The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-13
Major Baseball Material Is Very
Far Between.
Meanwhile Old Veterans Drop
Out at Lively Rate.
THE GAME is POORER.
Last Two Years. Losses Will
Take Five to Fill.
Uniform Basis of Salary Sug-
gested as Aid.

Washington, March 13.-W1th the
opening of the training season for an
other year of baseball at hand, many
are asking the question whether base
ball is going back.
Appearances at present are much in
favor of the affirmative side of the
question; there can be no doubt in the
mind of the close student of the game
that Americas national pastlme IS
slowly but surely deteriorating; not
necessarily a permanent deterioration,
but one which will manifest itself for
several years to come. The present
day galaxy of stars reached its zenith
four or five years ago, and since that
time the headliners have been grad
ually dropping back to the minors, or
out of the game entirely.
During the last season the two
classiest of all twirlers, Mathewson
and Brown, experienced bad years,
compared to the roseate seasons they
had previously enjoyed. Both these
stellar moundmen were made to look
like class 90 clowns during the cham
pionship race by the Cardinals, a trail
ing second division aggregation. In q
little while the count of 9-10 will be
handed them, and their individual
greatness will pass into history, while
the hurlers themselves will be pegging
in the minors, or be content to retire.
Stars Are Waning.
1t is certain that such great stars as
Bobby Wallace, Larry Lajoie, Hal
Chase, Hans Wagner, Fred Clarke.
Johnny King and a horde of others,
including the intrepid Bresnahan, have
served their best days on the diamond,
and their future careers will continue
for only a brief period at best, and
their places will be filled with young
sters from the minor leagues.
This reconstruction and bolstering OF
the wabbling major league teams will
continue for several years until the
standard of perfection which prevailed
several years ago will have been at
tanned, and the chances are that in the
| amusement will be served the public
and baseball will drop into the nickelo-
deon class of amusements.
The magnates of baseball fully ap-
| preciate the seriousness of the situa-
ton; this is evidenced by the mad
| scramble being made each year for
promising looking youngsters in the
| Jungles. Statistics show that one out
| of every 10 or IL of these bushmen is
able to make the big leagues.
According to this ratio, it will be
readily understood that the old stars
are dropping out of the game much
faster than the new ones are develop
| ing. An army of juveniles is herded
| into the big arena each spring, and
| before Sultry summer months roll
around we find the ambitious lot with
| their faces turned back towrad the
| minors and their hopes crushed and
| fallen.
COmmerciaIism a Drawback
There are just as good fish in the
sea as have ever been yanked from
the salty brine, the old adage runs, and
there is no reason for a contradictory
argument along the same lines so fan
as baseball is concerned, but the spirit
of commercialism which has unseate6
the fundamental principle, the rea,
| sporting end of the game, has had g
| demoralizing effect upon the greatest
athletic entertainment ever devised.
| The woods should be full of ball
players, but the men who are behind
them do not take the proper course
toward developing them into bis
league material. A more uniform ba.
sis of. salaries and a better system OF
| equalizing the strength Of the teams
| would be conducive to better result:
and greater interest among the pa.
irons of the game.
Suppose the club owners should gel
together every winter and place in {
receptacle slips of paper containing
the names of all the first hasemen, il
another receptacle the names of al
the second basemen, and so on down