Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-11
HIGGINS.
AL0YS|US BASE BALL
TEAM MAKES PROTEST
Board of Directors Charges
Rival Management With
Paying Its Players.

The board Of directors Of the Aloysius
Club of the Capital City League, now
holding down second place in the race
for the pennant has issued a protest
against conditions in the league.
The protest is:
Before the end of the Washington
governors Of the Aloysius club, after ma
ture consideration, has decided that II
is in duty bound to make a formal and
official statement to the justice-loving
public of Washington anent the condi-
tons obtaining In the series Of games for
the base ball pennant this season in the
Capital City League.
We were induced to re-enter this
league on the express condition that moth
ing but amateur methods would be toler-
ated, and especial and emphatic assur-
ance was given lis through the manager
of our base ball team that no team
would be considered eligible In the race
for the pennant which paid for the sery-
ices Of any of its players.
1T has been brought to our notice, and
is admitted to be an open secret. that
one team in particular which is now in
the race for the pennant has secretly been
remunerating at least some of it's players,
with view to securing the best base
ball talent availa BILE. To expect direct
proof Of this statement would be absurd,
as this would be to demand that de-
linquent player should publicly confess
his delinquency by admitting before an
Investigating committee that he has VIC
lated a fundamental rule of amateur
sport. The circunlstantial evidence is SO
strong, however. that every honest OBJ
server is repeatedly deprecating this con-
stant violation of amateurism, and sees
in it the ruin of amateur base ball In
Washington. In fact, some players Oh the
team referred TO have unguardedly adj
mitted, we have been told. that they
would not play without pecuniary re-
Enumeration. Again, no sane man can be-
lieve that any of the former Georgetown
and Catholic University base ball stars
would play against the AIoysius club un-
less it were made worth their while.
Our attention has also been called to
an instance Of biased and, according to
all ideas of equity, unjust ruling which
was made last Monday, when the official
umpire, Mr.. Belts. and the players of one
of the teams absented themselves because
they Judged. and with very good reason.
that the condition OF the grounds on ac-
count of rain made a game impossible.
So good was this reason that none of the
amateur teams of the city played that
day. Yet the game was declared for
feited, and was credited to the team that
was present. We beg to submit that
such ruling was clearly unjust, as is
any technical rule that may be quoted
to. justify it.
'But our principal protest against the
management of the present series of
games in the Capital City League re-
solves itself to two counts. First, in
one of the games between the Aloysius
team and the team whose methods we are
questioning, the captain of our club,
while objecting to decision of the UNI
pire, was struck by the manager of the
opposing team. and, as was to be
expected, he returned the compliment
and was thereby put ont of the
game and suspended. With the re-
suit that our team. disheartened by the
absence OF its best player, lost that game
and several others that followed 1T
was apparently a we'll planned conspiracy
race for the pennant. as the offending
manager has been quoted as Boosting
that he had won his point and cared not
for the blows he had received as long as
he had deprived us Of our best player
Secondly. in one of the games of the series
the same manager employed the services OF
q we'll known player whose name had not
been registered long enough to make him
eligible according to rule of the Capital
City League. thus making the whole team
ineligible. in that one instance. at least.
to play a scheduled game. OF this the
manager Of our team has direct proof,
as he personally watched the register of
names.
cit is over a month ago that the man
ager of the Aloysius team, acting under
our instructions, filed an official protest
against the aforementioned games, and
since thus far no action has been taken
in the matter and the two disputed games
have been credited to the offending team,
we deem it our duty to those whom we
represent to make this public protest be-
fore the end of the series, and to state
that. in spite of what we consider unjust
treatment, we will play the series to the
end. but under protest. Signed-The Board
of Governors of the Aloysius Club