Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-02
ANOTHER WRANGLE
Is Now Up in Virginia
League.
lYNCHBURG IS EMBROILED
Grim Seeking to Secure Franchise
for That City-Other
Gossip.
LYNCHBURG is EMBR0ILED

| Special DlspdtcH tO INC StaF
| RICHMOND. Va, December 2.-When
John j. Grim appeals to the national
board because of the failure of the
Virginia League at its meeting Tuesday
at Portsmouth to reinstate the Lynch
burg franchise for the 1913 season.
some Of the incest. finest points of base
ball law are to be opened up. and no
one can successfully predict where
these complications may lead to-
| Taking the ground that Lynchburg
was elected from the league in man.
ner not in accord with the spirit of the
agreement under which Newport News
and Portsmouth were admitted into the
circuit last spring for the one season.
Grim will rest his appeal on that. He
holds that Lynchburg is a member of
| the Virginia League and was entitled
as such to say which of the two one
year teams should have been readmit-
| ted for the remainder of the f1ve-year
agreement. expiring in November. 1915.
The Virginia League denied this con-
tention, laughed at Grim and turned
him down flat-footed.
| The next heard from the contention
will be at Auburn, and there no one
knows what will happen. Suppose, how
ever, that the board holds that Lynch
burg is member of the league and
that the Hill city has been denied
rights she is entitled to under the con-
lstitutiOn worked under last year. What
then? Taking the precedent set at the
meeting in Lynchburg last February.
what is there to prevent a majority of
! the teams now composing the Virginia
League to withdraw from the circuit
| by resignation, at the same time ask
| ing for protection for the five towns in
the eastern part of the circuit to-
gether with Suffolk. and then forming
another organization under another
would not only be means Of Kidding
the league of Lynchburg. but at the
same time it would help to cut out
the twO-hundred-mile jumps to Roa-
noke. thus effacing the Magic city from
the map as we'll as the Hill city.
Such contingency is possible. but
men who know Virginia League base
ball would be bit surprised to see
such a turn. for there isn't magnate
in any of the old towns of the league
who would not prefer Lynchburg in to
Newport News or Portsmouth. though
they may not admit that in public or
for publication.
1t was pointed out a long time ago
that Newport News would get a fran
chise, because the magnates were afraid
of President Horwitz of Newport News,
who put up yell loud enough last win
ter to force the magnates by an appeal
in Portsmouth as well as Newport News.
That holler is still in the ears of the
| magnates and they didn't want to hear
it again, and to prevent it Newport News
was treated awfully nice. At the time
the slate was framed up no one dreamed
Lynchburg would be heard from. for
LynchburS is not strong for the Virginia
League these days 1t was shown fully
up on behalf of Lynchburg it's echo
| would be heard over the circuit. Then
| Jack Grim came along and recalled that
he cleaned up quite snug lot of Lynch
burg coin in 1906, 1907 and 1908, and he
decided that the future was worth a
holler and Tuesday he made the first
noise at Portsmouth. The future can
only tell what will become of his yell.
not the remotest probability that the
national commission will hear of it be-
fore the end will have been reached.
Virginia League last season. is wintering
at Phillipsburg, n. J., and he expects to
land an indicator role within the next
month. If league presidents can see a
| good man in the winter time, it will not
be long before McBryde's contract will
| be approved at Auburn.
Paul Davis, the new manager of the
Newport News team. has already secured
the signatures of ten men for the 1913
Shipbuilders, but he has not yet dis
closed their identity.
Hugh Shannon. the we'll known Buffalo
player, is after a franchise in the pro-
posed North Carolina League, and he
will be satisfied If he can get the Dur
/ ham end of the proposition, If that town
decides to go in or can get in. Shannon
| is already mending his fences for the
job and as an attraction he has promised
to secure the Buffalo UnternationaD team
to train in the town he locates in. Dur
ham has two good ball fields, the one
at Trinity College probably being the best
equipped college field in the south, while
the street car company owns another
that would be given to the Bisons for
training purposes should they decide to
train there next spring.
| 1t is a downright pity that the fine
sport blood that spurts through Blue
field. W. Va, cannot be accommodated
with professional base ball. Although
circuit Bluefeld last year maintained a
good semi professional club and now it is
proposed to equip grounds this spring
for base ball and other sports that will
much larger towns. Bluefield made a
strong bid for the Danville franchise in
the Virginia League last season and had
| that team been transferred there the
magnates would not have lost money by
the deal and they would have been saved
| a deal of trouble this winter.
An interesting suit was recently tried
In the circuit court of Roanoke in which
the Roanoke Base Ball Association sued
e X. Williams, former president of the
virginia League, to enforce the payment
of claim amounting to $500. 1t is al
| legged that during the time Mr. Williams
was president of the Roanoke club. prior
to the time he was president Of the
league. that he collected $500 for the
| sale of Pitcher Doane and $500 for the
sale of Player Moran. In the defense it
was claimed the money was kept for per-
Sonal services rendered the association
The jury failed to agree and was dis
charged and the case comes I'D for trial
again.
| The suggestion coming from Norfolk
| that the Virginia League should make
| arrangements to put teams in WASH
ington and Baltimore. first getting con-
| sent of those teams, is another illustra-
ton OF the evolution of thrills from the
| brain OF sport writer on bush league
| circuits. There's just about as much
sense in such a proposition as there
| would be to make 1T ten-team circuit,
| with one Of these in the Southern and
| the other in the South Atlantic League.
The ARRANGEMENT has been fertilized by
some Norfolk scribe, who puts the
| thought off on Billy Hannah, the ex-
president of the defunct Tidewater (out-
| law circuit of 1911, but the dreamer
| fails to Indicate what would become of
| the Washington and Baltimore clubs
when the real teams are at home play
| ing. There would be from three weeks
IN y. IN &l.a