Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-06-10
CLUBS CAN MEET TAX
AND HELP THE GAME
Changes and Fewer Players Would
Cut Expenses and Please
the Fans.

Looks now as II Congress would Leg
islate to collect the war tax on base
ball from tho patrons instead Of from
tho club owners. as was at hrstreport-
ed. said report scaringseome people
(notably In Minneapolis and st. Paul.
into wanting to close UP shop, writes
Sanborn in the Chicago Tribune. How
ever that may be, there were plenty of
magnates worrying about it because
the payment Of 10 per cent of their
gross receipts to the government meant
the difference between profit and loss
| for the majority Of them the way the
game is conducted.
| So far as the tax on admissions alone
| is concerned. it would have been or
would be possible for the club owners
to curtail their expenses enough TO on
| would be to cut down the player limit
| to that extent. Merely suppostng
| major league pay roll for players
amounts to 100000 for year-it Is
| of 10 per cent could be effected by cut
| ting the limit down so as to dispense
| with four pinch hitters at $500 per.
| That would reduce the cost of travel
| ing and hotel bills in the same ratio
Best of. all, it would improves the
! game and so counteract the inevitable
! falling off in patronage due to the war
{ tax and the disturbance of conditions
| caused by the war itself
/ Plethora of Players Now.
| With the present limit of thirty-nve
! players up to May Is and twenty-five
| players in the American and twenty
| two in the National from then on till
| the fall recruiting season begins, major
league managers have such a plethora
of talent they have been able to de-
velop the pinch hitting form of STRAIT
| egg to the limit. The pitcher who al
| lows more than three or four hits in
| these days in almost sure to be taken
out. especially If his team is behind in
| the runmaking in the early innings.
AS soon as it comes the pitchers turn
to bat he is replaced by bench warm
er who occasionally gets on, but usual
ly gets out. Then another pitcher
| works two or three innings and, if his
another bench warmer. and SO on.
This system Is partly responsible for
the paucity of hitting that has afflicted
base ball recently and this year In par
ticuar. 1t also is responsible for re-
moving a lot of interest from the sport
When a team makes couple of runs
in the first inning the fan as a rule
considers the game settled. because II
the losing team starts batting enough
to overcome that lead the pitcher usu-
ally is replaced by fresh finger. The
only way a team can overcome a lead
of five runs nowadays is to be helped
by a flock of errors or the hand of
Providence.
Much more uncertainty would be in
sured If the result of the game were
made to depend more on the ability Of
the players than on the strategy of the
managers, and said strategy could be
minimized if his resources were cur
tailed.
There is another angle to the case:
Base ball thrives largely on publicity
In the present situation. with white
paper so scarce and the cost of postage
and everything else connected with the
production of a newspaper going up. 1t
is fight for space every day in the
week and on Sundays, too. 1t is only
question of time, if the managers are
not curbed, before it will be impossible
to find space for the box scores of all
the games played in the major leagues.
Case of Fielder Jones.
When a manager like Fielder Jones
of the ST. Louis Browns uses from fif
teen to twenty men in game habitu-
ally, instead Of the nine or ten men
who could complete it just as success
fully nine times out of ten, it doubles
the space occupied by the score of the
Browns game. If half the managers in
each major league go crazy. too. 1t may
double the space required for printing
the full scores of the games. And
goodness knows the fans eat up those
box scores.
If'the strategically crazy managers
are permitted to compel then news
papers of the country to cut the re-
ports of ball games down to scores by
innings only it is going to make
bigger cut in the attendance than the
war tax will, because it will deprive
the enthusiast of some of the fuel by
which he keeps up the fires of his
enthusiasm.
The powers that be in base ball,
therefore, can trim their sails to the
coming storms by reducing the number
of players on team and a the same
time increase the chances that their
patrons will be fed continuously with
complete box scores.