The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-24
LOOKING TO FUTURE
PROSPECT FOR BAsEBAIL NEXT
 SEASON.
Football Period VIII Close iroday and Interest In National sport WIrl Regin--AfeetinG of the
 Leawuea.

do nothing but gossip about the xame of all mes--basebail--and the hot stove circuits will work overtime
 Just q little over two weeks remain before the first meeting of the South ern League will be held in Memphis December 18th. At this meeting the peHnant fer 1894 will be fsrmaltv awarded to Memphis, the bunch Of ball tessers that Lew WhistieF'ee clever handling landed first In the exciting finish with Charlie Franks fleek of Pelicans as
 TheFe has been senae talk about ep- position ts Judge KayaHaugil, but there are toe many sane heads in the councils of the Southern League to brock any- thing of this kiHd. Judge Kavaflatiah has been the salvation of baseball in the South, At time when the future of the National game was tinged with dark brown and seemed hopeiessly wrecked he brought order out of chaos. II would be a crushing blow to base ball in the South to lose the cool head and uuerrinR Judgment of Judge KaVa- nauRh. The prospects are that he will be enthusiastically and uuanimo,Is- ly reelected. Major E. E. winters will cast Montgomery's vote for him with enthusiasn.
 The affairs of the league for the past season will be reviewed and arrange rents will be made for the operation of the League for 1905, A schedule committee win be appointed to report at the February meeting and Il is sin- cerely hoped that there will not be the slightest friction in any department There will probably bela fight ais to the kind of ball to be used next year. The Victor ball has been used by the League Tor the past two years During last season It was said by certain persons that that, ball was punk" that Is. soft which was reasonable more than anything else for the, low scores.
 Nothing has been heard in the last few days from Manager O'Brien of Montgomery, He is up in a region where he can reach out and touch crack ball players at any time, and 1t is pretty safe to say that he will come to Montgomery next spring with a cluster of fast ones. He needs an out fielder to succeed Ike Durrett, a third baseman to succeed the lamented Heine lansing and d couple of good pitchers. The rest of the team--in and outfieid- Is complete. and looks to be an unu- sually swift article.
 The annual meetings of the National and American Leagues-in New York and Chicago respectively, will also be held next month, and some lively fights may come up, The liyest issue is the foul strike rule. The National will stand for it's retention while the Ameri- can will fight for it's abolition.
 Here in Montgomery the foul strike rule has worked well and enhanced to a
 wonderful extent interest in the game. The claim made by some of the advo- cates of the repeal of the foul strike rule is that 1t keeps the batting down and makes the scores small. To judge locally this is a huge mistake.
 The people of Montgomery would pre- Ter to watch pitchers battle and a low score game than one of those tire some IF or IS hit batfests. During a pitchers battle and scientific fielding
 the people will stay to the finish, breathless with excitement On the other hand during a heavy batting game they will enjoy it hugely for awhile, but invariably they win begin
 to leave by the seventh inning. A good example was the fifteen inning tie game that George Stultz pitched
 against Nashville at Athletic Park one Sunday two years ago. Not a human l being left the grounds until the game was called at the end of the fifteenth, and 1t was almost dark.
 The big league moguls will make a ! mistake If they abolish the foul strike
 rule.
 Tn an interview in Cleveland several | days ago, Mike Donlin, the heavy hit- | ting outtielder of the Giants. severely | criticised Manager MeGraw of the New | York Nationals.
 Donlin is very sore on the action of | Brush and McGray in rufusing to play | a post-season series with the Amcri- | can League champions. and does not ! | In was In New York for a month after | the season closed and had splendid | chance to sound the New York fans and | find out what the sentiment was, and | predicts that the American League will have all the better of the patronage in | New York next season
 | Tn regard to the post-season series
 and the situation in New York, Don
 lin said; Every man on the team
 was more than anxious to play the post-season series, whether it was with | the New York Americans or any other | club. We did not care what club it
 was--we wanted the post-season l games. The so-called trip around the
 world was never even, considered by
 the players and Brush and McGraw | soon found out that not five of the men
 would take the trip. The benefit per | formance rendered us by Brush was all | right in tt sway. but 1t was like giving | a child cents and holding a quarter | where he could see 1t, but not get it. | Bfush s benefit netted each player $429, ] while If the post-seasOn series had been
 played the receipts to the players would | have surely averaged S2,000 each or
 more. Why, 1t would have been im- possible to put the people in the Polo l grounds who would have turned out for
 the games, and can tell you there was l a sore bunch of ball players around the | club house when McGraw refused to
 stand for the post-season games.
 l It was really a personal affair with 1 McGraw. but 1t knocked the New York 1 players who had worked hard for him
 out of big bunch of money. Not l only that. but 1t will affect the receipts
 of the New York team next season in
 q manner that wilt be a revelation to l Brush and McGraw. l know this for 1 was in New York for a month after | the season closed. and many a Ian l told me that it would be the American
 League ground for him next season. 1 the subway people have made ar l engagements to run special baseball
 trains, leaving from down town and | making no stops. These trains will
 take the fans from Herald Square to | the gates of the ball grounds in less
 than twenty minutes, and back down | question but what 'Grif' and his bunch | up on Washington Heights will have
 tho call in New York next season"
 l Donlin says he thinks the American | League Is faster than the National l and Is especially stronger in pitchers
 Of course he is loyal to the New York l team. and claims chat with Matthew son and McGinnity working right the l worlds championship would have been
 easy for the Giants, Boston Chicago Cleveland. Philadelphia and New York | American League teams outclass any thing in the National League, accord 1 Ing to Donlin. The scrappy outhelder
 was with the Cincinnati team in New ! York last summer when the attendance
 was given out as over 3S,0OO. As n
 matter Of fact. says Donlin. the ac-
 tual paid admissions on that day was { So.oo2. and number of times after ] | had joined the Giants the attendance
 ran over 2S.000 Brush made a barrel
 of money this season, but when it
 came for chance to allow his players
 to pick up some coin, Brush let Me
 Graw con him, Into refusing to play