Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-12-12
MAGNATES HAVE INNING NOW
Days Of High Salaries Are Over and
the Athlete Is Due to Suffer
Little in Future.
SPEAKER ON AUCTION BLOCK
ny FRANK q. MENKE.

NEW YORK, Dec. 11.-And now comes
the time when the magnates avenEe
4 themselves upon the players who two
, years ago held the whip-hand and dubbed
the owners in an unmerciful fashion.
Many Of the wartime base ball con-
tracts entered into I'm the spring OF 1914
expired at the close OF the 1915 season,
and that means that a lot OF players
who drew down husky salaries during
the last two years are due for rude
upset. Some OF them will be kept IN the
majors-at the magnates own terms. 9th
ers will be pushed down into the low
priced minors or out into the cold cruel
world with nothing to turn to but their
old jobs as plasterers. miners, bricklay-
ers. laborers. and ice wagon drivers.
The day OF high salaries Is over even
though the war still continues. The
Feds have ceased paying the price OF
kings ransom TO players for a couple
Of hours OF daily work. Tho magnates
in Organized Base Bail, therefore. do
not find Il necessary to meet the big
bids Of the Feds. They can sign players
almost at their own terms and they are
going to do II.
I The players who got 1900. $500 and
5000 during the last two seasons, will
be lucky II they get half OF that sum
during the coming season-and for many
seasons to come.
Many Of the players who used the
Feds as a club TO pound out big salaries
when the war began. we're given three
year contracts. That means that easy
money will continue to trickle in during
the 1915 season. But after that -.
SPEAKER ~ Auction BIoek.
Iris Speakers $4,000 per snnum con-
tract expired with the end Of the 1915
season. Iris il ION the fence" as to
1915. He wants to stay in Organized
Base Bail and he wants his old salary
again, but Il Is doubtful IL Joe Lannin.
the Red Sox owner, will come through"
as easily as he did In 1914, when he gave
Iris a two-year document. The Feds
want Iris. but not quite as much as
they did In the early days OF the war
and Il II doubtful II they will offer him
anything like s1s,5Oo.
How DO Yhu dope" Itf
Tn 1918 the Athletics and Giants min
gled In the world series battles. Each
team represented the best in its respec-
tive organization. In 1915 the Athletics
finished last in the American league and
tho Giants trailed in the National.
In the chse Of the Athletics II is easy
10 account for the slump. Eddie Col
Inns has gone, and so had Jack Barry,
Eddie Murphy. Eddie Plank. Jack
Coombs and Chief Bender. Connie Mack
had wrecked his team-and the natural
result followed.
But with the Giants II was different.
John MeGraw retained the bulk Of his
1919 stars. He strengthened the team In
its weak spots He had team that
looked as strong on paper as did the
1918 outfit. Yet the 1915 Giants were the
Jokes Of the league.
What Is the logical answer for the
Giants slump9 Didn't the players exert
, themselves2 Didn't they try TO play real
basebailf Or is the real answer the fact
that the other teams in the Tencr cir
. cult were so strengthened that the,
.. really were superior 70 the McGrav
{ squad.
A IL Reds Get Pitchers, beware.
II Charlie Herzog gets a couple o.
good pitchers during the winter his once
, timO mikfit Reds viii bear watching IL
Z 1915 Herzog's crowd outfielded every
} other team in the National league II
| 1915 Their hitting was nothing to gel
| excited about. but, Just the same, II wal
} hard enough and consistent enough &c
, have won many ordinary battles IL tht
, pitching had been Just bit better.
: The Reds have a wonderful pitcher II
Toney. a good pitcher In Dale and {
4 fair pitcher in Lear. But that's about al
far as they go in real pitchers Herzol
. is browsing around for a brace ~ first
: class twirlers and II success crowns hi
a efforts those Reds will be in the 1911
| fight