The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-09

Brown and Gonding.
What the Valley League Players Are
Doing.
| Where they play Sunday:
Topeka at Leavenworth.
FIT. Scott at Sedalia.
Pittsburg at lola.
Joplin at Springfield.
On Monday Joplin, the leaders,
come to Topeka for a series of three
games with the Saints, and on Thurs
day, Springfield second in the column,
will pay visit Consequently To-
peka is up against six hard contests
with teams Of recognized ability, both
of which are figured by the dopesters
among the "pennant possibilities.
And yet it is dollars to doughnuts that
the contests will all be good ones reck-
oning simply from the usual result
that the tail-enders and the leaders
always make corking fine scraps.
The association is having a great
deal of trouble with the young Amerf-
cans who always want to see the
games free. A small boy without fif-
teen cents is nuisance around a
baseball park, and yet he is the best
rooter in the business if he once gets
inside. The lone policeman engaged
at Washburn field is almost run to
death to keep the cherubs off the
fence. And the worst part of it is
that they destroy the fences. A small
boy will stop at nothing to get to
see a game and inch planks with big
nails driven through them look like
tissue paper to him. There are more
holes whitfield into the fence about
the park by small boys pocket-knives
than could be bored through them
with an auger in a week.
The actual indebiture of the Topeka
baseball association now amounts to
close to $500. If the season is played
with President Shiveley at Kansas
City will be returned. So that sum is
reckoned by the association as assets.
making the present status in the
Sunday ball is expected to. be the pan
acea to heal the bad places. The di-
rectorS count on being small sized
plutocrats by the end of the season IL
Sabbath games are played.
There is a scarcity of good pitchers
in the Missouri Valley league. That
was demonstrated by the avidity with
Lawrence Milton who is finally said
to have been landed by Joplin. Then
there are some other indications.
There is not a club in the league which
has not both signed and released box
artists since the season opened. Most
of the clubs have one good minor
league twfrler and then one or two
who are pitched Just because the
all the time. Baseball is not a strong
enough paying proposition in the Val
ley league for team to carry three
good pitchers who can take care of a
series, as they do in the big leagues.
So the good man is expected to win
his own game and pull the contest
out of the fire whenever any of the
other pitchers essay to do the box
work and fall down. The fact that
the pitchers are not all that is to be
desired shows in the batting averages
and in the very uneven scores. There
have been Is, is, and 81 hit games
won off Valley league pitchers this
year. That is too much.
The shelving of Thompson from the
Saints has met with considerable pro-
test from among the fans. They
want to know why a man who can hit
is not kept. The management gives
these reasons for his dismissal:
''inexperience, lack of form, and in
ability to throw from the field" There
is not question but the youngster was
new to the game, yet he made no
glazing mistakes in that line. That
he has poor form cannot be denied.
His fielding was the most peculiar seen
on the diamond here this year, yet he
got the ball. At the bat he swung
chasing fire-f1ies, yet he hit the ball.
On throwing he was not of the Bevis
order, but few are. The boy is not a
nor a Bevis, yet, but he stands
team in the Valley mighty glad to
get him in a few years.
The sporting writer on the morning
paper who has taken an absent treat
ment course on the New York Sun,
says that it isn't proper to refer to the
umpire This jumps" or to the catcher
as being "in his cage"
The Pittsburg fans have petitioned
President Shiveley to reinstate Um-
pire Collins. It is said that num-
Der of the other towns would not OBJ
ject to having him back. Two years
ago Collins was the most popular
umpire in the circuit