The Washington times., 1914-03-15
|SWING AROUND CIRCLE
WITH BIGLEAGUE CLUB
DURING AHOT CAMPAIGN
Public Hugs Many Deusions Concerning Enormous Salaries
Paid Players and Huge Sums Made by CIubs-Pubic.
ity Welcomed Nowadays by Most Magnates.
By THOMAS KIRBY.

, class. The Washington Clubs state
! ment is that Walter Johnson gets 81, 500
| for his work during 1914, while. Chick
Gandil's pay Is 5000 under a three-year
contract that commenced to run this
spring. AS to the pay Of the other men,
the public has simply to depend upon
guesswork. as this Is a personal matter
between the player and Clark Griffith.
II a player Is so fortunate as To be a
member Of one Of the teams taat work
the receipts Of the games for the uni
versal title may double his years COM
pensation. In addition to his regular
salary. q player is financially better of
by tho clause In the contract that COM
pels club to pay all hotel and trans
Ing.
As the clubs are each on the road half
Of the season, 1t will readily be seen
| that this is no small item in the matter
Of expense. Unless fond Of pleasure. a
ball player has an excellent opportunity
to profit greatly through his baseball,
for In addition to getting 4 compare
lively large salary. he :las many Of his
expenses stood for by his Employers,
and there is nearly five months Of each
year when he may give his undivided
attention to any business venture in
which he may invest his baseball money.
couple OF years ago there was a
sudden rush into print OF players who
picked up easy money by allowing the
use Of their names over articles pur-
porting to be written for them. While
men who actually write the articles for
which they stand, in a majority If cases
these were fakes. First the Baseball
Writers Of America, an organization of
the newspaper men who cover baseball
| in the major league cities, took I'd the
IN lot
presidents of the respective leagues
Both Ban Johnson and Tom Lynch came
out strong against the practice of decep-
ton, and now only those who prepare
their "own copy are supposed to be
allowing their names to carry articles
on the various features OF the national
sport.
Like In the matter Of salaries the
public has wrong idea of the earning
capacity Of ball club. It is proverb-
ial among those who have money in
vested in different franchises that
want to realize respectable profit on
your investment. There are some
cities that will support a losing team.
| but these are few. For near'y forty
but it was only during the past couple
of seasons that the stockholders re-
ceived what might be considered a
good interest on their money.
This was due to the fact that the
Griffmen were up there at every stage.
At home the people were. as a matter
of fact. most loyal. but on the road
the club also drew huge throngs in
practically every city. Spoiled bv hav-
ing had its championship club. De
troit Is now rated as one of the stops
where the team must be one. two. il
the season is to be a big one from a
financial viewpoint. Last summer.
, with the Tigers well down in the race.
the writer had to fight for nearly a
half hour to get into Navin field for
game which was watched by nearly
. 900 people with many thousands out
, side storming the gates in the hope of
getting point Of vantage. This is
cited. simply to prove the admiration
for the Nationals that is felt in cities
that are classed as having TO have
good teams to draw.
The cost Of operating a major league
club. including salaries. fixed charges
at the park. travelling and hotel bills.
averages from 10000 TO S225.n00 a year.
This is based on a statement from
, the office OF Ban johnson.