Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-12-02
BY Percy II. Whiting.

make salary mint SllCh
ought to get pension OF
million a year from the club own
ers of organized baseball
As a business proposition the
ownership of minor league base
bali club is a fright. 1t costs money
like a prodigal son.
Look over the whole field.
The first thing that strikes you
are the exceptions. There are a
few minor league clubs in the world
that net good money almost every
year Possibly they number per
: cent Of the whole.
The rest make-money occasional
~ Almost any club can make
money when it wins a pennaut.
More than half Of those in the
country can show a fair profit if
they finish one-two- three And
that's the reason salary limits don't
stick
A man owns a franchise. He is
bound by a salary limit which says
that he can not pay over certain
sum year for players. He knows
that that sum is all that the league
can stand. provided more than half
the clubs are to make money. But
then he knows that a pennant vim
ner makes big money. So he gam
bies bit He goes over the limit,
gets a mess of players and takes
chance II the team comes
through a winner he makes his eX-
ira salary money bsclS--and lot
more. II it doesn't-oh, Well he
took a gamblers chance.
THE Southern league has been
4 wrestling with the salary limit
ever since IL was organized. I've
been to most of the meetings and
/ know what happened at the rest
The club owners argue the thing
over as seriously as judges. they
talk about salary limits as though
they were sacred things. You al
most never hear anybody admit
that the salary limit has been eX-
ceeded by anybody. Once-that
was the meeting after the Mem
phis club spent more than a thou
sand dollars month over the
limit all the season--the owners
admitted openly that the limit had
been a jest and a laughing matter
But generally they are as earnest
about it as fraternity lads discuss
ing the ritual.
And then. after an earnest meet
ing, all of them go home and devise
means of exceeding the limit with
out getting caught.
II can be safely said that the
only clubs that have not gone over
the limit in recent years have been
those which couldn't afford TO take
The chance.
KyARIOUS means have been tried
of making the limit stick. 1t is
likely that the Southern league has
the strictest salary limit rules of
any minor league
But do they limit?
You all know the answer.
SALARY limits win amount to
nothing until such time as the club
owners get together and make
"gentleman's agreement not to go
over some set sum. You can't make
them do II by rule.
A campaign of education is need
ed. When the club owners can be
brought to see that what's for the
good of one Is for the good OF all
they may let the salary limit stick.
Until they do, all the talk about 1t
Is foolish. For no salary limit rule
can be devised so air tight that any
manager can't blow through II any
time he really tries.
nT HE American Association is
the biggest Joke league in
the world" q man who owned a
club in that league told me once.
TT is made up Of a half dozen
Youngsters and a couple of hundred
old timers. The old timers are
drawing salaries not in proportion
to their present ability, but accord
ing 10 what they did once. It's
fine league and everybody in II is
losing money"
That the association is verit-
able old players home is demon
strated by a survey of the official
averages, just promulgated II
shows that SO per cent OF the play
ers are old timers with big league
experience and that 50 per cent of
those who took part in as many as
100 games were veterans Of the
Big Show.
Listen TO a few OF the names
Dolan, Lush, Schmidt. Bell, Bemis,
Beck, Tim Jordan. Parent. Sey-
mour Bradley, Conroy, Lord, Ber-
gen, Thoney. Beebe. Beckendorf,
Street, Bransheld. Mattern, Betch-
err. Holmes. Frill, Keefe. Bent.