Omaha daily bee., 1910-08-21
RULE HAMPERS BIG TEAMS
Owners of Major League Teams
Worry Over Restrictions.
THRTY-FIvE MEN Is LIMIT
No Team May Have More Than
Thirty-Five Men, and some Find
This n Handicap, When
Material il Poor.

NEW YORK, Aug 2O-Many a major
league owner with a second division ball
club on his hands is awakening to the fine
points Of the rule adopted last winter to
the effect that only thirty-five men can
belong to a big league club at one time.
II is hard on those who have bunch Of
7ld-timers all going down hill at once, for
9ut OF every ten class and farther down
players drafted or bought, one probably
gets one or two fit for fast company
Heretofore It has been the custom to go
ont and lay hands on everything one
wanted, provided the owner could come to
terms on purchase price or was lucky
enough TO get men In the drafting period.
This cannot be done any more. Now when
man seeks players he has finished when
the thirty-fifth man has been added to the
list
Every msjor league club has between
twenty and twenty-five on the pay roll
during the season. Twenty-Five is probably
q fair average. Each club has possibly six
men out on optional agreements subject to
recall by August rs. The men out on OPP
tional agreements do not have to report
until the season of the league in which
they are playing is finished. However
every option exercised eats up one OF that
permitted thirty-five.
Take Detroit, for instance. 1t has
twenty-five men on hand now and six out
optionally. II these six are recalled it
makes q total of twenty-eight, leaving
seven men to be drafted and purchased.
Out Of this seven, recruited from the high
ways and byways Of base ball. the Tigers
will be lucky II they land one capable
player. In other words, with the thirty
five-man rule in effect Detroit can ex-
pect to add two or three men, at the most,
beneficial to the team.
Howl Causes Rule.
This thirty five-man rule was adopted
by the National Association OF Professional
Base Ball Leagues as means
of paeifying the Class A leagues. They
howled because the minors we're all gobbled
up by. purchase or draft, and men who
might have labored in Glass A leagues with
credit to themselves were sent back to
some friendly team in Glass b or Glass
G leagues, In return for which the major
leagues that sent cast.offs had the pick
OF those clubs free OF charge next season.
In this way the new mule is a good thing
but It 10 bad for the second division major
teams. They need more than two or three
good men: all the clubs having made
money, are willing to spend big sums chas-
ing that ever-recurring hope, the first
division"
The rule works against the minor leagues
OF less than class A and will cost them
thousands of dollars they might have had
from the sale Of players. II will work
against a lot OF young men who might
otherwise have advanced to the major
league more rapidly. Big team own
It'll
most ready. but who need little season
ing, because the number of men they can
carry is limited.
In consequence a lot OF men who might
have at least received a big league trial
will be drafted by the class A leagues,
and when they get there they will stick
uness they display enough ability so that
their sales look worth from 5000 to $4,000.
An owner can draft but one man per sea-
son from class A league teams. Maybe
three or four other clubs try to draft the
man he wants. while some more clubs have
designs on other players from the same
team, Lot decided which player shall go,
and Lot decided what club he passes to.
This concession was brought about through
oft-repeated declarations OF outlaw ball
on the part OF some class leagues.
Where the limitation rule hits the class
D. and ID owners is that It takes from
them a good source Of profit through sales
Base. ball in leagues less than class A IA
Largely matter Of civic pride, teams beins
owned by stock companies which think
base ball q good advertisement Selling
players has pulled more than one club ou'
Of bankruptcy. and has added more money
10 the treasury along In August so that
further assessments on stockholders were
not required.
Big league clubs like St. Louis, Cleveland
Washington and Chicago, which need new
men. are buying here and there, until in q
few weeks they will suddenly find out tina
they have all the players they are allowed
Then they will either have to release meT
outright or stop adding.
When drafting season starts there will
be a lively mix-up Suppose one has thirt,
men on his club, and drafts ten more, and
Is allowed seven OF the ten. He will b.
two over the legal limit, and then wha
will happen? Mix-ups are sure, and the ma
tional commissions is going to have a livey
time.
The thlrty-five-man rule Is fine thin
for the Athletics and Boston. teams o
young fellows, but II Ia hard on the mana
ger or owner who has not the same chano
TO replace his veterans that the owner
whose teams declined two or three year