The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-02-07
Sport Wheezes
by CLUG-

Lefty George, the former Kansas
City pitcher who has been up and
down in baseball during the past year
to - considerable extent, has been
signed by the Richmond club of the
International league.
Rip Zip George Washington label.
the Baldwin pitcher who has been con-
nected with the hurting staff of the
Chicago Cubs for the past two sea-
sons has been put on the market by
Manager Tinker, according to an ex-
change.
Robert Hedges, former owner of the
St Louis Browns. states that wealthy
magnates are menace to baseball.
The owners with huge rolls can go
the limit in purchasing talent, and
this eventually makes a league top
heavy" Sir Bob asserts.
AnG in bringing up the subject of
big wealth in baseball Hedges tore
the lid off. exposing a subject that is
worthy of controversy and discussion.
And the subject has many angles and
many sides. all of which may be group
ed under the general heading: Base
ball-a business and a sport
Il IS an acknowledged fact that
baseball is one of the greatest out
door pastimes ever invented, concocted
or conceived. Sometimes it is a great
business proposition, and sometimes it
is rot. But if conditions were as they
should be, baseball long ago should
have been as good a business invest
ment as Standard Oil.
But baseball is always more or less
a hazardous gamble. This question was
discussed with a Western league mag
nate some time ago, and he was asked
why it is that the Western league club
owners, knowing conditions in their
towns as they do, permit the league to
run on year after year with half the
clubs, or more. losing money every
year when the application of a. little
business efficiency and a little CO.
operation would make a large per cent
of the clubs money makers every year.
The magnate admitted that the ma
jority of Western league club owners
are in baseball principally for the pur-
pose of making money out OF it. How
ever he explained the perpetual losses
of half or more of the clubs in words
somewhat as follows: The sensible
thing would, of course, be to have
4 salary limit as we now have and
TO run the league on basis that
would permit a reasonable return on
the investment held by every club
owner, but the great trouble has been
the sheep-like tendency to follow the
leader.
In times past the leader has been
man who was wealthy and who was
out to win regardless of cost This
man, by sbu ing expensive players
forced the other clubs to do likewise.
with the result that all the clubs found
themselves owners of better and faster
ball teams that were bigger financial
burdens than the poorest of teams
could have been. And it is this kind
of magnate that Hedges probably
meant when he said wealthy mag
mates are menace to baseball
The Western league now seems to
have cleared the wealthy ma gnate
danger under its OLD form, but there
are those who believe it is facing the
sa me disastrous thing in the formation
of stock-oWned clubs, headed by home
town philanthropists who are liable TO
do the same thing the wealthy mag
nate once did. A baseball stock com
pany headed by an enthusiastic local
booster who considers 4 winning ball
club a matter of civic pride, to be ha
at any price, is far more dangerous
than an individual magnato with u
surplus amount of money. 1t is more
dangerous because the losses incurred
are not borne by one individual, bur
by many, and consequently are not felt
50 heavily.
gobs of money and the reckless pur-
chasing of high price players profit
those who indulge in these things? 1t
has been demonstrated that such tao
tics demoralize the less lucre burden
ed clubs. But, aside from this, do
they profit their progenitors?
Leaving the Western league and
jumping to the ma jors, it is easy to
cite instances where such tactics have
not turned the tide of victory as those
who have followed them expected.
Last year Cha rles ComiSkey spent
more than 10000 legal tender dol
lars trying to buy a pennart winner
and failed The New York Giants are
supposed to be backed by some of the
wealthiest mon in baseball, yet they
finished last in 1915. This, in spite of
the fact that McGraw had at his COM
mand a roll big enough to choke q
giraffe.
And, in addition to all this, some of
the greatest baseball teams ever pro-
duced have been produced by industry
and brains rather by dollars. 1t is
conceded tht Connie Mack's recent
Athletic machine was one of the great
est baseball organizations ever build
ed. And it is doubtful if the whole