The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-02-22
By William Peet Of
HeraId1
Washington

| HeraId)
What has become of the proposed
legislation against the baseball player
scribe? It will be remembered thai
shortly. after the worlds series last
fall hue and cry was raised anent
| the star ball players allowing news
papers to use their names over critical
| articles Of the games. The dear old
public fell for this stuff and swallow
ed hook, bait and sfnker. An article
under the signature of ChriSty Mat1-
ewSon led 'three-fourths of the fans to
believe that the great pitcher himself
wrote it.
Last fall during the series the writer
recalls a dozen of more baseball stars
who allowed certain newspapers to use
their names. The players were paid
anywhere from $3.50 to $1,000, and not
scheme was this: A newspaper repre-
sentative interviewed a ball player
and asked him, How much will
you sell your name for the world s
series? You will not be called upon
to do any work but will interview
you after each game and write the
erned to some extent by what you say.
The daily stories are to be published
under your Name
Fine the player usually replied,
that will give me a chance to see the
games from the press box and pick up
few hundred dollars ON the side.
You're on. What will your paper
pay2''
A sum was quickly agreed upon and
after each game ball player and scribe
met at the appointed place questions
were asked and answered in Jig time,
and, if the stuff wasn't hot enough
the real writer enbeIlished the article
with ideas of his own. If a roast to
Il fellow player was handed out, the
supposed author was the goat and
had to stand for it,
As a rule the p1ayer-writers were
well taken care OF, and the stories
were really interesting for the reason
that experienced newspapernen were
assigned these jobs, but the public be-
lieved all along that ball players
and wrote the pieces for the papers
Capt. Larry Doyle, OF the New York
Giants was interviewed shortly after
the big series and asked how he liked
the job Of reporting the games.
stIt was the hardest work T. ever
tackled clluckIed Larry 1T did not
write line, but 1T was awful hard on
the nerves to listen to what some re-
name to stuff that looked to me like
inklings from the pen Of King Solo
mon. But, you know, I got 5000 in
COIN for the work, and that's good for
a reporter who is no reporter at ALL
Waiter johnson, the great twirler
of the Washington club, was also en-
gagged to do the series. He was hired
by. the Boston Herald, at redicu-
Iot1sly low figure. compafed to the
money paid several other player writ
ers. Ralph Macmillan, sporting editor
OF the Herald, wrote Johnson's stuff,
and great dope it was, too. Tt was so
good that the Boston Herald syndd-
Gated the matter to nearly fifty out
of-town papers, including a Capital
publication.
The day after the opening day in
New York Johnson left for Boston on
the midnight special reserved for the
army of baseball writer's, reaching the
Hub about z o'clock the next morning.
As he was walking from the Back
Bay station to his hotel he bought a
of Rrn Herald
fng to his friends, said with a smile,
wen, guess I'll see what wrote
about yesterdays game. hope have
been correc1y quoted
In New York this .sexperting'' has
become q mania Last October mem
bers of the Giants and Red Sox raked
In the coin as baseball experts. None
Thought to wonder how a player had
sufficient time to write all credited to
him for the morning papers. When
Manager McGFaw handed out an al