The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-08-21
Talking
IT OVER
by JOE WILLIAMS

NEW YORK, Aug. 21-They
! tell me the boys who like to
take their cut at the ball are going
to be compelled to take a cut next
winter that they won't ike at all.
mean cut in dough. The baseball
magnates have been moaning the
red-ink blues for some time about
rising pay rolls, and now they are
ready to start slashing.
The run away races in the two big
leagues along with the general economic
slump have contributed seriously to the
situation You can't make money when
there is no competition and there has
scarcely been any competition in either
league since the season started. 1t was
pretty much of foreRone conclusion that
the Athletics and the Cardinals would
dominate the scene. and this they have
proceeded to do.
n n
II will be interesting to see what hap
pens to the paw check Of George Herman
Ruth whose two-year contract at 100000
a year expires in October. The home run
era on which Ruth rode to magnificent
heights definitely is fading. The new ball
has put the pop fly sluRger back in his
place among the ordinary swingers. A
conspicuous example is Hack Wilson Of the
Cubs. home run king OF the National
League a year ago. but now Just another
outhelder.
of course. Ruth was never a pop dY
sluggcr. He would still be a tremendous
slugger batting against a boiled egg plant.
There will always be something majestic
about the wav Ruth crashes into fast
pitch But the stage setting Of the game
has changed and much OF the glamour
has passed from the sheer muscular ex-
plot OF which Ruth has long been the high
priest
TINE Yankees have been issuing
Il Ruth stylish pay checks COM
mensurate with his prodigious hit
ting feats, a sound business policy
because it was Ruth and his swats
that lured the customers through
the turnstiles in numbers never be-
fore equaled in the history OF the
game.
Now that the trend of the sport has
turned and Ruth himself has begun to
crumble and money conditions are
tighter, he becomes a grave financial
problem.
To be sure this is Colonel Jacob Rup-
pert's problem and not mine but even
So Ruth IS something of public insti-
tuition and as such it may not be I'M
pertinent to evince a personal interest
in his future In short, the question is,
does the king OF swat suffer cut along
with the rabble of the game?
NV guess is that he won't, and If 1
may be permitted to run the colonerS
affairs for him, I will add that he
shouldn't. At $4,000, Ruth Is still
cheap investment, even if he does no more
than waddIe to the plate and swing at
few balls now and then. For more than
a decade he has been the most extraor-
binary personality the game has ever
known.
In any other amusement field, Ruth
would have tripled his earnings for he
would have been able to capitalize his
appeal in every city in which he APP
peared instead of merely as an employe
of the Yankee ball club. In each of the
seven other cities in the circuit, Ruth
has created new attendance records.
=
A T his present age and in the
IA circumstances which now exist,
Ruth hardly can expect a better
contract But there is no reason
why he should accept a lesser one.
When the time comes to resign him
for 1892 the Colonel can justify any mis-
givings that may arise in the money
temples by saying, well, we don't want
to forget that it was Ruth who built the
Stadium" And don't let anybody tell you
it was One-Eyed Connolly, the Smith
Brothers or two travelling statesmen from
Elmira.