The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-08-13
MONTANA FANS
ARE sPORTS|NEN
MissOula Citizens Willing to
Take Team and Pnt 1t OH
Solid Footing.
CRISIS IS AT HAND AND
JOYCE WILL DROP OUT
He Has Had $4,000 Besides the
Gate Receipts, but Treas
ury Is Empty,
Bv w. d. BrdfS
Special Correspondent to The Tribune

Special Correspondent to The Tribune
MISSOULA, Mont, Aug lin
portapt developments in the local base
ball situation may be expected during
the next fifteen days. and unless Man
ager Joyce sees fit to extricate him
self from the position be is now IN
within the next four or five days, ne
will lose his franchise in the Union
league, something which would appar
emily he welcomed by local fans,
Joyce is allowed until August 10 to
pay up his Indebtedness to the players
In the event of his failure to do Sc
at that time the franchise reverts back
to the Union league, and the league
ther has fifteen more days in which to
determine whether or not it wishes to
carry the club for the balance of the
season. turn it over to some one else
or declare the players free agents, Just
what step W. H. Lncas, president OF
the Union association, and the other
league directors will take is not known.
but it is hardly likely that they will
finish the season with but five clubs,
Joyce says he will meet his indebted
ness, but the general opinion here seems
to be that he will step down and out,
If he does the latter, there are sew
eral business men here who will gladly
take the franchise and carry the club
through the season and next year as
we'll,
In addition to E. C. Mulroney and
n. B. Campbell, who are anxious to
take the franchise, raise the money and
turn it over to some capable manager,
there is Frank T. Jones, a local mer~
chant, who is willing to take over and
assume control of the franchise as an
individual and give Missoula its fu-
ture baseball in the Union league. Jones
will be remembered by Salt Lake as
the umpire who came so close TO being
nobbed by Salt Lake fans in game
between Boise and Salt Lake during
the season of 1904 Jones is now one
of Missoula g most influential BUSINESS
men, and he should know baseball, as
he has been connected with the game
off and on for the past twenty years.
They Want Blankenship.
"Give us man like Cliff Blanken-
ship to run our ball club and we III
show YOU something" said one of Mis-
soula g staunchest baseall fans today,
when asked for his opinion regarding
this city's attitude toward the Union
Baseball association. 1--WE do not want
to lose our franchise in this league and
we will have to make the best of it
until this season is over, but we will
be at the league meeting when the
season closes with proposition to run
our own affairs next year.
That appears to be the universal
opinion among the baseball fans of this
city Missoula is one of the prettiest
little cities in the west. up-to-date and
brimful of good sportsmen. With a
club anywhere but in the cellar, the
town would surely draw, because Its
fans want baseball. 1t has about 10000
people to draw from and it has bali
park which. with an expenditure of ap.
proximatelv $500. could be the best in
the league.
Without attempting to assign any
reasons for the unpopularity Of
HScrappy Bill" Joyce in this city, the
fact remains that Joyce is not the man
for Missoula. Although as fine an old
sportsman as one would care to meet.
joyce has gotten away bad here and
the fans do not hesitate in expressing
their opinions. They all seem to think
that Joyce has ball club which
but they attribute its present position
to the old-fashioned methods" OF
joyce, as they put it.,
h. G. Mulroney, county attorney,
and H. B. Campbell, Wholesale liquor
. dealer and ex-sheriff. are two of the
big boosters for the Union association,
and it has been through their efforts
that Missoula was placed on the base
ball map. Both of them are staunch
boosters for their town and the great
national game and both of them give
assurances that they can readily raise
sufficient money to finance a club in
the Union association that will do
credit to this hustling little city, In
an interview with II. c.. Mulroney to-
day, he said:
"No. we are not ready to quit, but if
Mr.. Joyce wants to throw up the
sponge, so much the better for us and
our future membership in the Union
association. Joyce is not popular here
and the people don t make any bones
about voicing themselves accordingly.
They simply will not patronize baseball
run according to his methods Not only
are the fans disappointed. but the
players also have rebelled against his
management. We have always turned
out large crowds before and the fans
demonstrated during the first six
weeks Of play in the Union association
that they will support clean, snappy
dissatisfied with present conditions.
Joyce Has Had $4,000.
when the subject of berth in the
new league was first broached to us we
took keenly 10 it and raised s2400 for
Mr.. joyce and simply handed it to him
Joyce added TO this 5000 of his own
money and later realized $1,000 more ON
the sale Of Outfelder Murray to Pitts.
burg so that he has had approximately
$4,000 on which to run his ball club. Into
what directions Mr. Joyce has devoted
this money we do not know and little
did we care We merely handed it to
him for the good Of baseball in Mis-
~oyla.
'sYon can quote me as saying that
ere can raise $4,000 in a very short time