Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-10
FEDERAL BOOM
MEANS MUCH
To VETERANS
OId-Timers Only Ones Benefited
by Present Fight, Declares a
Baseball Expert.
Bv Sam Crane.

w Kicking up quite a cloud Of
w dust just now, the young
olavers in organized baseball do not
want to be blinded by it.
Certain older players, who have
,nlv a. few years of baseball life left,
have and will scurry to cover under
tho furry and help themselves to all
The visionary good things" that are
berg handed out so literally by the
nronoters Of the new league, who
have been behind the stormclouds
and aroused the preliminary dust just
for the purpose of befogging the I'M
Initiated.
The old timers are the ones who
will be first to take advantage OF the
boom. and they will be found in the
snd-or when the clouds clear-to be
he only ones benefited. They will
have feathered their nests with the
preliminary coin at hand, which Is
always too literally distributed, and
the Youngsters who follow in the
wake of the wise old "has-beens' will
only have the leavings-and the pick
ngs of what is left will be very, very
meager.
BECAUSE Joe Tinker, Otto Knabe,
u Mordecai Brown and other play
. ers. who have not more than three
| years at the most to look forward to
| In baseball, have jumped at the, chance
to make this soft money" and they
can not be blamed either for their de-
sire to make themselves well fixed
/ in their declining athletic years, still
/ the youngsters with future ahead of
them should not follow like sheep
I and make the plunge. They, If they
do that, are leaving certainty for
! too, that at the best outlook that can
be given it has nothing stable to
| recommend it.
have been through three wars in
baseball against organized baseball,
and know whereof / speak.
The Federal League has a perfect
right to launch out and try. The
new organization can not be called an
outlaw" either, until it does some
thing to warrant the stigma title,
When the Federal League attempts to
iteal players from organized base
ball by inducing the latter to jump
the reserve rule, the bulwark of or
ganized baseball, then the name out
law might be given them, but not
until then.
ETHE Federal League has just as
much right to start a baseball
league as the National or American
Leagues, to grasp new territory legal
", The only question for the play
ers to decide is the buttering of their
bread, and surely the side that has
always shown real butter and plenty
of it is preferable to the ones who
ran only make promises and they
Very doubtful of fulfillment.
If was a young player of promise,
would take advantage of the pres
emit situation by signing long term
contract with a club in organized
baseball. The player doing this will
pc absolutely sure of his salary for
Inc term of years he signs for, and
al salary that will be bigger than
NNSi Oh League tAloo AlOS Si-
tered into the field
The big leagues may pooh pooh the
lew league; decry it's financial stand
ng and predict dire failure for it,
put nevertheless the same old leagues
are worried more than they care to
knowledge, and nothing shows that
more than their willingness, in fact
lsSire, to sign their players for term
years. And this is just the time
nat is offered the youngster and
es' the oldster, to climb on to the
pandwagon of organized baseball
ana by the oldster l mean players
'Ao have been in the game as long
Chief Meyers and others, who are
apparently watching the drift OF
vents with more financial sentiment
ian loyalty to the league and club
nat made them.