Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-01
CONTRACT
IS ONLY CURE FOR
CHRONIC H0LD0UT
Writer Believes Players Should
Be Paid According to
Finish of Team.
BY !. e. SANBORN.

With the major league pennant races
only a little over a fortnight old, most
of the annual holdouts epidemic already
has been cured, there being only n
or two serious cases that have resisted
treatment by the coin dispensers.
Although neither of the champion
ship teams this year was able to tie
the record established last spring by
Jim Dunn, owner of the Cleveland
club. both New York teams brought. all
their players into the fold before the
season opened. The boss of the Indian
tribe. it will be remembered, signed up
all the worlds champions during the
winter of 192O-21 without a holdout.
Col. Rupert of the Yankees and Presi-
dent Stoneham of the Giants had one
or two recalcitrants apiece when the
training trips started, but the prolong-
ed cases of the holdout disease were in
second division teams as a rule.
Coast MoguIs Have Idea
Out on the Pacific coast the base
bal promoters have adopted an old
idea in a slightly revised form which
might help reduce the number of dis
satisfied players if it became more gen
era1. That is a bonus proposition,
whereby the sum of $4,000 is to be
distributed out of the Pacific Coast
leagues treasury to members of seven
or the eight teams, on a percentage
system graded according to where said
teams finish. This leaves out only
the tail Lenders.
For several years in the major
leagues the players of the teams fin
ishing first, second, and third in each
circuit have been awarded a percent
age OF the worlds series receipts, but
there has been no provision for sec
ond division outfits in the big show.
In both these cases, however, the
psychological effect OF the players who
receive these e~moluments at the end
OF their campaigns has not been as
beneficial as if the dough had come
out of the pockets of the individual
club owners directly. In the end. of
course, that is where the money does
come from indirectly. The Pacific
Coast club owners make up the purse
that is to be distributed next fall. and
in the major leagues the pool for the
players is extracted from the receipts
into the bankrolls of the magnates.
But the athletes don't look at it that
way.
Brittons Had Bonus Plan
Schuyler Britton, who had a brief
career in baseball while pinch hitting
for Mrs. Britton as boss of the Car
dinals, got good results from the d.
rect application of the bonus system
one year. Then the st. Louis club
changed hands, and the bonus plarl
was discontinued. 1t was simple. The
Cards were offered contracts with a
bonus of 10 per cent for finishing
fourth in the race, and so on up, the
additional coin to come out of the
clubs treasury. That was before the
worlds series money was distributed
any except the two competing
teams.
Some combination of that system
and the one adopted by the Coast
league ought to prove effective in cut
ting down the roster of holdouts. At
the theory of the player seems
be to demand a raise as a reward
for past performances. If a bonus sys-
tenn is applied which will automatically
reward members of successful teams.
that will help a little.
New Form of Contract
Suppose a new form of contract
were adopted, by which the players
signed for a certain salary to be paid
hem If their team finished eighth. with
4 fixed percentage of increase for each
attained higher Than last place !.
The men would be made to feel they I.
had received their reward of merit at )
he end of each season, instead of try .
ng to get it by holding out for blue !
sky salaries the following year. :
That would not help much in e1cep- :
ional cases, such as that of Dick Kerr ,
If the White Sox, who held out for :
more coin although his team finished :
n the ruck last year. But it would ,
lelp in the general run of cases. In I
his connection ] was sorry to read 1
hat President Comiskey still claimed
o have charge of White Sox affairs
or l had believed the failure to meetI
he terms of a nan who saved the il
worlds series Of 1919 from total b
vreckage was the fault of some one i
Who cared more for the coin than the :
of baseball. b