The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-10-11
PLAYER SCRIBES
INJURED BOSTON
Writings Put Under Ban of Com.
mission Cause of Complaint

Baseball players, particularly of The
star brand, have raised a considerable
murmur of complaint at the move
nent started by the national commits
sion TO stop the practice of lending
their names 10 articles written for
newspapers by reporters. Ii was con-
sidered n legitimate perquisite of their
profession, which they believe 1t an
! injustice to deny them. II paid well,
entailel no effort on their part, and
vas good advertising
What the players did not know
! what few. indeed. did know until re-
centy-was the real reason behind the
movement. Not until the dissension
i'm the Boston American league team
reached climax i'm the uncrowning
Of Manager Jake Stahl did the facts
come out. This tad OF printing alleg-
ed opinions of ball players under their
alleged signatures was then said TO
be largely responsible for the wreckng
Of a team of worlds champions so
shortly after it's triumph as 10 crcute
considerable wonder.
With a great deal OF enterprise
| eastern newspapers last fall rounded
| up number of the Red SoX who
! were willing to lend their names
for generous consideration-to the
rapers. for use in covering the
worlds series with the New York
Giants None of these players was
expected to write a line Of the Lam
guage which was to appear under his
name in large type. To that duty
were assigned newspaper men who
knew more or less about baseball. but
more about what would make a good
noise with the public than they did
about the national pastime and the
tcmperaments of the star plaYcrs.
In The rush and jam of jumping
back and forth between Gotham and
Bcantovn To- play games On alternate
days There was not time fo" the al
legged players-scr,bes To- look over any1
of the stuff that was written for them
before it was turned in to the news
papers. There was scarcely time for
the real writers TO look it over and
weigh its effect.
Some Of these actual scrihes were
young men with vocabularies larger
,han their store of experience. They
also were baseball bugs" who took
it TO heart when their team was de-
scated 2nd let their disappointment
add bitterness To their criticisms of
the players. That would have been
If small matter of course, if they
had signed their own names to their
stories. But when the names of Bos-
ton players appeared in print over
roaSts Of thei; own teammates il did |
not dispcl the effect entirely To re-
mind the roasted players that it was
all take and not written by tho |
players at all Deep seated suspi- |
cions we're harborcd that the ideas |
used in print might have been slipped |
10 the young scribes by the players
who disowned all responsibility Tor
them
There were smothercd reports OF q |
battle Of fists i'm the Boston club
house which never were thoroughly |
cleared up. Buck OBricn now with
the White Sex. and joe Wood wcrc
among the combatants mentioned. and
that there was something behind the
lumorS was believed when the Boston
team disposed of O'Brien for cash this
year. Whatever the trouble was. II
undoubtedly grew out of the stun
Vhich tie Red Sox were supposed to
ne writing for the newspapers. bat
weren't.
with the clques which grew out OF
that experience with newspaper crit
iciSms signed by bah play ere, Man
eyer Stahl proved unable to cope, ac-
cor,ling TO all accounts. The players
who had fought shoulder to shoulder
the year before in perfect accord
woulun'' pull together with the same
old spirit because of the hard feelings
during the worlds series
and the whole American league was
put in bad when the can was tied to
the manager Of team of worlds
champions In the middle of the follow
ing season without any attempt at
the situation diploniatically
New York PLAYERS also were GOV.
cring' The worlds series by proxy TO
r considerable extent, and the natural
question arises why were not the
Giants also wrecked There arc two