Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-25
CANT PUT A STRING
ON TOPORCER AGAIN
Must Keep Him or Send Him
to Club Not Controlled
in st. Louis Chain.
BY JOHN b. FOSTER.
YEW YORK, November u.s.
I Commissioner Lands, the

N Jew 4OKA, november 90
M Commissioner Lands, the
u car of base ball, has
stepped in long enough to
inform the st. Louis National
League club that it cannot farm
the services of Toporcer again to
any club which is controlled by
st. Louis or which is a part OF its
chain system. This action is
move for greater freedom OF the
player in the national pastime.
One year ago Commissioner Lands
would not permit st. Louis to dispose
of Mancuso to Rochester. It has been
said often in Jest that had 1t not been
for the commissioner st. Louis would
not have won the pennant IN 1880 be-
cause the team was very hard up Tor
catchers, and except for the rare good
work of Mancuso 1t might have lost
when the race closed in.
There Is no immediate probability
that st. Louis will save its pennant this
year because it must keep Toporcer and
not return him to Rochester, but there
is chance that Toporcer may play
somewhere outside of the st. Louis
chain.
Rickey's Argument Wins
If the Cardinals wish to retain him
as utility infielder 1t viii not be tine
first time, Last Winter he was before
the National Board of Arbitration %
Chattanooga appealing o flne and Blls-
pension which had been imposed upon
him by President Sexton of the National
Association. Toporcer thought the fine
was In excess of the disorderly attitude
which he had been charged with as
Stunning in a game, and Branch Hickey
pof the Cardinals argued the case 80
well that the excessive punishment was
RENTED.
The trouble took place in the junior
world series when Toporcer was play
ing with the Rochester club. The play
er went to Rochester for the season Of
1880, where he took prominent part
in winning the pennant, but he cannot
60 there again.
T.. Judge Lands has pointed out to both
St. Louis clubs that their interlocking
systems with minor leagues cannot 60
farther than he intends they shall for
the good Of the ball player. This Is
more fight in behalf Of the freedom Of
the player than it is anything else.
Think Cards Wrong.
The st. Louis clubs In both major
within their rights in the manner in
which they pass players back and forth,
but other base ball clubs have told the
Judge that they do not think st. Louis
is within base ball law, and players have
been more than pleased to think there
is any kind of a tendency to prevent
a major league team from indefinitely
holding their services. st. Louis en-
gagged Toporcer for the first time in 1921
and since then he has been with the
team, although he has not always played
in st. Louis. He has been farmed out
to their Rochester club
II there were no rule against this
sort Of thing a major league club might
go on indefinitely with e player and
retain control as arbitrarily as control
was effected over players prior to the
time the draft law was passed. The st.
Louis club holds papers of transfer to
show that all of its transactions are
within the scope of the laws that gov
ern club rights over players, but the
principle of player control has been
stretched to such a point that It "a
frowned upon by men in organized base
ball.