Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-19
PENNANT WINNERS
Should Be DIVIDED
Cullen Wants a Plan to Dis
tribute the Big League
Goodies.
BY Clarence L. Cullen.
Correspondence OF The Star.

conclave this week is the talk, privately
expressed by plenty of important men in
the game, as to ways and means the
better to provide for a sort of equaliza-
ton of team strength, the devising, that
is to say, of some equitable plan, fair to
all hands, where it wouldn't make it a
virtual cinch. from year TO year during
groups of years, for the pennant of each
big league to lie virtually between two or
three or even one two clubs
This thing is gradually framing itself
into one of the important questions in the
domain of base ball.
For example, there is pretty general
consensus of opinion among the dominant
men in the a.iairS of the American
League that after one team has captured
the pennant for three years in succession
that team has got pretty nearly its share
of the goodies. 1t is unthinkable, of
course, that the same notwithstanding
team should be put under any sort of a
handicap that might aid In debarring it
from mailing the trophy for the fourth
time: but all the same there is con-
siderable unaninlity of belief that some
thing ought to lie thought out to make
il more than difficult for one team TO go
on collarinS the rag year after year.
Men who haven't any financial interest
III the game at all, and who. as far as
that is concerned, are not what might be
called sent nentalists. or partisans, in
base ball, are saying privately that they'd
consider it pretty poor sort of a result
il Detroit were to capture the American
League pennant again in 1910. They're
not trying to white down any OF the
Detroit teams credit glory; they
haven't any particular huncl in the mat
ter of this team that team getting the
bunting. but a fourth grsb-down OF the
blue ribbon of the league by the Detroit
riff in iy,fn Ike l0
thing look altogether too lopsided and de-
tract severely from the general interest In
The game.
AS soon as anybody rises I'm his seat
and begins to say anything publicly about
this matter, however, there's instantly
set up the cry: They're trying to hand
us made-to-order, syndicate base ball!'
Which isn't the truth at all. But 1t is
matter Of plain sense that when one
team In league gets sort of first
mortgage clutch on the pennant and
starts of right at the beginning OF the
gins to spread-eagle the rest Of the field.
then q good deal Of the interest in the
thing which the fans might otherwise
feel Is bound to be lopped OF.
The yelp about Syndicate base bali"
in connection with the curious perform
ance in the sale Of the Philadelphia club
already has done enough harm to the
game to make 1t impossible for a man
writing about the game to get any or the
powers to give expression to anything
worth while what, IL anything. could be
done to make more equal distribution
of playing strength among the teams Of
the big leagues. Later on they may
have something to say. I happen to
know. however, that. leaving the cliQues
and deals of base ball politics altogether
aside, there Is considerable worriment
among the powers of the National League
over the way the pennant of that league
has been virtually played for by two
clubs. Chicago and New York. and final
" with another club. Pittsburs. added.
during the past few years. Philadelphia.
Brooklyn, st. Louis. Cincinnati. Bos-
fon-none of these great cities has had SO
much as a symptom of smell at the
main rag of the National League for SO
long time that it takes almost a griz-
zlej fan to remember when any of these
towns had its chance to eXude u big Ma
tional League gloat. The pennant has been
more evenly handed around. of course.
among the teams of the American
League: Boston. Chicago, Philadelphia
and Detroit all having had their little
crack at it within comparatively recent
wears. but Cleveland. New York. st.
Ioui~ and III oil Wash'np haven't got
even a splinter off a pennant pole for SO
long a time that it takes old. old men like
Charley Snyder to remember anything to
the contrary.
IL the rapping of the game continues II
may be that presently there will have to
be organized society for the suppression
of base ball scandal. A peek at the ex-
changes from all parts of the country
shows what an instantly lad, not to say
fierce, impression is created by any sort
Of manipulation In the ownership of teams
which gives the slightest ground for the
suspicion that there Is even a remote pos
sibihty of such a thing as syndicate base
ball j happen to know that the really
big men III the world of base ball are dis
tinctly worried over the incident which
has caused SO many of the cartoonists to
frame up funnyistical pictures of condi-
ton that m gnt arse under a reign of
syndicate base ball. All this stuff helps to
crab the game in the purview of the fan.
In respect to other sports. the people OF
the United States have been staked to
such raw deals, have been made to look
80 much like a passed. of fall guys, that
the fans are mighty keenly suspicious
when anything happens in the base ball
business that incites the least possible
suspicion that there Is such a thing as
liking" The fans are loyal lot. That
is always to be remembered. II will be
remembered how. when the Tigers and the
Pirates were playing for the worlds
championship last fall. a whole lot OF
non-faus around the country set up the
cry, because each team had won three
games and had to play of the tie, that
the thing was a hippodrome and that the
clubs were merely out for the dust. The
sure-enough fans. got hoarse and red In
the face trying to tell the skeptical ones
that such a thing was impossible: that ii
cOuiQQt De 00Q6, tnat IL WOuf0 De lQlOtlC
for people in the base ball business to
take a chance on arranging the outcome
of games in advance, and all that sort OF
thing Fact is. / saw several punching
matches while the series was in progress
between skeptics who called the thing q
frame-up and fans who wouldn't stand
for having the won-on-the-level game wal
roped II that way. 1t is just because Of
this fine loyalty on the part Of the fans
that they're entitled to run for theil
continual boosting and support: and 1t II
the Judgment of all the finer men at the
head Of base ball fans that they should
have got heap better run than the sus.
picion-creatng stuff that was the outcroY
OF the recent change in the ownership OF
the Philadelphia National League club.
It seems to be the opinion OF the keen
est men In the boxfighting domain that
the Jeffries-Johnson go continues To
gather black eyes the longer it Is looked
at. The almost startling out-for-the-stuf
spirit exhibited by both OF the prime pals
and their manipulators certainly has dis
gusted the fighting fans In this neck OF
the woods don't believe there'd be a
red-thousand-dolar gate II the fight
were to be pulled or right here. down al
Coney Island, for instance. tomorrow
night, for the bunch here have got to b<
shown that the two Differs really mean
10 go in and scrap instead of making
Q big ten or twelve round stall IN order