Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-18
BY J. ED GRILLO.

Next seasons schedule should favor the
Nationals more than did the last one. 10
begin with, the season will be opened here
instead of abroad, which Is some advan-
tage. and then, too, the team will be on
the road during the month of August and
at home in September. just the reverse
Of last year. Griffith figures that by
ducking the hot weather here in August
it will make a big difference in the show
ing of his team. April 10 is the day the
season will open and 1T is not at all I'M
likely that the worlds champion Red
SOx will be the attraction. Barring ac-
cidents the team will be intact when
the season opens and should therefore
get a better start in the race than 1t old
last year when the winning streak did
not start until June l. There was. per-
a difference single ball player will make
in ball team than marked the coming
Of Gandil to the Nationals. The clubs
success started with the day that he
Joined it. He seemed to be the link
which the team lacked to be a winner.
Gandil's value is shown by the fact that
he drove in more runs than any other man
on the team. OF course. his position in the
batting order gave him an advantage
over several other good htters on the
team, for he hit fourth. and had three
fast men in front of him who reached
the bases often. But he certainly proved
splendid cleanup man, as his record
shows.
President Dave Fultz of the Players
Fraternity is trying to wipe out the i'm
preston that his organization has any
intention of disrupting the present system
under which base ball is conducted. He
makes a very satisfactory explanation of
the objects of the fraternity in the follow
ing statement. which he issued recently:
Il would like to make it plain to every
one that the Players Fraternity is as
keenly interested in maintaining base ball
as any magnate in the game.
I'VE have no desire to tear things up,
the object of the organization being to es-
tablish as nearly a fair balance between
the rights Of the player and the rights of
the magnate as the exigencies of base
ball will permit.
I'VE realize fully that base ball is a pc
culiar business. Every contract calling
for personal service in any line of bust
ness is bound to contain features pc
culiar exclusively to the business. This is
particularly true of base ball. and it
would take lot of explaining and a far
greater number Of words to say what
rights or privileges could be given places
without endangering the necessary soil
darity of each individual club than are
possible in this letter.
I'VE realize as we'll as the magnates
that the club as firm unit must be
maintained.
I'VE realize also that in such as a con-
tract necessary between player and mag
nate there are things that on their face
are unfair. yet are necessary. What we
object to is that the contracts contain
features that are not only unfair, but
are wholly unnecessary
All that FultZ says is well and good.
but he has selected several cases for pro-
test which would indicate that he is view
ing them from a rather narrow stand
point. Futz, for instance, thinks that
Jack knight was not given fair deal
here. Knight, who came here from New
York in trade with contract calling
for $4,000. not only reported out Of cond-
ton a few days before the season opened,
but he did not show good form at any
time that he was with the team. Griffith
sold him to Jersey City, which club, of
course. reduced his salary, which it had
a right to do. Knight did not make good
here, and consequently had to expect a
Gut in salary when he went back to the
minors.
A similar case is that of Pitcher Ha-