New Britain herald., 1916-12-08
TENER BACKS UP
 RESERVE CLAUSE
National League President Says
 Rule Is Essential to Game

New York, Dec. 8.-"The new base ball contract recently approved by the X national commission is built upon the basic foundation of professional base ball-the reserve clause" said Presi-] dent Tener of the National league yes7 terday upon his return from ChicagoY where as a member of the national commission he assisted in the drawin gy up of a new form of contract.
 "The entire baseball structure is
 erected on the reserve clause, and the players need it every bit as much, as
 the owners. Without it baseball would
 be a disorganized mass of teams, in which few large cities could get all the good players. And the New York and Chicago clubs need Cincinnati and St. Louis to conduct their busi- ness" Tener said there was no oppositiop4 from the fraternity to placing the re- serve and ten day clauses in the new contracts He says both are abso- lutely essential to league baseball. !
 "When we eliminated the injury clause entirely from the new contract
 we merely interpreted the spirit of the
 contracts that have existed in the~ past" said the former PennsylvaniaI governor Major league clubs havex always paid the salaries of playersy injured in it's service, as far back as can recall. Even if an injury clause did exist in the contracts it never was 1 enforced.
 Conferred With Dreyfuss.
 l "rrhere was some talk that clut2 1 owner should be protected in ths i event that a player recovering rom an injury tried to loaf on the job. i believe players who would stoop tov
 do that are far in the minority, buti
 there are players who have not hesi | tated trying such tactics. For in-v
 stance, a player who had hurt his legA
 may try to favor that leg long aftea
 his injury just so he may sit in theN l cool of the bench. However, aftert talking it over we decided to eliminatef
 the injury clause in its entirety"
 Tener stopped in Pittsburgh on hist
 way east, where he was forced to list 1 en to some of Barney Dreyfuss' griev-c ] ances. However, the governor did& l much to smooth out Barney's ruffledH 1 feelings and convinced him that this
 was not such a bad world after all. | Dreyfuss intended to come to the( 1 New York meeting next week de- l manQ1ng HeTrInaffIl llSstd dS chdli
 man of the national commission, but ] it now is said Barney is willing to { l forgive and forget. Both Dreyfussv
 and Hermann attended an Elks' din
 uer in Pittsburgh last night.
 Pittsburgh reports quote Dryfuss1 as being anxious to punish McGraW I for granting interviews in which hd 1 said he would like to have Mamaux1 on his team. Tener said, Such caseSi ! are as old as baseball. Suppose some1 l baseball writer should ask Ebbetsy
 How would you like Hornsby on your1 l club?' Ebbets naturally would reply,
 He sure would fit in mighty nice McGraw Case Settled.
 l "The next day the writer may come
 out with a story, 'Ebbets wants Horns
 by to play shortstop.' Then the owner7 of Hornsby's club may accuse Ebbets1
 of tampering with one of his playersj
 when Ebbets is entirely innocent and] l did no more than answer a reporters question. That is how practically all]
 of such cases originate" 1 Whether the McGraw case will come up at the annual meeting of the na- 7, ! tionaI league Tener refused to say.I
 "So far as I am concerned the Mel ! Graw case is closed," said Tener. However, I do not know what will l happen at the meetings next week.
 The various club owners will be here ] for several days to discuss their busi- ness affairs and I cannot tell in ad- ! vance what questions they will bring l up."