Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1914-12-23
TAFT, n, IS RICHEST.
BASEBALL NACNATE.
Former Presidents Half
Brother Great Friend of
"ShOeString Charley
YEARLY INCOME
REACHES MILLION

We have lately read much of the
great wealth of the Wards. Weegh-
man and other Federal League
hackers. but organized baseball has
at least one magnate who can put
the Fed promoters in the piker class,
financially speaking. He is Charles
Phelps Taft, who has long held a.
large interest in the Cincinnati Reds
and, more recently, in the Chicago
Cubs. Mr.. Taft is a native of Gin
cinnati and was seventy-one years
old on Monday. having been born
December q, 1S43. Besides being
the richest magnate in baseball, and
an ardent fan, Mr. Taft has other
claims to fame. His father was
Acknowledgement of the United
States in the cabinet of President
Grant His half-brOther was Presi-
dent of the United States. He is the
editor and owner of the Cincinnati
rimes-Star and interested in more
big industries than he can remember
all at ance. Mr.. Taft's income is es-
timated at over a million dollars a
year which puts him in a class all
by himself as a financial hacker of
Americas national pastime.
Although his baseball investments
have doubtless been profitable. Mr.
Taft has always had more than a
mercenary interest in the game. and
he was animated largely by sentiment
when he bought into the Cincinnati
club. Mr.. Tait'G ambition was to re-
store the faded glories of the Cincin-
natl Reds, the pioneer professional
club of baseball. and to win a pen
: nant for the Queen City. In that as
piration he has met only with bitter
disappointment. There is no doubt
that he helped largely in putting
Brother William i'm the Presidential
chair. but that was an easy job as
compared with coping a National
League flag for Redland
MIR. Taft is responsible for the APP
pearance in the role of a magnate
of Chubby Charles Murphy, the great
/ est of all disturbers of the baseball
congregation. who has recently resur-
: rected himself and injected his ro-
tund and rubicund personality into a
situation from which il was thought
he had been permanently elected In
his callow days Mister Murphy was
J employed in the humble capacity of
soda squirt in a Cincinnati drug store
AT a later period Charley became a
baseball reporter for a Cincinnati
paper
AS a scribe Murphy was in a po
sition 10 get inside information about
matters in the baseball world On,
day he got a tip that the Chicago
club was on the market. owing e
the failure of John r. Walsh. the
Chicago banker, who had controlled
the Cubs. Charley didn't sit righ
down and write a story about it fol
his paper. Stead of that. he took ;
good look at himself i'm a mirror anC
tried to imagine himself as a base
ball magnate 10 looked good to him
so he hiked to Cincinnati to get thu
money While the club was beinl
offered at a bargain price. Murphy
capital was hardly equal to thu
strain Baseball reporters are no
usually men of great wealth, ant
Murphy's resources at the momen
consisted of his clothes and a littl
loose change He hunted up Mr.
Taft and told him of his ambitions
Mr. Taft Obligingly consented to fl
nance the deal, and "ShOestrini
Charley" became the owner of tn
Cubs. The noxt season the club cop
ped the worlds flag. and Murph
made Sl65.000 on the season. Charlie
paid off his debt and waxed wealth
and plump. but he didn't exactly max
hit with tho fans. and eventual
popular disfavOr forced him TO sci
his holdings In the Cubs TO his bene
factor. Mr.. Taft. Charles Webb Nun
ply then oozed off the baseball MAJ
but recent revelations indicate tina
his retirement wasn't as retiring a
| was ihOnght.