The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-03
MEN WHO OWN
 BASEBALL CLUBS
MILLIONS INVESTED IN THE TWO
 BIG MAJOR LEAGUES.
Who the So-caIIed Magnates are snd What They Have Done in the Way of Fostering the Game
 and Counting Gate
 Recefnfn.


 big major league baseball clubs are comparatively unknown to the thous- ands who patronize the games and make popular idols of the players. Yet these magnates. so-called, are respon- sible in great measure for the pros pering of the sport, together with It's iron-clad government. Many of them have large outside business interests which require q greater part of their time. so that their baseball ventures are turned over to skilled managers who attend to every little detail in return for liberal salaries. Some of these magnates began to take an in terest in baseball in their boyhood days. Always enthusiasts, they were later induced to invest small amounts in ~arious clubs, merel as flyers, but after an insight into the possibilities of the game as a paying venture they put in thousands until they became heavily involved. Few of them have ever consented to disclose the real profits to be gleaned from the conduct of successful ball clubs, but 1t Is gem orally accepted as fact that bis money can be made out of baseball else the magnates would not have hung tenaciously to their property in the face of several disastrous wars in which enormous sums were sunk in g fight for a principle"
 Two former newspaper men, Bancrofi Byron Johnson, and Henry Clay Pull liam, are the Presidents of the Amer icah and National Leagues, respective. ly, Johnson for many years was on tho stan of The Cincinnati Commercial Ga zette. as sporting editor and genera reporter. While writing baseball fol that paper he became a close friend oi Charles A Comiskey, who was the manager of the Cincinnati Club at tht time, and together they organized ths old Western League, which later de. veloped into the flourishing organiza- ton of which Johnson is the leader to. day. Pullian's Journalistic career wal confined to Louisville, where at one time ne was the city editor of one ot the leading dailies. He became ident. flied with baseball when Barney Drey. fuss made him secretary of the Louis. vile National League Club, about ter years ago, and afterwards took him te Pittsburg in a similar capacity, wher preyfuss organized a stock compans which took over the club in the Smoky City. Johnson and Pulliam each re. cetve $10,000 a year, and both ars members of the National Commission the Supreme Court in baseball,
 .Comiskey, who launched Johnson or his career as baseball diplomat, 1, now the owner of the Chicago Ameri. cans, and is said to be worth $200, ,00u For many years he was one of the hes known players in America, and undei Chris Won der Ahe, he explained, man. aged and played first base for the ia. nous St, Louis Browns, four-time win. ners of the old American Association pennant. While Comiskey. as genu. inc magnate, does not actively manage his noted White Sox, which are unde the leadership of Fielder Jones, the ofc Brooklyn player, he keeps an eye CT his men, and many of his ideas arc placed in effect relative to the team'i maneuvers on the field. Comfskey fl one of the brainy men of the American League. He knows magnates ant players alike, and not a move on th' part of the rival National League es. capes him. He Is an aggressive fight. CT, keen, cool judge of what is besi for his leagues interests, and, al things considered, is one of the bigges men In the national game.
 When Johnson and Comiskey decided to expand the American League by In, vading the East. they first selected Philadelphia and Boston, where the Ma many years. Tn Philadelphia they found a willing and powerful ally 1T Benjamin Shibe, millionaire manufac turer of baseballs. Shibe was in rathe poor health when the proposition t' back an American League club came tC him, and he went into the scheme chief ly for recreation. At first his club wa; regarded as a white elephant but if-
 
 McGillicuddy, more familiarity knowr to baseball fans as Connie Mack, ths club won two championships and earn. ed B barrel of money for Uncle Ben Shibe actually thrived on the enjoyment he derived from active participation ir the game, until at present he is in ro- bust health and declares that he would not accept any price for his baseball not find the proper men to take the new club off the reel, so he organized a stock company. in which Henry Killilea a Milwaukee lawyer, and Charles w Somers. a wealthy coal merchant of Cleveland, were the leaders But . year or so ago the Boston club, which had won a worlds championship and made nearly $1Oo,o0O In a single sea son, was purebased outright by John l. Taylor,i q son of Gen. Charles H. Tay' Tor, proprietor of The Boston Globe club. which paid big dividend last year and is one of the Leagues main stays.
 It was dificult matter to lacate an American Leaugue Club in New York, chiefly because of bitter opposition on the part of Andrew Freeman, and also for the reason that suitable grounds did not seem available. But after look out plot of ground on Washington Heights. which was nothing more nor less than a rocky hill which had to be blasted and cut away before level pIdylnk SuTIdCG EOulQ Ue HfCuIGu. Meanwhile, Johnson was on still hunt fOI financial backer who soon turned up in Frank J. Terrell, the well known stood'lies stood ready "" to back pack John j. McGraw had the latter been able to transfer his Baltimore team to this city, With Farrel were associated Joseph Gordon, the present assistant superintendent of buildings for Manhattan, who Is the president of the New York Club, and Thomas F. McAvoy, former deputy po- lice commissioner, who Is a stockholder in the club. This powerful combina- tion put the Amerocan League on Us feet in this city fighting successfully several attempts to put streets through American League Park and spending money freely to get high class ball team. Farrell. in the allotment of play CTS, received as team manager Clark Griffith. a veteran pitcher. who had made his mark with Anson's Chicago s and later managed the champion White Sox for Comisky. The New York club put Sl25.000 into the plant before a game of ball was played there and The club has never had losing season, financially since its inception. yet It has been without the use of the subway sation at 16Sth street. which may be opened in the spring for the first time.
 The Washington Club which rounds out the Eastern end of th@ American League circuit was sold lase year to 3 local company of which T. C. Moves Of The Washington Star is one of the leading stockholders. So well dld thls club show up last year that $3O.0o0 was cleaned up. the largest sum made ln the nations Capital.
 Tho Cleveland Club always money