Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-07
WILL CONFER TUESDAY
Minor Base Ball Association to
Meet at Chicago.
BY r. H. MuRNANE.

d. l. H. MtkNANE.
Chicago will be the center of base ball
politics the coming week. The minor assoc
ieations will hold their annual meeting
commencing Tuesday, and the national
commission will be on hand to accept sew
erai changes to the national agreement and
hand UP important concessions to the
smaller leagues
The minors have good reason to feel they
have been treated most literally by the
major leagues, and while the one-man draft
VIII please the class combination, the
chances are they will sell just as many
players as ever to the big leagues. For it
is hard matter to keep a young player in
the ranks of the minors when he has
show for faster company.
l differ with most base ball men on the
subject of draft. l claim it is a good thing
to have all the players possible drafted
from the minors, as 1t is sure to weaken
the strong clubs and make all more evenly
matched each season. And it is the evenly
matched teams that make money for a
league a whole, and that this is the cue
for men who have charge of base ball Or
CARNATIONS.
Below class A the leagues. over twenty
in number work in perfect harmony and
never show selfish instincts. AS one west
lows are simply playing ball and running
the institution on the level without any
thought of the politics of the sport or what
ball may be used by the players.
There Is no good reason why the minors
should not pull together without regard to
classes for what is good for the goose is
good for the gander- in base ball politics,
and there is very little difference where all
are fair-minded and willing to play ball
A man with an ak to grind will make
trouble, and, knowing this, it is the duty of
the base ball people to annihilate the cul-
orit.
1t would be good thing for the game if
the major body of the minor leagues had
control over the different leagues.
Howard Griffiths of the Eastern League
has said that should the minors re-eIect P.
L. Powers president of the association this
year the Eastern League and American
Association will withdraw from the national
agreement. Now, it loks very much as if
the Jersey City citizen would find favor
with a majority of the delegates present
and be returned for another year. If this
should happen L. doubt If the two leading
minor leagues would be foolish enough to
take a long chance for their existence sim
ply to please few people sore on Mr..
Powers This will never do. If Mr.. Powers
is the choice of the convention he Will be
ready to play the string out one more year
against those who have booked him for the
aggressive; he has rather proved negative,
and it is the little fellows who will jump
to his relief, fearing that the class A peo-
pie still want to run things their way no
l predict the election of Z. Z. Powers with
very little opposition, while Mr.. John HI.
Farrell will go in again with rush to take
good care of the business of the great minor
league organization, for Farrell has proven
the ideal secretary, and Is well liked by
the base ball fraternity.
The board will be chosen from three
classes this year. Class A will have three
members on the board. There are five
class A leagues, so that two leagues will be
left out. Glass B will be represented, as
will the classes under B for the first time,
making the governing body more repre-
sentative than heretofore, as seven leagues
will be represented on the official board of
the minor institution
The California League will nave repre-
sentative On the board, according to the
agreement made with that league when
it came into organized ball
Without the Southern League the class A
alliance amounts to little as a combination
to break away from the association.
Scheming must be going on at this time,
and several sensations are more than likely
to be sprung at Chicago during the week,
but a man with four aces and a gun has
no reason to fear a bluff hand, and the
chances are 20 to l that the meeting Will
close with the best peoeple on top and the
old game in shape to weather a series of
heavy storms for another year.
If possible I hope to attend the meeting
[ was at the first one held by the minors
In the same city four years ago, and at that
time Chicago was not ready to consider the
small fry as worth much notice. l want to
say, however, that they are now prime
factor in the game and neither of the major
leagues can afford to ignore them. No one
Is better aware of this fact than Messrs.
Johnson and Pulliam, both of whom l con-
slider warm friends of the minors.
There are men among the minors who get
their tips from both National and American
league magnates. Then there are great
number who are willing to stick close to
their own knitting and never mix up with
major league affairs. Base ball has grown
to be such an enormous business that it
takes men well posted on every angle of
the business to assist in steering the ship
clear Of shoals.
have always found that the man strictly
on the level clever enough to protect him.
self, generally landed well to the front in
the band wagon. From a distance 1t looks
very much as if the major and minor
leagues were about to get together, stronger
than ever, with confidence In each other as
the result of men placed in office this Win
ter, starting with Messrs. Pulliam and
Johnson and taking chances of the men to
be picked out by the minors this week.