New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-10-29
Inter League Exhibition
Games Will Replace
Contests with BusherS
By W. ]. MACBETH


Radical changes in spring training
will mark the major league prepare
tons for the 1917 campaigns.
So much benefit was experienced
from inter-league exhibition games IN
the Southland last spring that a new
policy just naturally originated of it.
self. By strange coincidence the two
local teams-Giants and Yankees-hit
on the idea simultaneously. The APP
parent wisdom of the scheme has APP
pealed to other managers, so that 1t
would not be at all surprising If the
new practice became general at once.
The Giant management stole some OF
its rivals thunder by announcing its
training plans first. The Giants will go
to Marlin, Tex, about the usual time
March /. 1t is expected that within a
month McGraw will have his club ready
for real hostility. Meanwhile the De-
troit Tigers, under Hughie Jennings,
will be drilling at Waxahachie, Tex.
The two forces will join about April l
at Dallas, Tex, for the first OF a series
of exhibition games arranged along a
route that will carry the clubs in COM
pany back to Kansas City.
Yanks VS.. Braves
A similar arrangement has been eff
fected between the Boston Braves,
who train at Miami, Fla, and the New
York Yankees, whose spring camp Is
located at Macon, Ga. By the time
George Stallings's clan is ready to
move north a junction will be made
with Bill Donovan's hopefuls. The
team will tour the most thickly popu-
lated centres of the South and the best
cities of the Atlantic seaboard on the
way north.
Now comes word from Philadelphia
that Connie Mack is trying to arrange
with the champion Brooklyns for sim
liar transforming junket These two
teams instituted athletic relations last
spring in series Of five games. The
tail-enders of the American League be-
gan to show major league promise tow
ard the end of last season. II would
not be at all surprising if Connie Mack
came up with club next spring capa-
BILE of giving the best run for its
money.
recommend the new training systems
adopted by the New York clubs, and no
drawbacks discernible at this distance
Most important is the expected benefit
toward the perfection Of play for the
championship seasons. 1t is well
known fact that major league players
cannot look seriously upon the games
booked with minor league opposition in
the springtime.
/ For one thing, down in the sticks
players are not so well prepared as
their big major brothers before the reaI
fights start. About the time the elect
are leaving the South the bushers re-
port for practice Consequently the lit.
tie fellows are in no shape physically
to furnish even the competition OF
which they would be capable at the end
of the season. Naturally, too, the minor
teams are at their very worst for al
the best of the year before have gradu.
ated to some faster company. Even
games between the first and second ag-
gregatons of the same club get better
results than the so-called exhibitions
with brush talent.
/ Financial Side
There is another consideration, too
and a big one, for it involves the finan.
cial side of the proposition. Repeated
visits of major teams to the South have
taught the inhabitants not to expect
much from the major clubs opposed
to weaker foes. Nobody quicker than
the "bug" gets onto the fact that major
league players regard these contests as
jokes, and jokes they naturally are
bound to be.
There was time when the South was
enthusiastic enough. Then the training
trips sometimes showed something OF
a profit. Within the last five years
major league clubs have been lucky in
deed to make a grub stake out of the
entire spring tour. In fact. lately il
has cost every major league team own.
er an average of $4,000 to get ready
each spring. ~
That minor league citizens are in
terested in major league base
ball between major league clubs
in major league earnest was pro-
ven clearly in Texas last year.
The Giants and Tigers played five
games in the Lone Star State. Those
five games got McGraw and Jennings
both back home with a profit to show
instead of the customary deficit.
Irrespective of the immediate fnan-
cial end, this new system can scarcely