The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1910-07-15

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baseball became a paying commercial
venture and was placed upon a bust
ness basis. During the early days Of
the National league, al well as the
smaller leagues. club owners, man.
ayers and hackers invested in the
game for the love Of the sport itself
and without much thought of getting
any monetary returns. They expected
70 lose money; or possibly to regain 1t
through the advertising the team
would give them or their cities, rather
than in actual receipts at the gates.
They organized and operated their
teams from that standpoint. Some of
the owners were wealthy men, back
ing teams as an amusement or from
q personal pride. There was no recog.
nlzed basis for salaries. put the ave.-
age was low, and attracted only the
adventurous or the tough, scrappy ath-
letes from the back lots and bottoms
of cities. While here and there were
men Of character and Of education, de-
cent clean young men who loved the
game, the average Of the players was
low, morally and intellectually.
When the owners began to perceive
that the sport was the latent rival OF
the theater in financial possibilities
and possibly might become the great
est amusement enterprise in the
world, the necessity of curbing rowdy-
ism among the players and of obtain
ing men of higher mora11 and mental
equipment impressed itself upon some
of them. A few still held out for the
old order of things. The majority.
however, became wiser. They had
seen crowds suddenly cease to attend
games; whole cities turn in disgust
against teams and their tactics; as
happened in Cleveland, Baltimore, and
once in New York. The owners then
decided to cater to the patrons; to
protect them from the insults and
revilings and the coarse words and
acts of some of the men.
Much as the ''commercialization of
baseball" is to be regretted from some
standpoints, the fact that it has abol-
ished rowdyism, brought a higher,
cleaner and o ~sportmanlike class
Of players into the game and put a
premium on brains, commends the
business administration. With the
beginning of financial prosperity to
owners, who had long struggled
against loss and sometimes ruin, a
higher class Of men was attracted to
the profession. The colleges sent some
Of their best men; young athletes who
under ordinary conditions would have
remained at home and entered bust
ness were lured to the game by the
chances of big salaries and som hon
ors.
This revolution of conditions began
before the Brotherhood fight which
eliminated in the revolt of the play
ers In 1890. The game vas beginning
to prosper after years of struggles,
salaries. were growing higher and
higher. and club owners were bidding
against each other for the services of
the best players. In that respect,
baseball is n of the oldest of all
business ventures. Eight club owners
In the league are partners in business,
sharing receipts, sharing prosperity
and adversely. Yet all the time these
business partners must strive to beat
each other on the field and to take
each others players away from them.
The National league has almost from
the start been mercenary, and this un-
avoidable condition which reduced
profits largely the club owners
sought to abolish by agreeing to en-
force a salary limit, whereby the high
est salary paid to any player was to
be $4,000. The players revolted
against this reduction of salaries, or
ganized a rival league, and salaries
leaped to five times that figure, bring
ing disaster upon every one con-
cerned.
The restoration of peace reduced
salaries again, but they increased
steadily during the next ten-year
period. as the game grew in popu-
larity and returned large financial re-
ceipts. The National league had in
augurated another salary reducing
campaign in 1893. which ended abrupt
~ when the American league invaded
the field and sent salaries to q war
time footing again by bidding for
players. At the restoration of peace
salaries had reached SO high a figure
that baseball offered q chance, Of quick
riches to . high class Of youths who
speedily enlisted. Salaries fell after
the peace pact, but have continued to
increase steadily and healthily to the
present time.
The establishment Of two major
leagues Of equal o. nearly equal cali
ber Immediately doubled the demand
for hrst-class players. and developed
the fact that, with perhaps 100000
active players In the minor leagues,
college. semiprofessional and strong
amateur teams. II was extremely diff
ncult to ind 335. men good enough.
and with experience enough. to I'LL the
sixteen clubs Of the two major
leagues.
The finding and developing Of play
err 4 the greatest problem Of the
Il m0darn 4afn0I Tharo II a dearth Of