The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-20
MAGNATES AT HOME.
MAJOR WINTERS AND COL. HOLT
 BACK FROM MEMPHIS.


 They gre Happy over the Results of
 Meeting of Southern basebaii
 League-Next season in
 Montgomery.
 Showers of boquets were thrown at Montgomery during the recent meet
 ing of the southern Baseball League in
 Memphis, and Major B. E. winters and
 Col. B. L. Holt. representatives or the
 local association returned with smiling
 faces. happy over the situation.
 The fact that the February meeting Is
 to be held in Montgomery is the big
 gest boost that the game has ever been
 given locally. Never before in the history of baseball in Montgomery has
 thnrc' en the amount Of interest man
 ifeste das right now. The February meeting is really the only important gatherins of the league during the sea- son, the December meeting having been merely a formal affair at which state
 inents of the affairs of the league dur
 ing the past season formed the princi- At the February meeting the schedule for the season of 1905 will be submitted and adopted, amended or re- jected. the umpire stan appointed ana ana campaign put on systematic, working basis.
 At the meeting in Memphis last Sat .fday a committee was appointed U revise the constitution Of the league, Major Winters of Montgomery, Caruth- CTS Ew ing of Memphis and Captain | Crawftra of Shreveport being named as | the committee.
 There will be no radical changes in
 the constitution" said Major Winters | yesterday, ''and there will not be a | meeting of the constitution commit | toe bef, re the February meeting here. | We will simply get the views of every :, club fir the league and make our TO- l port .,t the Montgomery meeting. l The matter of shortening the season was b, ought up at. Memphis. but was | voted uCwn. Montgomery, Little ROCK and Shreveport voted to make the sea son shorter, but New Orleans, Birming-
 hnn,. AtIaIta. Nashville and Memphis voted in favor of retaining the present | ii0-game schedule.
 l President Kavanaugh was given au- thority to appoint a schedule commit tee with the privelege of employing an | expert. This expert will be Mike | Finn who has annually drafted the playing schedule of this league. A | better selection could not have been made than Finn. He Is not an experi- | ment for his work has shown for itself l in the past. and a satisfactory schedule
 for the season of 1905 is assured: The salary question was brought up | again at the meeting, but as usual it
 was impossible to do anything with the knotty question, For instance. l several players were put down at $l25 l and s150 a month when everybody con- l nected with baseball knows that they | receive double and in some cases more l than double those figures.
 In few weeks from now work on | the grounds and plant at Athletic Park will be commenced, everything In this | line being done in as thorough a man. ner as possible. The club will be run | on e strictly business plan during the l coming season. OBrien will be given | absolute authority. and one thing Is | certain, the player caught shirking or | drinking will most assuredly be dis charged.
 | A statement given out at baseball headquarters yesterday morning shows | the business-like plane on which the | club will be run during the coming l season. For the past two years q | sent With the team on every trip as we'll as taking charge of the finances when the team Is at home. During | the coming season this extra expense will be done away with, Manager | OBrien taking care of the financial af- | fairs of the team on the road. while Lloyd Lyons, Major Winters's secre- l tary. will have charge of the finances when the team is at home, saving | of from $500 to 1000. Baseball does not unfit players, who | follow the game for years, for other
 bushes, says an exchange.
 ThereNhave been individual instances. | of course, where baseball players who | have lost their usefulness have gone | wrong.
 But any player who takes care of ! himself and is not carried away by | all the glamour, excitement and heroics | that arc bCiuld to follow a successful I Iu DlaNer'a has just much
 sltow for a successful after career as | those who devote themselves exclusive
 ly to other pursuits of life. l A bigger proportion of professional | baseball players make success of their
 after life than those who have been strictly amateurs and possibly college | graduates. There Is one advantage, of
 course. that professional ball players
 are exceilently well paid during the
 comparatively few years they are able
 to play the game. If they are sensi-
 ble and thrifty they will have a nest egg laid aside that will enable them
 to get new start in life.
 | The players of today are a thriftier | lot than those who played the game
 back in the sO's--that Is. the general
 TUT of them. Tn the days of Mike | Kelly the boys were out for pleasure. Now 1t is strictly business with the l club owners, managers and players | There was more sentiment in the game | in the old days, and those players who | were at all inclined to enjoy the pleas l ures of what is now called white light | strenuousness were afforded plenty of | opportunities. There were II o'clock rules in those days, the same as now | but they were lightly enforced. and | with some few of the boys it meant II | a. m instead of II D. m,
 The wealthiest old ball player is l without doubt Al Spalding, the head of | A. c. Spalding and Bros, the biggest | sporting goods house in the world. He was the best pitcher of his day and | has shown himself to be one of the | most progressive and successful busi- ness men of the country.
 | "Ar' Reach. the old second baseman | of the Athletics of Philadelphia, is an- | other player who has gained great l wealth and success in mercantile life He Is scarcely less wealthy than Al l Spalding.
 1 George Wright, the most famous and l best shortstop of those days when l Spalding and Reach shown on the dia- 'nond, is another player who has made | a grand success in business in Boston. Jim O'Rourke is playing ball today
 and is a very rich man. His real | estate holdings in Bridgeport, Conn, 1 are large, and he practices law during | the winter months.
 John M Wards career since he quit l playing ball for a livelihood has been | phenomenally successful He is one | of New YOrk's famous lawyers. and his | extensive practice brings him in a
 large income.
 A TON OF MIXED NUTS. | TX eeatn ner uOundt fancy ,nfxaaI