Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-10

| on 'em. and pitched out of my turn heaps
of times when some of those counterfeit
tossers were on the shelf or playing of
sick or glass arm. Well. lookit what-they
hand me! They say they're running their
ball club, and all like that! / ask any
body If that's any way for them to talk.
reasonable All want is the square stun.
When said a while back that / never
was going to play ball again. of course
was 1oshing little. What would I quit
playing for. and me only twenty-eight,
and with a better wing every year I live?
But I've gotta right to ask 'em to show
me something, haven't 1? I haven't re-
ceived any contract to sign yet, but, say,
some of the talks those owners are CIV
Ing out about me are fierce, amt they?
I'm willing to do my end, but they ought
to be there with the same kind Of spirit,
hadn't they? I've got a good six or seven
years OF pitching in my fin yet. and here
they're talking about handing me that
blacklist thing If I don't accept the few
pennies that they're going to offer me to
play for EN- again this year; It amt
bad about it!'
And them
Well right now is about the time we're
reading of the outcome of these Rightover
cases. The outcome Is announced form
ally, something like this:
"Rightover. the tosser with the hoop
snake delivery, who has been running a
season, and who announced his withdrawal
from the game some time ago, received
his contract yesterday and signed up for
the tn coming ming season He gets big boost
the exact figures but he intimated that
the hist in salary amounted to at least
four figures and then little bit He
seemed perfectly satisfied and will leave at
once for Hot Springs to bake the knots
out of his meal hook
That's the way the boys glide in and out
of the moist. Every one knows that they're
going to glide in long before they do it, but
it's quite a stretch between seasons, and
the fans enjoy reading the south breeze of
the hold-out players who amt never no
more until their bosses show them.
And do the Holdoutskis really always get
that substantial increase" that they cling
out for?
The answer is necessarily very brief and
succinct They do if they deserve 1t.
But if the owners of ball clubs yielded to
that stick-up thing in these days, they'd be
hoppered through the bankruptcy court in
sets of fours.
There are few games in which there is
not party of the second part as well as
party of the first part. People who own
ball clubs know something to the rela-
tive, comparative and actual value Of ball
players, and there Is nothing more certain,
managed nowadays, than that the great
ma jority of ball players get from their en-
ployers exactly what they are worth, and
more often more than they are worth than
not as much as they are worth.
The player who shows striking ability, or
even ability above the ordinary, gets what
is coming to him in the way of salary,
even before he asks for 1t. His employers
know all about his worth. They under
stand the desirability of keeping him in a
pleasant frame of mind. They haven't the
slightest disposition to hold him to a con-
tract that gives him less money than he
would be able to earn elsewhere. They
appraise him at the valuation they them
selves put upon his work, plus the valua-
ntion which his boosting friends place upon
him, and they arrive at a figure In the way
of salary for him that is rarely under his
deserts and is more often just little bit
above his deserts.
1neie was q good deal of unnecessary
conversation wasted with reference to the
case of George Stone, for example. 1t
was said that Stone was bucking on the
ST. Louis Americans before he signed his
contract recently because he didn't think
they were going TO give him enough money
for his work this year. No such stuff really
happened. The St. Louis people, most of all
Jimmy McAleer, come pretty close to
have in George Stone, one of the stars
of the game. and they never had the
slightest intention to hold down his pay.
They paid him well for his work last year,
and they had an understanding that they
would give him a big raise for his work
this year. Stone himself knew all about
that too, and made no fuss whatever.
1t was said, too, a while back, that Hal
Chase the sensational first-sacker for
Clark Griff1ths layout was holding out
for dollar a minute or something like
that. Chase was paid mighty literally by
Frank Farrell last year. and he, too, was
told at the wind-up of last season that he
was going to- get a tidy advance for this
seasons playing, and he didn't belong to
the Holdoutskis for minute for that
son, Notwithstanding the yarns printed to a
contrary effect.
81
As plain matter Of fact, it is the expert
ence of seasoned owners and managers of
Sail clubs that the Holdoutskis are gen
orally players who vastly overestimate their
own prowess on the diamond and to whom
advances in pay are not really, by right,
a-coming. The big fellows who back up
with the crack merchandise don't have to
ask for their pay-boosts. They geta them
without their asking for reward of merit.
The chaps who amt never going to play
no more till their employers show