Evening star., 1914-07-23
rom the New York Evening Telegram

From the New York Evening Telegram.
If the men behind base balI-nleaning
the players as well as the club owners
are anxious to spike the grand old game
as it never has been spiked since its in
ception, they are proceeding quite prop
erly along the corridor toward the right
exit, the door leading into the yard of
dissolution and oblivion. If they are de-
termined to flood their gold mine with
the sta.nant waters of undertaking and
to stransle their income with their loose,
almost childish business methods, they
are rushing pellmen toward their elected
goal.
And it isn't a long trail; in fact. it is
creased with the smoothrcss Of unob-
structIon. Others have learned that Ii is
easy to undo the good work of years, and
once it has been undone it is doubly hard
to rebuild.
The sport that has been built on a foun-
dation recognized the standard to be
followed by other sports all over the
world has been snrouded by loose talk
and its tranquil way interrupted by the
jin3linS of unleashed 'ianily' skeletons.
Too Much Money Talk.
"Fandom' has been fed on a diet of
dollars and cents. The mercenary phase
of the game has been forced to the fore.
So much SO that ''fandom,' unwilling
though it has been, has been compelled
to realize that base bail, instead Of being
Il sport, is business.
In their mad scramble for the golden
stream that has poured on them from
Fortunes cornucopia both club owners
and players have played their dollar lust
across the boards They have featured
Ent n o hta
actual playing OF the sanle-the only part
in which the general public IS Interested
has been thrust into lhc shadows of IN
significance.
realized this cannot continue, and base
ball, their livelihood survive on the same
plane of popular favor it has so long
enjoyed. They are killing the sport. The
iumpinS of contracts. the continual
squabble about money, the tall. of strikes
and such things are working rapidly To
the detrment of the game. and ii Won't
take long TO scatter to the four winds
the support it has had.
There time, and not so long ago,
when the business side of base ball was
successfully covered, or rather mors
successfully covered than it has been
during the last six or eight months.
Both Sides to Blame.
The good of the game demands that
it be covered again. This does not mean
that crookedness can be indulSed in
without light being shed on it. but it does
mean the barrier between the business
office and the playing field should be re-
constructed and ''fandom' left to enjoy
the merits of the sport rs sport without ,
being showered with perpetual turmoil.
For this players are just rs much to
blame as club owners. lney are paid
Nyn ni
of the game their salaries have grown
far more rapidly and in greater propor-
ton than in any commercial enterprise.
Many of the players now comnand
greater incomes by many hundreds OF
dollars than they could derive III other
professions. 1t is true their careers are
shorter than they would be in other bua-
nesses, but since they receive double and
treble what they could get elsewhere
and since they are III position t" lay
the financial foundation fer their futures,
the situation is more than coualized
On an average the club owners accrue
greater returns on their Investments than
the hackers of other amusement enter
prises. They. too. should be satisfied.
Poor Fans Are "Goats."
Club owners and players are depend
ent on the patronage of fans They
are indebted to the fans Yet they
have assumed the arrogant attitude of
dictators. Their actions have inferred
that 'fandom'' is indebted - tfam.
They look at it in this light. Think of
the vastness of "fandoms' loss if they
refused to play base ball. if there was
no base ball! They fail to realize there
are other lines of amusement ''fandom'
could follow. They fail to appreciate
that they owe their salaries to the sup
port accorded the game by fandom.'
Without big crowds. big salaries and big
profits would be impossible.
Base ball is too great a game ever to
succumb totally to the ravages of these
money chasers. but it can and is suffering
from their rabid hunt for coin.
Some of the club owners and players
realize this, and they are striving to
barricade the cheap tactics of their asso
ciates.
Even if Charley" Ebbets had failed to
purchase Clarence Kraft from the Nash
vile club by paying an additional $1,000
and thus changing the entire status of
the case and puncturing the bubble of
strike publicity and warfare. there would
have been no strike
In the first place the Base Ball Players
Fraternity is not the all-powerful organi-