Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-24
A Lively "Stove League" Season

n Lively OIoVe 1cdSu NC 0cdSVn'
Though base ball is warm
weather game, some of the most in
occur in Winter. The ''stove league"
season, which begins shortly after
the ending of the foot ball matches
and lasts until the training camps
are opened, is usually marked by
many incidents of interest to the
followers of the sport, trades of play
ers. deals and political happenings
This season has been exceptionally
replete with important developments,
and the patrons of the game, who
number millions, have had more than
the usual array of sensations to hold
their attention.
First came the scandal about the
alleged throwing" of game be-
tween the Detroit and Cleveland
teams to permit one of them to gain
an advantage in the race and to
enable certain players to bet success
fully. That involved the custer of
two Of the most famous players who
ever participated in the sport. Then
followed another scandal, relating to
a somewhat similar transaction long
ago. Investigations disclosed that
there were slight If any grounds for
the charges, but in the course OF the
DEVELOPMENTS the regulations of emf
t1n n a
we're smirched. Meanwhile, managers
were being dropped and their sue
cessors chosen in exceptional num-
bers.
The latest sensation has come as
a direct consequence of these IN
uuiries, in the custer from his posi-
ton of the president OF the Amerl-
can League, who has for a long time
been hostile to Judge Lands, the
high commissioner of base ball, whom
he charged with bad faith in giving
out certain information. The Amerl-
can League club owners yesterday
assembled and came to the conclu-
sion that Ban Johnson is too Ill to
continue to discharge his duties, re-
firing him on full salary and replac-
ing him with one Of their own num-
her. at the same time repudiating his
utterances regarding the big chief"
of the game.
Thus passes a conspicuous figure
in the country's leading sport. Ban
60 tho crnnd nf Ia
ball in the United States. He, with
Charles Comiskey, once his devoted
friend, but for several years past his
bitter opponent, organized the So
called junior circuit at time when
the old National League, after vicissl-
tudes, seemed to be in absolute con-
troll of the game. This opposition
has proved to be decidedly helpful to
the sport, as a business and as
means of public entertainment. 1t
afforded a wholesome competition and
eventually it became actually the
stronger organization. For its forma-
ton and maintenance and especially
for his insistence upon the highest
standard of honesty in the conduct of
the game, Ban Johnson has earned
the warnest praise and the sincerest
admiration. But in later years he has
been afflicted with temperamental
manifestations that have caused seri-
Gus trouble and dangerous friction,
and now the end has come, fortunate
lv without causing a breach in the
national agreement that keeps the
game on q high plane and prevents
wasteful conflict.
1t is a sad spectacle that this ca
nahIe man has not been able to main
tain himself with even balance
throughout his career, but even so he
should have in this hour OF his dls-
comfiture and defeat the good wishes
of those who follow the game and ad-
mire the sport and who realize the
henefits that have resulted from his
courageous enterprise and his sturdy
maintenance of high principles in the
administration of a great public
amusement institution.
! Now that the "stove league" sea-
| son has had its sensations, the actual
! nreliminaries to the playing season
will follow and soon the game itself
will be on. with eight of the sixteen
major league teams under new lead
erShip,