The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-14
MACK The M|SER
That Would Be Fitting Title
for Boss of Athletics.
His Tight Tactics Are the Dis
grace of Baseball.
BY FRANK G. MENKE.

New York, July 14.-Connie Mack
and his associates in the ownership of
the Athletics are disgracing the
American league. By their niggardly
methods they are working an injus-
tice upon the other seven clubs in the
circuit, and bunking the public by
staging sand-lot baseball for major
league prices.
How much longer is Ban Johnson
going to let Mack and the Shibes get
away with it
The Athletics of today rank as the
worst looking ball club that has ap-
peared on the horizon in many years
The condition has been brought about
mainly because Mack and his asso-
ciates have been too mfserly to go out
and buy real looking ball players.
They have secured the sand lots ana
plucked the youths from the cohege
diamonds They have hired the
cheapest ball players that can be hired
And then they foist that collection
of rockies upon the public ana de-
mand that it pay top-notch prices TO
see them perform in their atroclous
way.
Injustice to Other Clubs.
The attendance at the Athletic park
has shrivelled to a point where 1t is
almost necessary to use a microscope
to locate the crowd" That is as II
should be. Such treatment is the klnu
that should be doled out to clup own
ers who first wreck a great ball clup
and then refuse to expend money TO
build up a new one.
The Athletic owners are suffering
from small attendance as the penalty
for their present conduct-and they
richly have merited it. But why should
the other clubs-the seven innocent
ones-be made to suffer, too? Why
should Ban Johnson permit the Atm
letics owners to enter ball club SO
awful that it draws hundreds Wnere
it should draw thousands! why
should Ban permit the seven other
club owners to sacrifice thousands OF
dollars this season merely because
Connie Mack, ct al, refuse to buy even
a fair ball club?
Each club in the circuit plays twen-
ty-two games against the Mackmen-
eleven at home and eleven on the
road. If the Athletics had ball club
that was able to provide a real con-
test the average attendance at each OF
those twenty-five games Would De IN
would mean $4,000 paid admissions.
Averaging SO cents head, means
$4,000 receipts for each ser1es-a
conservative estimate
cost other Clubs 1000.
In most cities the split is on the
5000 basis on general admissions.
That means IndI 0hCn CluO WOoio 6Cs
500. during 1916 for playing out
its twenty-five game schedule with the
Athletics.
But the average attendance nova
days, with the Athletics is one part OF
the drawing card, is, at best, only
1000. That means a total income OF
| only $4,000 for twenty-five games
a share of only $1,000 for each op-
posing club instead of at least $4,000
In other words, it is costing the sew
en- other clubs in the circuit something
like $1,000 each because Ban John
son allows Connie Mack to play a
| bunch of dubs of the worst sort.
No Excuse for Action.
Every year in every league there
must be tail-ender. But there has
been excuses in the past for most OF
them. Their owners have tried to pur-
chase talent-have attempted to weld
| together as quickly as possible a team
that could play ball. The owners have
| opened their wallets and have stood
ready to pour out its contents if real
baseballers could be secured.
| But it is different with the Athletic
| owners. They aren't buying real bal