The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-03-11
BOXING,
WRESTLING,
AQUATICS,
TENNIS, POLO
WAR HAS COST
COLD MILLION
pocketbooks ofBasebaIl Magnates
Are Handed Hard Blow

Federal ltuSutiS ttiiNtihN nave tbSl Ut
gonized baseball more than $1,000, 600,
according to the best estimates at
hand. And the playing season stiI T.
six weeks away. The loss has been
occasioned to organized baseball
through being forced to pay increased
salaries, under long contracts. To all
plavers who remained loyal and
through the fact that every major or
minor Lacquer who jumped to the Feds
meant monetary loss.
If otto Knabe, the second sacker
had remained with the Phllics they
could have sold him at any time for
something like 10000. Brennan the
PhilIic pitcher would have brought ot
least $4,000. Russell Ford, the Yankee
twirlcr, could have been sold by Frank
Farrell to the Cleveland Maps, or t.
anyone of several other clubs, fot
about 1000. Cy F'alkenberg, the clon-
gated Nap twirler, would have brought
around $7.OOO-perhaps more-had he
bceu placed on sale Blanding AMI
Kahler, the other Nap twirlers who
Jumped to the eds, would have brought
at least $4,000 each.
Tinker Was a Big Loss.
Tiukers value was fixed at $4,000,
George Stovall. Mordecai Brown,
Pitched Hendrix, Catcher Simon and
and the others who jumped from the
major league ranks, were valued at
amounts ranging from $4,000 to $4,000
or $1,000 More than forty players
from the Class IA organizations have
jumped to the Feds, and each of these
at a conservative estimate, has a cash
value around $4,000.
Included in the ranks of the Feds are
some players from the Class \ and
Class b teams many of them dia-
monds in the rough. that some day
may have had a value of $500 r
more.
President Gilmore, of the Feds,
states that his organization already
has colTaled about 200 players. OF
this number about 10 will be players
that have been taken away from or
hdlllH'u bdHfDtlll. ldNlll6 lllt average
value of each of these players at ST.
OOO-a low cstimatc-it will be seen
that organized baseball has lost some
thing like. $4,000 worth of players
during the two months of Federal ac-
tvty.
The other great loss suffered 10y the
organized baseball magnates is in the
high salaries they have had to pay
their men. not only for the coming
season, but for the next two and three
seasons. The Brooklyn club furnishes
an excellent example of this.
Players Ask Big Increase.
Charles IL. Ebbets. the Dodgers
owner was i'm Porto Rico when the
news of Tinkers descrtion and the
raids of the Federals came to him. He
Jumped the first boat for the United
States and Immediately upon landing
set out to lasso his players and tie
them so that they couldn't get loose.
Ebbets found many of his players
very coy about signing Ebbets knew
1t was case of paying the men the
salaries they demanded or leaving
them open to jump to the Feds. Eh
bets didn't parlcy much. He paid the
men what they wantcd-and that
means that he paid many of them from
$1,000 to $1,000 more than they got
last year, and just that much more
Than he would have paid them this
Year if it hadn't been for the activity
Of the Feds.
Not only did Ebbets sign up his men
Tor one year, but he got their sigma
lures for two and three years He
wanted Ed Ruclbach, the big pitcher, |
to sign up for five years, but Ed tura-
'd him down. II is said that Ebbcts
even went SO far as to go to players
Who were under contract for 1914, and
thus immune from the Federal attacks |
OF the present, and offered them cou-l
tracts for 1918 and 1916 at increased |
salaries.
Minors Also Suffer.
Ebbets admits that the signing up
OF his players this year cost him be-
tween $4,000 and $4,000 more than
Ne expected il would cost. Ebbets, !
perhaps, lost more money this way
IMAM did the other fifteen magnatcs ia
III" big leagues because he had more |
pl'lers on the reserve list than did the'
o'hcrs. But from all the information
mat can be gathered, it seems that II
VoSt each major league magnate about |
'"OoOO extra TO sign up his players
'his year. There are sixteen mag
mates, so the total is siS0,000.
The sixteen magnates i'm the two
,'dss IA organizations are said -
nave paid out at least $4,000 more
aPlece to sign up their men than they
u'u last year, which adds about Slg2,-
WV To the total The smaller organi-
@atlons lost but little-$30,OOO perhaps
WI cover their total-beCause the |
euorals passed most of their players
~ directing their efforts to getting
"'e major leaguers or the Glass IA
men.
hese hgures, totaled together VIII |
,''W mat the Joke" Federal League
mas cost the organized baseball people
Just about half Of the combined profits
','eS looked for i'm 1914. And from all
'''t can he noticed lust now, il looks