The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-12-02
Application to be Sent to Ma
tional Commiss sion.
WILL FIGHT
Western Clubs Will Not be
Considered.
Nelly Says in Matter Of Dollars and
Cents Western Clubs Looks Like
a Huge Joke.

The western and southern o. and
lP. league clubs want TO know what
lis coming off. To that end they
lheld a meeting at Columbus Friday.
Had they waited and perused Satur-
day mornings Plain Dealer, they
would have found out without the
trouble of having a conference.
The eastern clubs will demand a
new league composed Of Akron, Can
ton and Youngstown in Ohio, Erie
Newcastle and Sharon in Pennsyl-
lvania. These clubs will not ask the
|others for this formation. but will
Iapply directly to the National COM
mission, alleging this redistricting Is
for the benefit Of baseball in gener-
lal, and asking that august body to
rule to this effect
The western clubs will fight. It
|The western end of the circuit says
lit has its money invested In base
ball and wants a chance to get some
of II back From simple position
lof dollars and cents the western con-
ltention appears somewhat in the ma
ture of joke. How a league that
lost $4,000 in one season when bus
|iness prosperity was ut It's height,
when sharp pennant race was on
and when everything was favorable
to success. hopes to get back any
money the next season when busi-
ness generally is not so good fails
TO impress itself upon the average
Possibly the western clubs are hold
ing out for the purpose of forcing the
eastern teams to buy them out. Mr..
Wollenweber OF Marion unconsciously
let the cat out OF the bag few
weeks ago when he named publicly a
figure for which the western clubs
would retire as gracefully as the
circumstances will permit.
The o. and p league as II Is now
constituted never will make any
money. II is too far stretched ont
the cities have not enough interests
In common and some of those in the
western end of the circuit never can
support ball clubs such as Akron.
Youngstown and Newcastle can af-
ford. Lancaster found on. last year
what an average team in this le1gra
costs. The Lancaster team soaked
$6,5CO into the bottomless Pit from
which there is no comeback. Marion
lost money and 50 did Mansfield. And
furthermore, these clubs haven't one
chance in thousand OF doing any
better next season. Newark alone
came near breaking even. because
Newark had cheap team, was fight
ing for the lead all the time and drew
big crowds in the larger cities In
the east
1t is to he hoped that the national
commission will give the new league
"a careful consideration. This was
not done when the question was
brought before the National Asso-
ciatiOn' of Professional Baseball
leagues at the New York meeting II
would seem that one OF the chief
functions of the national commission
lis to settle disputes and to adjust
differences which leagues cannot set
tie among themselves.
The proposed new circuit Is about
the best that could be devised. There
isn't long jump in 1t and all the
cities represented are prosperous and
of some size. Sharon Is the small
est and one in the whole lot. but
Sharon is ,he Boston of the O. and
p. and never falls TO provide good
crowd whether its team Is winning or
losing.
Akron and Youngstown has been
the backbone of the o. and p, ever
since its formation. Newcastle Is a
good baseball town and Canton would
be in a compact organization In
which there were mutual interests
between the cities.
Erie Is a good ball town. Frank
Baumeister and Dan Coster have
live town in Erie, Pa. For several
years this city has knocked at the
o. and p. door and because of the
action OF the western division clubs
never was admitted to membership.
E. s. Barnard secretary OF the
cleveland club rs deep student OF
baseball. Recently he said ~
never could understand why town
like Erie had to go begging. to get
into a good league. In event Erie
is admitted 1t will have have new
ball lot centrally located and one to
which there will he q good street