Omaha daily bee., 1903-04-26
BASE BALL GOSSIP OF WEEK
Western League Ready TO Open the Season
on Tuesday.
stoReE rEsEAu TALKING TROUBLE AGAIN
MarpIot of the Hickey League Puts In
a Few Hours DisruptinE the
western and sending
Il TO smash.

She popsl
On Tuesday the race in the Western
opens, and according to the scheduled ar
rangement, all hands and the cook viii
be busy as nailers until September II,
when the season ends; that is. IL the l4O
games scheduled are played out. Only l52
days have been allowed for the season,
and this means that postponed and tie
games will have to be lined up as double
headers, or they will have TO so Gnie-
cided. Each and every team approaches the
battle with confidence, and all are ready to
make a violent hus l.. Not one is In
really good condition for the hard work
OF championship contests. the weather hav-
ing been such az to preclude anything but
the lightest practice. No player can al
ford to take the chance Of injury by ex-
tending himself in practice games during
such weather as all have had to encounter
this season, and the result Is that none OF
the men has been exactly what his form is.
When the sun comes out in his zeal we will
see what the boys can do, and not till
then. In the meantime there is nothing to
change the opinion expressed last week.
@. whitewings Tebeau is certainly a
wonder. One would think that a magnate
owning two teams in one league would have
about all he cared to look after in TIE
base ball line; but not George. He finds
ample time to look after the business of
the Western league as well as that CT the
American association, and from his lofty
viewpoint near Looeyville, Kaintucky, ty
Rad, sab, he announces that the Western
league is rushing madly on to certain &C.
struction: that the withdrawal of Mr.. Van
Brunt from the st. Joseph team removed
the financial backing of the Western, and
that 1t would certainly collapse. Mr..
Tebeau gives figures to support his state
ments: where he got them can only be
guessed at, but he probably made them
himself and for, that reason knows they
are right. Mr.. Tebeau Is an excellent eX-
ample of the man who knows a lot Of
things that are not so. In the first place,
the Western league didn't lose 500, 900 or
any part Of II in base ball last season.
Every club in the league but three made
money, and only two lost any money, and
this loss was made up out OF the league
funds without calling on any of the clubs
for assistance. And one little fact that
@. whitewlngs might put in a little time
contemplating is that when the Western
league held its meeting at the close OF
the season not one Of the members was
accused Of holding out on the others; this
10 NOT lTub VI lut american aeoNNAaNAbht
where some Of the members found the pool
proposition only worked one way.
Tommy Burns, who used to refer to him
self as 'me and VanBrunt," has determined
to keep his team at Colorado Springs dur
ing the season, although Pueblo made him
a most tempting offer. Burns has a good
team and under the new conditions 1t
ought TO be heard from. Z
In the leagues that have already started
something In the way of upsets have been
noted. No one was particularly surprised
to see Pittsburg go out in the lead, but
people did look for a little better showing
from Cincinnati. Kelley explains that his
men are not playing the game as he taught
It to them, and insists that they will
make a better showing; it's a clnch they
couldn't do worse. Muggsy McGraw has
made good on some of his talk. but he has
a long way to go yet, and 1t wouldn't sur
prise anyone IL he met a fall. Frank
selee's team is doing fairly we'll, and
promises to be in the race for a little
while at least. In the American not q
fan has been particularly surprised, al
though the Detroits have made easy work
OF the much-touted Cleveland outfit. Clark
Grifith's bunch hasn't shown its speed yet,
but the season is too young to give a line
on the actual merits OF any Of the teams.
This is also true of the Hickey league, In
which only one thing has been shown. and
that is that both Minneapolis and st. Paul
are weaker than anyone thought them.
Some Of the Individual features Of tho
games so far have been very satisfactory
to the local push. That game Mordecal
Brown pitched for st. Louis against Chi
oago 10 going to be among the record per-
formances Of the year, and marks Brown
as good enough for any company. In one
Of the Boston games George Stone was sent
in to bat for a pitcher, but did nothing.
Big Sam Crawford went down the line
with Detroit when they we're hammerine
the life out of Bernhard, the wonder
Colonel Rogers made his fight for, and
didn't get a hit. In two games Sam drew
blanks in the base hit column. But old
Wahoo will come to the front yet. He IL
with a bunch Of ~sluggers almost equal tc
that famous crowd that once won a PEN
nant for Detroit in the National and no,
body out here is worried about his making
good.
Thomas Jefferson Hickey has been hAv-
Ing his troubles. He is paying for his
habit OF procrastination, and has beer
forced TO come down like the proverbia'
thousand Of brick on one his recalcitrant
supports, Mr.. Brice Of Columbus. It is al
over the services OF one Billy C,'ngman
q