The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-11-22
Meeting of Baseball
Leagues Next Tuesday.
Proposal to Change the Whole Map
of Organized Baseball the
Center of Interest.

What promises to be the most import
ant meeting of the National Associa-
ton of Professional Baseball Leagues
in several years will begin next Tues
day and continue three days.
Interest will center largely about
proposals to change the whole map of
organized baseball so far as the min
or leagues are concerned, and as the
plan will meet opposition the sessions
may develop into exciting affairs.
In this connection the proposal
about which the greatest amount of
gossip has centered and which seems
likely to produce the bitterest contro-
versy is the plan to form new or
ganization from parts Of the Ameri-
can Association and International
League. The proposed league would
include Louisville, Indianapolis, CO.
lumbus and Toledo from the American
Association and Toronto, Buffalo,
Newark and Baltimore from the In
ternational League. The four clubs
in each league which would be left
out in the cold under this arrangement
are expected to furnish all the oppo-
sition to the project of which they are
capable.
In addition demands will be made,
it is said, by interests in the Western,
Pacific Coast, Texas, Three and Cen
tral Leagues, the Southern Associa-
ton and several other organizations
for relignment Of then territories.
Among the specific changes said to
be desired is the addition of Shreve-
port, Texas League city, to the
Southern Association. and the trans
fer of Seattle from the Northwestern
League to the Pacific League.
In addition to these changes others
would probably be forced by the sue
cess of any effort to form a new COM
bination from parts of the American
Association and International League.
Otherwise there would be no berths
for some of the best minor league
towns in the country.
Preceding the meeting of the Ma
tional Association of Professional
Baseball Leagues, the Western League
will hold a meeting tomorrow. The
Three I and Central League will also
foregatehr. The American Associa-
tion will hold its annual meeting
Tuesday, on which day the National
Board of Arbitration will be in ses-
sion.
A movement may be launched to
suspend operations in several smaller
minor leagues until the close of the
war. Practically every organization
from the big American Association.
International and Pacific Coast
Leagues down, suffered seriously last
season. twenty-five minor leagues
started the season and only about
half of them finished. Only five
leagues went through without chang
es in their circuits.
The blows to the minors began to
fall early in the season. The Vir-
ginia league disbanded May Is. Two
days later the North Carolina league
gave up and three days later saw the
finish of the Georgia Alabama circuit
Early in June the Central-TeXas lea
que gave way. The Dixie league and
the Northern Association suspended
early in July. The Three I league,
which had weathered all kinds Of con-
ditions for seventeen years, was
obliged to suspend on July 8. The
Northwestern league held on for a
week longer and the Central Asso-
citation managed to continue until
August 7.
The Western league was forced to
change its alignment and split its
season in July to stir up new interest
Even the American Association be-
gan to slash expenses early in the sea-
son because of the heavy losses due
to postponements, resulting from un-
seasonable weather conditions.
Presidents of several minor leagues
in the middle west are whole-hearted-
ly in favor of putting baseball in the
shelf for a year and possibly two
They favor releasing all players and
starting new at the close of the war
on a less expensive operating basis
Continuation of present selasies of
minor league players, they contend
is out of the question. The unsettled
conditions in the minors, however, are
not entirely due to the war in the
league, in the opinion of Harry w.
Stahlefer, president of the Central
league. He believes the small, mex
pensive motor car has seriously cut
down the attendance in the smaller
cities.
"From my study of the situation
L.