Evening star., 1912-11-20

should improve There is nothing wrong
with Mack's catchsrs. every one OF whom
is capable. but, while il Is true that MS
pitching staff was not of the best. all that
is necessary to make the team as forinio-
able as ever. if not more so, IS to have
Chief Bender to return to his old FORM.
The fact should not be overlooked mat
Brown and Houck. two young men VINO
We're seeing their first major league ball
last season, did good work and they
should be a lot better a result of their
experience While the Athletics will not
be touted as strongly as they We're last
season the team appears TO have better
chance in the next race than 1t did In
the last. ~
A writer who signs himself ~ Club
Owner i'm an article on the pass pan
trust" printed in the Metropolitan Ma8a-
zine, takes a fall out of what is termed
organized base ball. The identity of the
writer is kept secret, but, Whiie ne APP
pears to be familiar with conditions, ne
shows a lot of venom in his writings, and
is undoubtedly some one who figures he
has reasons to be sore.
Here is an excerpt from the article in
question
is nothing more or less than a gigantic
trust-and such a trust, Air-tight and
Steel-jacketed.
Understand me- / am no bleacher theo-
rist with superficial knowledge Of the
For the past twenty years I have made
money out of professional base ball. L
know it from top to bottom: | have been
q player. scout team manager, owner ana
league official.
In point of sentimental affection for the
game itself / yield To no man. | have
been behind the scenes all the way from
a players uniform TO an owners check
stub, and l say that base ball as admin
istered today is trust, an absolute mo-
nopoly fattened by one-sided legislation.
"OrganiZed base BALI is the strongest
combination ever formed in this land of
the free; the only trust which lives be-
cause 1t has been able to secure an alb
solute monopoly of flesh and blood. The
tremendous power of organized base ball
does not lie in the real estate which it
owns-in its parks or grandstands or
franchises-but in its dominion over the
men who draw the money at the turn
stiles-the players.
1t Is not difficult matter to criticiso
and find fault but quite different prop
ositior to improve conditions. The So
called base ball trust is d necessary evil,
IL such it can be termed, because under
no other conditions could the game pros
per or the players draw salaries Of exist
ing proportions. Ball players have
been benefited by the organization which
row controls the game. Salaries have
steadily increased, and today there is not
a sport which gives its exponents as good
pay as base ball.
The reserve rule. which appears to be
the principal objection of "A Club Owner"
which gives the club with which a player
signs a lifelong lease on his services,
has made the success of the game posi-
BILE. If contract was for but a single
season. the game could not last more
than a Year or two. Clubs in the larger
cities well could afford to secure the pick
of the players by outbidding their rivals.
and the result would be that all the stars
would be in one or two cities and con-
sequently interest in the game would ex-
ist only in such cities. Make the players
free agents after ever season and base
ball would be thing of the past In a
very short while.