The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1914-01-11
FEDERAL LEAGUE BY
NO MEANS A MENACE
Eastern Writer Says Baseball
Public VIII Be Gamer
by Venture.
MUST SHOW IT'S CLASS
New Organization VIII Win
Favor if 1t Supplies High
a. q class Ball.
MUST SHOW IT'S CLASS

They say that confession is good fol
the soul. so the writer rises to remark
that he has been abic TO enjoy several
hours of unfr,,ubled sleep and q couple
of fair-sized meals since the news
burst upon an astounded world that Joe
Tinker aud Mon lecai Brown had jumped
organized ball FOR the Federal league,
writes E. A. Bat,helor.
This admission probably is enough
TO convict anyone Of lacking enthu-
siasm and patriotism, for almost every
body else seems to regard the detection
of Joseph and Mordecai as the great
est national calamity since the assassi-
nation of Lincoln. Still we refuse TO
GET the least bit flusterod and cannot
perceive anything but the remotest pos
sibility of the present big leagues being
wrecked by the loss of these two aging
athletes.
The coming of the Federal league
looks like one of the best things
in the world not to worry about. II
the new circuit makes a go of It,, all
right. If it falls flat on ITS infant
back before the Fourth of July, all
right again. On the one hand, the mag
mates who are grasping large handfuls
of kale every summer will grieve them
selves almost to death 10 think that
some Of il is escaping them. On the
other, men whose money is sunk in the
Federal will be lighter in the region of
the hip pocket and heavier in the dome.
in either event, there will be plenty OF
good baseball for the fans next season,
no matter by what names leagues here
and there may choose to call them-
selves, and that is the real essential.
People Not Interested.
When it comes right down TO brass
tacks, the "ccmmon peepul," whose
hard Learned money makes baseball a
mighty profitable business for some
body, do not care whoop who declares
the dividends. If they are getting a
good article Of baseball at fair price
they will keep on going to the parks
and some OF them viii keep ON going
If neither of these things is produced.
The Federal league is business
proposition in which those magnates
with whom it competes are vitai1y in.
terested, but it is not likely to influ-
ence the American peoples taste to
become unpopular with the masses. Loud
walls of sympathy for the poor stricken
magnates who are about TO have their
monopoly spoiled rend the cold winter
air in all quarters il is true, but these
walls come more from the newspaper
offices where the boys are trying to fill
space in the dull season and from the
nagnates themselves than from anybody
else.
Bill Smith. who sits in the bleachers
every day and who bursts his illumi-
mated way into the grandstand on state
occasions seems TO be viewing the ad-
vent of the Feds and their pernicuous
activities with amazing fortitude Plain
", he doesn care cuss where Joe
Tinker aud Brown play so long as
there is n sbortstop and n pitching
staff on his own particular home club.
VIII Get Some Play.
If the Fcderals can show as good
brand of baseball at as good price
as the majors, they viii get part of the
play, beyond question. II they offer q
better article or thc same article for
less money they will certainly cut into
the present outfits very heavily. But
first they must show something. Mere
ly signing q few veteran major leaguers
who have only a couple more seasons
of good baseball in them viii not do
Il. There are possibly half dozen
stars in the two large leagues whose
presence even on losing club would
insure n coed attendance, but barring
these. no dividends arc paid on the
personal popularity of individual ath-
letes
Give the public n winner and il will
not care much whether the line-,Ip con.
sists OF Smith. Jones and Brown ct ais,
ar Jones. Green and Robinson The
Feds might take fifty good men from
the big leagues and still not seriously
hurt those organi cations. for the towns
IN which winning bali was berng played
would continue TO draw and the chronic
losers Gou't make much money any
how. except IN rare eases.
IL is safe 20 ass1me that the Fed
eral league viil mako money in some
of its cities and that il Will lose in
others. No lesguc car have eight pen
nant winners IL :he same season, nor
ren all It's clubs he IN ;hs first division.
il depends on the size of thc bankroll
whether the league con affcrd TO con-
tinue where Il places losing clubs
The public. J; would seem. stands to
win on the deal whether the Federals
stand or fall. II the ncw league shows
cause for its existence. then there will
nc inst so many more ball games 10 at.
tract the fans. whilc if II bOgs down.
Tic present organizations viii continue
10 10 business 1T tho old stand.