The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-01-16
LEAGUE BALL
FOR HAMMOND
Delegation of Local Fans
Apply for "Three-I"
Franchise.
ARE MUCH ENCOURAGED
Application Filed After Clinton, Ia,
Had Been Selected On-This
City Might Have Won.


posed Of J. v. Keller, Charles Friede-
richs and Roscoe e. Woods backed by
plenty of Hammond capital appeared at
one of the sessions of the ThreeI
league yesterday and made a formal
request for the franchise which was
recently dropped by Rockford.
The promoters of the scheme were
agreeably surprised at the cordial re
ception they received and although The
immediate purpose of their trip was
not attained they succeeded in putting
Hammond on the baseball map as a
likely candidate for any of the minor
leagues and practically insure pro-
fessional baseball team for this city
next year.
At the beginning of the session Pres
ident E. M. Holland requested that the
Hammond men be heard and SO they
were admitted to the conference room
in the Sherman House and after being
introduced to the conferees they stated
their case.
Tt was evident from the beginning,
however, that Hammond's move for a
Three-I league franchise had been
made too late for both Danville, Ill,
and Clinton, Ia, had been working with
the representatives of the other leagues
ever since their arrival in town and it
had been practically decided to award
the franchise to Clinton.
However, the mission of the Ham
mond men was not in vain. Their
proposition was stated briefly and al
though they did not have the oppor-
tunity to present all Of the advantages
of Hammond and the Calumet region as
"a prospective baseball center they were
pleased to note that the representa-
tives of the other teams of the league
considered them favorably and were
surprised that there should be so large
a population in such close proximity to
Chicago not represented by a profess
sional team of at least minor league
Importance.
President Holland said that he was
glad to know of Hammond's desire to
affiliate with the Three-I league and
he regretted that the application for a
franchise was not made sooner. How
ever, he advised the Hammond pro-
motors not to be discouraged by their
first failure but to come back again
next year and doubtless there would
be another vacancy to be filed
Several questions were asked the
Hammond men by the members of the
conference among them being one re-
garding the nature of the organization
already effected. Mr.. Keller then told
of the existence of the Hammond base
ball team capalized at $4,000, which
would be recognized as the Hammond
club of the Three-I League If the fran
chise could be secured.
The conferees We're also informed of
the fact that the Hammond team would
be backed by any amount of money
necessary to build a ball park and put
a team of paid players in the field.
In a nut she'll the proposition which
was put before the league was as fol-
lows:
Hammond wants a Three-I league
franchise.
Hammond has an unlimited amount
of capital with which to finance a
baseball club.
Hammond and the surrounding cities
are good baseball towns as was shown
by the fact that they sent on an av-
erage of 500 fans day to the worlds
/
Independent ball has not thrived be-
cause there was not the absorbing in
terest OF pennant race and because
an independent club could not put a
team in the field that would prove a
counter attraction to Chicago teams.
Hammond is a city OF $4,000 inhab-
itants within a few minutes street car
ride of such important industrial cen
ters as East Chicago, Whiting, Indiana
Harbor. South Chicago and Gary. With
the several other smaller cities it is
safe to estimate that the territory rep
resented by the proposed league con-
tains 100, 900 inhabitants
! Hammond will agree to and can pay
the salary limit Of $1,000. The Ham
mond promoters will guarantee the at
tendance to be 10000 for the season.
Hammond has some players and the
applicants for a franchise have their
/ hands on several more that win make
Hammond one Of the strongest teams
/ in the league.
Hammond proposes to put up a So
/ ooo ball park near the lake front, east
/ of Robertsdale, where it will be ao-
/ eessable from South Chicago in 90
minutes, from Hamond in 20 minutes
from Robertsdale and Whiting in to
10 minutes, from East Chicago in SO
minutes and from Indiana Harbor and
Gary in from 10 to % minutes.
Local baseball fans are enthused over
/ the project and it IS now apparent that
/ II Hammond does not get into the
Central league this year ii is q dead
certainty that it Will be a member OF
/ one or the minor leagues next year
eyrr.1- -.
pany viii go on just the same and il
is expected that by next fail everything
will be IN readiness to go after a good
franchise with a vore.aapca