Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-05-29
KEEP TAB ON
BASEBALL FANS
Sleuths Count Number of
Patrons Who Enter Fed
eral League Parks.
Is REALLY BIG JOB
Persons Who Enter Grandstand.
Bieachers and Boxes Are Count
ed and Presented to Nation
al Commission.
is REALLY BIG JOB
(By Frank G. Menke.)

| w" VI N, hdy Ac-Ali ARMY VI
detectives who can add-and subtract
II necessary-are employed by Or
gained Baseball to count the noses Of
all persons who enter the Federal
league parks this year.
These mathematical sleuths arrive
at the grounds where the Feds play
| just as soon as the gates are opened.
They enter and then, armed with .
pencil, a tally sheet and pair of
searching orbs, proceed to arrive at
the total of persons who "st in at
the Fed doings.
These reports are carefully itemized
and show the number of % and 80
! cent bleachertes, the number of those
in the grandstand and boxes and the
! number of persons who enter through
the medium Of passes.
All these reports are sent to Garry
| Hermann, chairman of the National
| Commission. Just what Garry finally
! will do with those reports isn't-as
yet-a public matter. It wouldn't be
surprising to see Garry waddle forth
one of these nice spring days waving
those reports to show that the Fed
eral league is 'jok." But it's just
possible that Garry won't do anything
of the sort
Garry has made SO many foozles OF
late that he isn't going to take any
more chances on providing the public
with giggles at his expense. Some of
the reports that have gone to Garry,
including a few concerning the Pitts
burgh, Kansas City, Buffalo and In
dianapolis attendance are so low that
it probably will make even Garry a
bit skeptical.
For instance in one of the reports
from Pittsburgh which Barney Drey
paid Federal attendance was around
300. It's quite unlikely that Barney
did the counting himself. No doubt.
he got the figures from a sleuth.
Now, it's possible that the sleuth
in this case, and the sleuths in other
similar cases, weren't as good at add
ing as they ought to be. And Garry
doesn't want to slip the newspaper
boys copies of those reports and then
wake up the next morning to find the
figures and himself discredited by
affidavits from the Federal club own
ers giving the real figures and show
ing that the sleuths missed more than
half the crowd.
One of the reports of the sleuths
show that only about 11,250 persons
attended the Federal league opening
game in Brooklyn and that about
$500 of these entered via the pass
route. The owners of the club have
claimed a total paid attendance
around 10000, and the newspaper
men estimated the crowd at about
$4,000, including free admissions. The
contractors who put up the plant
claim to have installed about 10000
seats and as only few of those seats
were vacant on opening day it would
seem that the detective agency report
in this case, at least, deserves contra
diction.
| The Feds just now are giving a lot
of attention to the New York City
situation; with view to the possible
invasion of Manhattan next year.
The movign forces in the new
league realize that the. circuit must
be changed next year; must be made
stronger and more compact. 1t is
certainty that Kansas City and
probably Indianapolis, Pittsburgh
will not be in the circuit in 1915.
Kansas City never looked up as a
good baseball town, but the Feds
went into it this year merely as a
means of completing the circuit
Just what new towns the Feds are
planning to invade in 1915 is not
definitely certain. However, in addi-
ton to New York City, the Feds are
casting eyes at Detroit, Cleveland
Cincinnati and Washington.
The Ward family, which is backing
the Brooklyn Federal league team
is wildly enthusiastic over the new
organization, and if the Feds decide
no other backing can be secured, the
Wards will open up the dough bag
once again.
:. In view of the fact that the Wards
have accumulated from $10,000,000 te
ST., 100000 in the baking business and
are clearing close to $1,000,000 "a
year now, the idea of investing anoth-
err $4,000 or so in baseball doesn't
annoy them
Although the Wards have put about
100000 into the Federal league, they
wouldn't suffer very great financia
,, loss even if the league "blew up to-
morrow. They have harpooned abou
S4OO 900 worth of free advertising fol
their bread, biscuits, and buns, since
, they enlisted in the Federal League
army, and they appreciate that littl'
fact, too.