The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-08-01
TALKING
IT Over
BY JOE WILLIAMS

Anew YORK. July 31.-For
~ sport that is supposed to be in
normal health professional baseball
is spending a lot Of time in clinical
rooms with surgeons these days.
Just what, If anything, Is wrong
with the game the diagnoSticians
can't seem to decide.
Reading the daily hospital bulle-
tins you arrive at the muddled con-
clusion that either baseball is in a
very critical condition or somebody
IS kidding somebody else. Within
the last week the sports pages told
Of:
]. Charlie Stoneham's intention 10 make
league hKht against the lively bali on
the ground that IL makes . buriesaue Of
the game
?. Colonel Jacob Ruppert's statement
that the lively bali has made the Eame
What Il Is today. and should be retained
3. move to switch the st. Louis Ameri-
can League franchise TO Milwaukee be-
cause Of turnsiile staEnatiOn-
"A plan to Introduce night baseball IN
three major league parks for Exhibition
games" and critical observations.
All OF these DEVELOPMENTS tie up with
the business end OF the game Apparently
tire money IS not coming IN AZ the gate
In the volume to which the maEnuts nave
become accustomed.
Il
To be sure there are exceptions. Over
in BROOKLYN with a pace setting team they
IL n husI-
ness depression al shibe Park where the
Athletics are in the process Of fashioning
arother championship. Some Of the other
cities are showing improved financial
charts. notably Boston where the Braves
hv dinf Of hustIing ball have managed to
catch on.
THE bottom has dropped out in
j Pittsburgh. where the team has
degenerated into a second division
outfit. Old Barney Dreyfuss isn't
Verv popular with the customers.
and they seem to be taking a keen
pleasure in staying away from his
ball park this year.
This Is the frst time in number OF
Years that Old Barney has given them
legitimate excuse to ignore his business.
Usually his teams are right up there with /
the leaders.
The Indictment against Old Barney is
that he went into baseball 70 make money
4 enc, he be T ESs hiRa6-minded Sportsman
serving a civic or spiritual cause; THIS OF
course was serious mistase You must
Rid the customers They thrive on IT,
A eoupIe Of years ago Xxi Cuylsr.
bursting at the seams with his own i'm
portanee. attempted to tell Old Barney and
his current manager. who happened to be
DOME Bush. how to run the works. en-
nloyinE such elegancies of speech as one
might expect from a braggart, who had
dined too heavily on sports page euloEies.
To the customers. Cuyler was popular
idol but to Old Barney he was just an
other hired hand. and a fresh. imprudent
hired hand at that. SO Cuyler was Kept
vas badly needed in the games and the
next wear ne was traded to Chicago.
where ] am told he became q less ohicious
person and with 1t a better ball player.
n
old Barney had another expert
" ence with one of those ephem-
eral idols last spring and because
his sense of values did not jibe with
that of the baseball idol. and in time
a trade with another club, followed,
the customers called him a shylock,
4 dollar squeezer and an migrate.
BurIeiEh Grimes. aging pitcher, was
the idol In question and that Old Barney
was approximately right in bis estimate
Of Grimes present worth TO anybody's stan
has been pretty well horne out BY the
way be has foundered around in the box
all season.
Nevertheless in the minds Of the custo-
mers old Barney was wrong when he did
not permit Cuvler 70 tell him how to
run the team and he was equally wrong
when did not give Grimes the twenty odd
thousand he demanded for the privilege Of
losing a flock Of bah games for him.
What makes this ofense particularly
unbearable at the moment is that the
Pittshurg team is headed for nowhere at
full speed. with excellent prospects Of ar
irving punetually. Being business man
strictly. Old Barney can have no decisions
about why the money is not coming in.
The stun that he has ts -Offer is second
rate.