Evening star., 1933-06-01
OWNER At PRESENT
IS WELL SATISFIED
Only Worry Is Club May Be
BIanked-Says Day of Big
Salaries Is Past.
BY ALAN GOULD,
Associated Press Sports Editor.


n JEW YORK, June 1.-The
M base ball customer now
1 may prefer the bleachers
to the grandstand, Babe
Ruth may be slowing up and
nearing the end Of his glamorous
career, but all's well, so far as Col.
Jacob Rupert is concerned, SO
long as the Yankees justify his
$40, 10000 investment by remain
ing the best club in the big
leagues.
The fact that today marks the tenth
anniversary of his acquisition Of sole
ownership Of the Yankees is merely in
cidental to the colonel. They were
world champions then, when he paid
$1,250,000 for the half interest Of his
partner, Col. T. L. Huston, on June /,
1928. They are world champions now.
I'm worried now for fear the Yam
KEGS will get shut out some day this
season, and end another great record
August of 1884," said Colonel Rupert.
THAT fellow Ferrell of Cleveland had
me nervous last week when he held our
club runleSs for seven innings, but we
beat him in the eighth"
THE colonel's eye may twinkle, but
i he does not conceal his intense in
terest and pride in the Yankees.
He knows other clubs must be built up.
T. a I-@Iw- - -
done with the Red Sox this Spring, but
is never satisfied unless the Yankees
are on top. He sees no more than Is
or 20 games q season, but he follows
the clubs fortunes closely.
"The three games that stand out
most in my memory, he admitted to-
day, "are the last games in the 1927,
1928 and 1882 series. I felt pretty good
when we made it four straight the
first time. But that had been done be-
fore, so felt better when the Yankees
ran of four more In q row the next
year. That was something new In base
ball thrills. I hardly slept the night
before the last game In Chicago last
year, for fear we might lose. played
that last game harder, think, than
any man on the field"
There Is, he thinks, nothing wrong
with base ball nor any lack Of popular
interest, but he Is convinced the day Of
SIS, 900 or $4,000 salaries for q player
like Ruth IS definitely gone.
'Readjustmexts which have been
made within the past year or two are
here to stay" said the colonel. Base
ball salaries grew entirely out Of pro-
portion. Players were thinking more
about how and where they could make
or spend money than they were about
the game.
s.TTTO me perhaps the most beneficial
L development of the last few years
is the so-called chain-store sys-
tenn, which the Yankees have adopted.
Instead Of paying $125.000 for pair
Of players, as we did when we bought
Larry and Reese from the coast, we can
now develop our own material naturally
and sensibly.
I'VE would never have lost fine
players like Vance or Davis, the Phillies'
catcher, or perhaps O'Doul, If we had
started this farm system sooner. We
had those fellows but let them CO."
Col. Rupert figures he has signed
checks aggregating close to 81 900 900
for star minor league ball players, of
which about $3.50, 900 went to one club,
st. Paul. For five infielders-Koenig
Lazzeri, Larry, Reese and Crosetti-he
spent 100000.
To parting query, the colonel re-
marked: mo, don't think there are
any pitchers In the game today to COM
pare with the popular idols like Christy
Mathewson or Walter johnson, but III
tell you my favorite now-any pitcher
the Yankees can beat"