Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-07
DELAY IS MAJOR
LEAGUE CLUBS
WEAPON IN WAR
Organized Ball Hopes to Break
FederaIs by Injunctions and
Other Lawsuits.
By Bill Bailey.

y ELA1 Is tHc Weapol SoAoNloN
by the fellows in organized
H. baseball with which to make
their sght. They have an idea it will
rroye fatal, all right, too. But 1t is
,be'r opinion that it will be the other
follow who Will suffer the fatality.
Meaning the men in the Federal
League.
DELAY. lawsuits of all kinds, includ-
ing damages, and injunctions are
among the weapons to be sharpened
when the magnates of the two leagues
gather in New York on Tuesday and
Wednesday of next week. At any
rate that Is the impression which
van gather after talking it over with
,ha fellows who own the major league
ball clubs.
Await Legal Battle.
Now, here is the peculiar part of it.
The Federals claim that they hope
that the fellows in the organized
game employ those tactics. They say
there will be no delay. Also that it
will be n great thing to have the legal
battle on as soon as possible. Inc
idea being. of course, that 1t will be
over all the sooner and the Feds Will
know lust where they stand.
When the eight club owners of the
National meet the octet of the
American in New York on Wednesday
of next week the plan of battle will
he formulated And as near as can
be learned now it will provide some
thing like this;
Every major, league club which mas
lost a PLAYER will ask for an injunc-
zion. Charles w. Murphy is expect
ed TO ask some Federal court to en-
loin Ward Miller from playing with
the Federals At the same time the
SoX will request that some action~b
taken 70 keep Ted Easterly from
hammering any long drives over the
Fed fences. simultaneously VIII the
Philadelphia club arise in its might
and demand that Otto Knabe be le-
gally requested to refrain from ca
vorting on outlaw" territory.
To Ask injuretions.
simultaneously will Mr. Josephus
Tinker be requested to cease his Fed
eraI activities. Temporary injunctions
viii be asked for.
Then comes the big legal fight.
These injunctions will be asked for
upon the grounds that the men nave
violated the reserve clause which is
the foundation of the organization.
The organized forces will care moth
ing about a short and decisive fight.
If they can keep the courts busy on
lechnicalities for several weeks or
a., in
part of the game the major league
clubs figure they have it on their OPP
ponents.
It's like this: The organized clubs
have sufficient number of men to
man their clubs and play their sched-
uIe. But should temporary injunc-
tons be obtained against the big
league players who leaped, then they
will have to remain idle while the re-
quest for a permanent injunction IS
being decided.
Keep Jumpers Idle.
Get the idea? Organized baseoall
wants to keep the fellows who jumped
idle Then they can go along playing
their schedule while the other fellows
have to employ substitutes. Some OF
the major magnates have an ldea
that they can tie the proposition up
in the courts for years. The Feds give
the organization men the laugh on
this proposition. But it promises
fine scrap just the same.
Meanwhile Joe Tinker says that
his crew is preparing to do a bit OF
Mitigating also. The fellows VINO
signed with the third league and then
hoped back to the organized Fellows
are the ones against whom Joe is
dwelling his threats
did you ever stop to think what's
going to become Of these fellows VINO
have signed with US, accepted our
money and then jumped?" ouer1ed
Zoe
''What3" Joe was asked.
Well, they will be missing on pay
day. It's a certainty that we VIII tie
them up, and it is d certainty that the
courts can't decide the question right
Off. Who is going TO pay them while
they are tied up and can't play? we
certainly can't be expected to- Wen
win then in the end, which means
that the organized fellows won't"
II looks decidedly promising for the
legal gents.