The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-19
TEAM IS DEMORALIZED
ACCIDENTS HAVE SERIOUSLY Az
FECTED THE HOLSTERS.
watkins Is Trying to Strengthen and
Get the Men Out of a Rut-Na-
tional League Situation.

The Indianapolis team is badly shot to
pieces" With Some of the best men on the
hospital list there is no cause for great sur
prise that the Hoosiers have experienced
very disastrous trip far in the west
There is cause for regret, but no reason why
the knockers should begin their hammer
ing process Accidents are likely to happen
to ball team at any time. The Indianapolis
team has had more than its share of mis-
fortune during the past few weeks. In fact.
the Hoosiers have been camping the
trail of hard luck all season.
Early in the season the pitchers were out
of trim and the team was batting we'll Then
the pitchers began rounding into form, only
to have the batters take a slump in their
stick work. When matters began to balance
and Manager Watkins got good peep at
the beacon light, the top rung of the lad
der, hard luck settled in the championship
camp with vengeance. Tamsett and Coul-
ter were out of the game FOR a few days,
but that was nothing compared with the ac-
cident that befell O'Brien. After the short
stop was hurt misfortunes came thick and
fast Carbuncles troubled Tamsett and Fox,
and they were unable to play good ball. Then
Kihm suffered a broken finger and will be
out of the game for some time. After Fox
was relieved Of his carbuncles he suffered
injury to his hand in the first game at
Kansas City last week and is on the hospi-
tai list.
The pitchers were in good trim when they
left here but they have been affected by the
general decentralization caused by so much
sickness and SO many accidents. Manager
strengthen the team and to brace up the
men. They are out TO win, but have dropped
the team wins half of the games yet to be
played on the present western trip 1t will do
much can be expected under the cir
cumstances. By the time II returns home 1t
is to be hoped the men will have taken
brace and will do the best they can with the
material at hand. The Hoosiers will spend
the coming week in st. Paul and MinneapO-
lis. They will return home on July Is.
The Central Baseball League is having its
troubles and President G. w. Bement, jr.,
evidently finds that the position of chief ex-
ecutive of the organization is not as easy to
fill as he imagined when he insisted that he
be elected to the Office at the meeting in An
derson last spring. The Grand Rapids club
will be kept on the road all season because
suitable downtown grounds could not be Sc
cured in that city, The Anderson affair also
caused the league officials a little uneasi-
ness, but the umpires employed by the pres
ident are the limit" Two of them left the
field in Fort Wayne Friday, and no one was
in charge to call the game account of
rain. The contest has been protested. If
President Bement is wise he will step down
and out next fall, and if the other magnates
are gifted with much wisdom they will
never make another serious mistake by
electing one of their own members to the
ONCE OF president
President Ban Johnson seems to exert a
wonderful influence over President T. j.
Hickey. Because the Philadelphia American
club raised a long howl against Hoffman
playing with Toledo, johnson notified Hick-
ey that Hoffman could not play in the AS
ISOLATION, and Hickey, in turn. notified the
Toledo club. Ii is perfectly fair to respect
the wishes of the PHILADELPHIA club and also
those of President Johnson, if the latter did
the same ir return toward the American
Association. 1t seems about time that ma
tional agreement was promulgated SO that
such matters could be easily governed.
xxx
A story was sent out from Milwaukee last
week to the effect that Owner Havenor, of
the Milwaukee American Association club,
would sell his best players and continue the
season with lot of cheap men, Fortunate
ly. there proved to be nothing in the story
and it was quickly denied Havenor would
make a very unwise move by selling any OF
his men, even If his team is not drawing
we'll al home. 1t would be better for his club
and also for the whole organization If he
were to change his business tactics instead
of selling any of his men. 1t Is said the Mil
waukee public has become somewhat dis
susted with his methods and he had better
find where he is weak and then apply the
remedy.
President Dreyfuss, of the Pittsburg club,
again is figuring-very much on the quiet,
however, on taking the Pittsburg team to
Australia the coming winter, making the
trip by the Southern Pacific route to Cali
fornia, where a series of games would be
played stopping off at Honolulu between
steamers, and then continuing on to Aus
tralia, possibly by way of the Philippines.
Dreyfuss had arranged such a trip for the
Pittsburgs for the end of last year, but
when several of his stars jumped him and
tried to get others TO desert him, his desire
to give his team good time vanished Now
that they again are playing good ball for
him and promise to show him the LOYALTY he
expects and loves, he is thinking seriously
of carrying into effect his plan of 1902 De
Wolf Hopper, the comedian-fan. whose love
for the game is proverbial, insists that If
the Pirates go to Australia they will draw
tremendously.
Baseball is almost as popular in Aus
tralia as cricket, the English national
game" said Hopper. when 1 was in Lon
don some years ago ] attended a. banquet
given to the Australian cricketers Who then
were in England. During the evening sew
eral Americans who were there asked me to
recite Casey at the Bat. l expressed a will
ingness to oblige. but asked to be allowed TO
substitute something else, / feared that
the English and the Australians present
would not understand ii. Not understand
it,? said of the Australians, why we
know as much about baseball as we do
about cricket. And i never had a more ap-
preciative audience for Casey in my life
They had learned the game when the Spald-
ing tourists visited their country in the late
eighties, and had played il enthusiastically
ever since.
There is no change i'm the strained major
league situation, which will be resolved
either into permanent peace or renewed war,
according to the action to be taken at a
special meeting of the National League to
be held in New York tomorrow. Meantime
the legal warfare has assumed new phase,
the New York League club taking a hand
by securing a temporary injunction against
Infielder Elberfeld playing with the New
York American club Should the move prove
successful the American League WILL in re-
prisal, make an effort to enjoin, on behalf of
the ST. Louis club, Matthewson and Bower
man. assigned To New York. Thus, by legal
action of individual clubs may the peace
treaty be practically nullhed. There has
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