Evening star., 1922-02-20

Gil PidyClS WClC uluCI SOiltIdCl.
In. 1920 the differences of opinion as
to relative value of services of play
ers mounted to about $40,000.' con-
serSatively estimated. Some of these
differences were adjusted by increaS-
ing salaries and part were taken up
Dy promises OF bonuses for good play
inS~or good behavior.
Wide Apart This Year.
This year the differences between
club owners and players may be eSti-
mated. according to good judges, to
amount to almost S250.0e0. The mil
llon-dollar gate at the world series
stilh looms big in the eyes of the
players, who want their bit of past
and>future receipts.
Isn't it true your club is paying
the penalty of having won the cham
pionship?" Col Huston was asked.
L There may be something in that,
Ne replied. but we allowed for that
when We sent contracts to players.
We didn't forget that they won the
for -us in 1891. But other owners
whose clubs did not win champion
ships and whose players did not play
excitable base ball tell me they are
having trouble. 1 am opposed to
making public anything about busi-
ness relations between owners and
Eayers. I presume. however, it is
Niece of news if Ruth signs a con-
tract for the largest salary ever paid
a ball player 1 never heard anybody
ask about the smallest salary in base
BALI however. They tell me ball play
ers once played for the, honor of play
ing,- -but-not now,
How much money separates your
PLAYERS and your club?" he was asked.
Plenty and enough" was the diplo-
matte reply. Some of them seem to
think they should be drawing at the
rate. of 40 per cent on invested capi-
tall,
Ruth In Dictator's Role.
Then take Ruth. for instance.
1t is said by those who profess to
know all about his comings and go
fngss that the first little speech he
made about salary showed that about
$4,000 stood between him and the
checkbook of the Yankee club in
1929. That estimate is just as likely
to be false as true. 1t may be more.
With Ruth it is just a question of
how much more he can get than he
did last year and he is going to press
the game to the limit.
This year he holds the whip hand.
He will be quite as well off in a sal
larry way as if he had not been sus-
pended. If he does not play in the
|early part of the year the owners of
|afl the American League clubs will
feel it, and the Yankees will need
himAll the more when he does get in.
Therefore, all Ruth has to do is to
ask flor as much as he would have
ed and just as much more as he can
get because he was punished.
\ The Meusel brothers, who live in
where the flowers and
the melons are big, have grown big
notiens about salary during the win
YORK clubs have offered them, and
each club has raised the salary of it's
special Meusel.
-, Complain About Expenses.
All the players who live in Cali
fornia complain about the expenses
OF travel, and the owners moan like
"a banShee when some player asks for
his fare from California and return.
Each year the owners declare that
no ball player will be permitted at
spring training camp unless he has
signed his contract Each year there
always are some players who have
mot signed contracts and who seem
somehow to be able to make their
way. to the camps and make their
terms after they get there.
AReEardinE Judge Lanais.
It IS very we'll known in base ball
circAAs that Commissioner Lands has
been, criticised by some of the own
(ers- who chose him for his present
'pOStSiOH I1ONeNeT, tHeTe IS nOtnlnS
extraordinary about that. No man
ever has attempted to serve baseb ball
in an executive capacity who has not
been criticised, and some of it as bit
terly personal is the criticism of
politics.
1t was dryly asked today by one of
the club owners who has been a
sfanch Landis adherent whether the
factsof his resignation from the bench
will be seized upon by the disaffected
10 criticiSe the commissioner more
feenly. He is only one of US now,"
his man ssafd, 'just base ball, and
3ou know what that means"
Attentioir-is called to the possibfl-
|fty that with no draft law in exist
|ence in base BALL the commissioner,
|aA a. federal judge on the one hand.
and as the head of base ball and
|nleading it's existence on the other,
probably found himself in some-
whatsaof a quandary. With the re-
serve rule in effect and contracts be-
ling observed. without the draft the
services of a ball player belong in
perpetuity to any base ball club
which signs the player to a contract.
hts aAhard nut to crack.
Copyright. 1929