Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1923-03-06
King Lands
Has Trouble
Finds Job of Pleasing All
Owner Quite Some
Task


New York, March 6.-When
Commissioner Lands took charge
of major league baseball ne must
have known that pleasing the
club owners was a job of the
size and almost as impossible OF
fulfllment as drying up the ocean
with the we'll known pan full!
of holes.
If the commissioner didn't
know it then, he surely knows
it now.
Rather fortunately for him,
however, he has only sixteen men
to deal with and in that COM
paratively small group he can
sort the ones for him and the
ones against him.
The argument over the crea-
ton of the position and the ap-
pointment of a man to the post
should have the commissioner
conclusively where he stood.
Since he took up the reins OF
baseball there has been a steady
current of anti-Landis propaganda
under the surface.
First it was suggested that ne
could not deal with the White
Sox betrayers drastically and save
his hide. The same thing was
said about the Kauff cases. Then
he was predicted as a sure fail
IRE when it came to getting the
majors and minors together. Next
it was the rescue of baseball
after it got dark that afternoon
during the worlds series.
\ Now it is the Benton case. The
commissioner has in his lap a
case that the National League
wasn't courageous enough TO set
tie itself. If RUDE Benton is to
sue anyone, he must institute pro-
ceedings against lands. The Ma
tional League is out OF 1t.
The Benton case is the tough
est proposition that has been put
ND to the commissioner and some
of the magnates are reminding
him, in action, if not in actual
words, that such are the things
for which he was hired.
If Lands reinstates Benton, he
will have Charles Herzog and his
lawyers on him; if he puts the
skids under Benton, he will have
Garry Hermann, the st. Paul
club and Benton around his neck
The National League passed the
buck to Lands because it doesn't
want to air the Herzog-Benton
case in court. If legal action re
suits from the present tangle, the
records may have to be pro-
duced, if they haven't been de-
stroyed.
Another nice angle to the prob
lem is the slap that will be taken
at the minor leagues if Benton
is ruled unfit for major league
baseball Whatever is held against
Benton in the National League
was held against him when he left
the Giants and went to st Paul
The minor leagues will want to
know then why Lands allowed
such a player to be passed of
onto one of their circuits. Lands
already has established an out
on that score by claiming that
it all happened before he took the
chair of commissioner. However
when the commissioner was u fed
eral Judge he must, early in his
career on the bench, have been
forced to pass sentence on per-
sons who had committed crimes
before he was seated.
The minor leagues, especially
the Class AA circuits, which are
under the leadership at present
of the Pacific Coast League. are
sore at the commissioner now
and they might go a long ways
in demanding some explanations
/ At the present time faction
of the club owners are trying
to place all kinds of obstacles il
the way of Lands; the ball play
ers are "off him" claiming that
he is playing politics with tbs
owners and the minor .eague:
are sore at him tor playing eat
majors. The commissioner has s
seven year contract and if he
sticks il out. he's a demon fol