South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-01-23
MINOR LEAGUERS
SEE BIC MENACE IN
|. FEDERAL. SCHEMES
|MaqnateS of Lesser Leagues
Frankly Worried BY Doubt
As to Ability to Hold Players
Few Signed 1913 Teams.
BY BILL BAILEY.


CHICAGO Jan 28-The mag
mates Of the American association
were put on the toastsr Friday Ihey
i learned what "a baseball war means.
/ And any time that they saw specter
il was labeled Federal league.
You see they are ia session in Chi
cago. They came here for their
| meeting. ordinarily that is one Of
. the most pleasant functions in the
world. The magnatcs get together III
| a large room at the Congress MOTEL.
They tell what d. fine season they had
They appoint a schedule committee,
tell a couple OF funny series and ad-
journ for a year.
But not this time. They held one
i session OF Thursday afternoon. They
! transacted no business for the reason
| that Mike Cantillon, the owner Of the
Minneapolis franchise, was III.
Meantime they talked about the
Federal league. In fact that was
| about all that you could hear in the
lobby OF the hotel. You see. it's be-
ing driven home 10 those magnates
and in this manner.
For a long time the impression was
| abroad that the Federal league play
ers would be recruited among the ma
ior organizations. Tinker, Brown and
Knabe howled that they would have
this and that number OF Dig league
stars. Now the impression has gone
the rounds that the Federals have
about ali the majors they will get.
| But they haven't enough to man all
of their clubs Where do they turn?
To the big minors, the fellows that
rank A. A players, the fellows VINO
perform in the Association, the In
ternational and the Pacific coast
leagues
So when the Association magnates
came to Chicago they came in con-
tact with some Of their players who
had been spending some time IN this
vicinity. said players had been Of
fered large sums Of money 20 play in
the Federal league. or. at any rate,
they said they had And in the case
OF the fellow who keeps stif upper
lip that means about the same thing.
Tebeau Has Plan.
With the result that the magnates
discovered that the ball players came
higher than they used TO. Which
caused some OF them TO let out "A howl
But then war is war. George Tebeau,
the owner of the Kansas CITY fran
chise. has "A unique scheme. He wants
"A revision of the teams in the assO-
citation and thinks they would be
more evenly matched if his plan was
adopted.
Here it is. He would take the
names OF the eight best catchers in
his league and place them in a hat
Then each magnate would select a
slip and the catcher's n,lIre which
adorned it would be his for better or
worse. What went for the catchers
would also go for the pitchers the
in and ont fielders Mr.. Tebeau is
certain that --puld come nearer
equalizing the playing sTenSth of the
teams than and other method.
King Cole the former Cub. who
jumped to the Chicago Federal league
team after being drafted by the
Yankees from the Columbus club.
certainly is taking a long chance on
being shanghaled. Cole attended the
Thursday session and was frequently
seen in the presence of Bob Quinn.
who halls from Columbus. That's the
team that Cole worked for last year.
you go and get your release from
Tinker and I'll see If / can't fix il up
with Farrell of New York. And If
Chance even indicates that he don't
want YOU, Wen be glad to get YOU"
Cole couldn't see the joke. But If
he isn't mighty careful they certainly
Will shanghai him
Every club was represented when
the owners and managers started
working behind closed doors. 1t was
expected the minor league officials
viii remain in Chicago two or three
days.
Sign Jim Sheckarti.
The signing of Jim SheCkard rs
manager of the Toledo club was prom
ised as the biggest news Of the day
from the camp of the association
magnates. Sheckard and Pres. som
ers have not yet come 20 terms. but
il was admitted by both of them that
"A contract would be signed before to
night
The association owners have not