The Washington herald., 1916-12-31
CLASS AA MAGNATES
FAVOR SHORT SCHEDULE
Heydler Gives Out Statistics on Mum
Der Of Postponed Games.

Nov York, Dec. so-The need of q stin-
ulant In the grand old pastime as she Is
played IN the American Association, and
TIE International League. has been the
cry Of the club owners In both circuits
since the first Of the Federal League war
Losses sustained by the clubs In both
e. Leagues. should they be totaled, would
reach several hundred thousands Of dol
lars. and although last season showed
better attendance than the one previous,
new method for boosting interest among
the fans seemed Imperative.
The plan to play a schedule Of III
games in each league and follow 1t with
an inter-league series OF forty-eight
games. half of which are to be played in
each circuit. with all sixteen clubs COM
petfng, grew out Of the need for a stimu-
Iant
Magnates Of both leagues are confident
that the scheme adopted here December
IL VIII work out successfully, for they
have more than Aoo0o 900 actual population
In the cities Of both leagues to draw from.
not 20 mention attendance they should
draw from nearby towns and villages
during the progress OF the fnter-league
games
Few fans In the International League,
in comparison to the 2se2 Z5S population
Of that league a. compiled from the most
recent census records, have ever seen the
American Association clubs m action. The
same applies to the fans In American As
socfat1on cities with regard to Interna-
ional League clubs. The population Of
the association, taken from recent on
cial records, shows a total of 2160 III,
somewhat smaller than that Of the In
tional League. But the cities in both
leagues have been growing rapidly, and
the combined population taken from the
figures given above ID sos. So, not count
tpS ~ xrfh f,f fhN Ny,ol AaA
rt seems that with such an attraction
as the showing Of eight foreign teams in
either league the baseball fans WIN turn
out IN greater numbers. As the club own
; ers point out, interest In the two races
Win not bag az Il has done heretofore,
up to be divided among the players Of
the winning league VIII keep the athletes
on their toes throughout the playing sea-
500
b In the past years clubs hopelessIy out
Of the pennant races at the end Of Aug
ust have played Indifferent ball There
has been nothing to enthuse the players,
and without a fighting chance for honors,
any ball club is bound to lose interest
On the face of the plan It appears GER
tain that II will succeed. The worst that
the club owners can expect Is perhaps a
little better than an even break. and II
they do not feel like continuing the
scheme after 1917, nothing stands in their
way to revert back to the old system of
playing out their individual pennant
races.
The annual report of Secretary John A.
Heydler OF the National League shows
that during the 1916 season there were 9s
postponed games, p Of which were IN
April. q in the month of June and the
remainder scattered throughout the other
months Of the season. Boston, Brooklyn,
and Pittsburgh suffered most. each hav-
ing sixteen postponements. st. Louis had
but six.
Ninety-nine doubIe-headers were played
as follows: At Boston, II; Brooklyn. 16;
New York, 16; Philadelphia, Il; Pitts
hurEh, a.; Chicago. 9: St Louis, s, and
Cincinnati, 3.
During the season 14.774 baseballs were
used. total OF 1.526 over the previous
season New York used the greatest
number Of balls and Pittsburgh the least.