attempt was made to drop Shreye- l port at the December meeting last year on account of the fact that the town l did not draw and most of the clubs failed to get the guarantee money when they played there. Some monied men of Shreveport went to the Birmingham meet ing and agreed to double the guarantee or, | in other words. to make the paid ndnis- sions in Shreveport for the season 5000. l The actual paid admissions in Shreveport during the past season were B,)O0 fall | ing 12.000 short of the guarantee mark. | Now the same thing may come up in the | meeting next TuesdaS as regards Mont | gomery for 1904 and if it does it will be
 as promptly met as did Shreveport last year.
 Both car lines in Montgomery are more than anxious to have baseball on the line of their road, 1t representing a great revenue to them in the summer.
 There Is a clause in the constitution of the Southern League that franchise can- not be given to a street. railway com pany. It is reasonable however, that if l any money or guarantee is needed by the local association that the Traction Com a.o-.