The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-05-03
WEST COAST BASEBALL
LEAGES ORGANIZED
(Tampa Times)

Plant City, st. Petersburg and Fort
Dade as members. Mayor C. B. Root
of Plant City was elected president,
j. f. Worthington of Tampa, sec
rotary, D. W. Budd, st. Petersburg,
and Lieut.. Frank, Fort Dade, as vice
presidents, and also as members of
the board of directors, serving with
r. M. Ybor of Tampa, R. r. Tomlin
of Plant City, and President Root in
that capacity. DR.. L. A. BiZe, as
treasurer, completes the officers. An
other meeting will be held at the
DeSoto hotel at 1880 o'clock Friday
at which articles of agreement are
to be signed, and other details taken
up during luncheon there.
Instructions were given J. E.
Worthington, r. r. Tomlin and Chas.
Bishop, named as a committee on
articles of agreement and schedules,
to draft working plan for the
league and bring up a schedule for
three months play, opening about
May IS. Plant City will probably be
given the opening game on that day
with the first game in Tampa the
following Saturday. The schedule
committee was advised to give pref
erence to Tuesdays and Thursdays
for the Plant City nine. Sunday
games will probably be arranged for
Fort Dade's at home, and the other
games divided, with Saturday and
Monday securing fair representa-
ton here.
1t was agreed that the Plant City
and st. Petersburg teams should be
composed of home talent-and the
plan of those two cities is to use vol
unteer players rincipally-with the
exception of two men that may be
hired. Fort Dade's nine will consist
of the soldiers at Egmont key, and
/ Tampa will confine its team to play
} ers living here. Lists of sixteen eli
: gibles will be submitted before the
league opens, to be adhered to
l throughout the season. BY the re-
strictions proposed the representa-
tives of the teams present today be-
lieve that a well-balanced league can
be run through the summer months
=, with interest maintained throughout
the season by an even pennant race
Knight & Wall company offered a
. silver loving cup to the pennant win
:. ners and the offer was accepted
!. Plant City tried to stipulate that il
. be engraved before the season open
|. ed, Presented to the Plant City
team, Champions of the West Coast
n Baseball League, 1916" but the mo-
e ton was downed by the full force OF
|. the other clubs. It'll be that way
d anyhow" Mr.. Tomlin promised. 1T
|, might as well be engraved in ad-
q vance" But the idea was not popu-
D lar with the Tampans and dougtlesS
: Fort Dade and st. Petersburg are
- also "agin it."
y On the heels of Knight & Wallis
offer was that of Cuban Consul R. NJ
Ybor, who offered cup for the best
batting average. The offer was ac-
cepted with thanks and while Tom
knight of Plant City put over a mo-
tion that the Reach bali be adopted
@ by the league as official, the league
: found no other manner in which tc
\ reciprocate to Mr.. Ybor save to as.
sure him of it's unanimous support il
D he makes the race in Cuba for mem.
Der of the isalnd republics congress
NJ Tampa's Cuban consul returns to
Havana to become candidate he'll
carry the endorsement of the West
: Coast League.
There was another matter that did
not get into the minutes, of which
Tom Knight was the author. 1t was
in reference to the uniforms. Some.
one suggested that an appropriate
emblem be put on the uniforms and
knight claimed the strawberry fol
Plant City, suggesting that Tampa
could use the cigar, st. PETERSBURG
the humble crab-fiddler if preferred
and Fort Dade a cannon. Dave
Budd, although acquiescing by Ions
distance telephone in general plan
of the league, was not on hand to
protest AGAINST the crab He'll re
ter word for the Sunshine City vet
The Plant City delegation was
composed of c. B. Root, R. S. Tyner
R. R. Tomlin, Lou ]. Knight. L. G
Germany, w. F. Sansone, w. L.
s Robinson, F. G. Robinson and NJ.
H. Brown. R. NJ. Ybor. president
of the Tampa Baseball Club, and ].
E. Worthington, secretary, repre-
sented Tampa. There were eight
or nine others from this city on hand
and Charles Bishop, the original
baseball missionary, talked for Lieu.
tenant Frank of Fort Dade and Dave
Budd of St. Petersburg. At Fridays
meetins. however. all of the cities