The Washington times., 1936-03-17

AsPOund
Foolish
By KIRK MILLER
Times Sports Editor

Baseball always was the cock.
eyedest business in the uni
verse, but sometimes there are
manifestations Of it being even
more cock-eyed than that.
Such an outburst isn't Just
excess venom, nor yet spleen
generated through watching a
game develop great names like
Walter johnson and Babe Ruth
and then consign them to the
oblivion of the farm and the
golf course.
It Is more an outburst Of amaze
ment at the inconsistency which
the sport shows in those instances,
as well as the incongruols piece
Of business one of its magnateS
tried to get away with last week
until someone called on John Law.
A Spending Spree
Of course reference Is made to
the attempt of President Walter
o. Briggs, Of the worlds cham
pion Detroit Tigers, to hold forth
a tempting bonus to the BengalS
at a cost of upwards of $4,000
should they romp through this
year to repeat their American
League pennant of last year and
the year before.
At the moment Boss Briggs
made his fabulous proffer, his
business department in Detroit,
headed by Charles F. Navin,
brother of the deceased former
president of the club, Frank
Navin, was in the niggardly throes
of refusing their star first base
man and twin holder Of the 1885
home run record, an insignificant
$1,000, the difference between
what Hank Greenberg believes he
is worth to the Tigers and what
the Tigers wish to pay him.
The fact that Boss Briggs is
restrained by baseball law from
laviShing an extra months salary
upon his players provided they ac-
complish the unusual by winning
the league title three times in a
row, the while there is pickering
going on over a little item OF
$1,000 betwixt and between the
club and Greenberg, does not
lessen the idiocy involved.
Two Odd Positions
Left to his own devices, Briggs
would have permitted the bonus
offer to stand, just as he would
have, in the same breath, let
Greenberg repine beyond the pale
of baseball because of a small mat
ter of single grand.
It is a little difficult for the
man in the street to reconcile the
sagacity, yes, the sanity, if you
please, Of two such opposite types
of spending policies. Utter gen.
erosity on the one hand, and rank,
If not foolish, economy on the
other.
The Greeks had a phrase for
the Tiger monetary policy
penny wise and pound foolish" I"
Yet, paradoxical as it seems, that
very situation existed for 48 hours
in the great game of baseball of
ours that has the weirdest ways in
its relationships with some Of the
players whose agility with ball
or a bat happen to be the mar
row of the game.
It probably would still exist had
not some Of the other magnates
tmplored President Bill Harridge
to dig up the tenet which prohib-
its such wholesale inducements to
be offered q team to accomplish
its best.
Helps Greenberg's Stand
This happenstance makes the
Detroit business policy look none
the less inconsistent. The club did
not discover how goofy the whole
proposition appeared; it was ra-
minded very pointedly Of it by the
league.
In all probability the coinci-
dence of Detroit setting itself up
as a Santa Claus in such q man
ner somewhat strengthened Hold
out Greenberg'S determination to
get his price.
Certainly q ball club in such a
Spendthrift humor would seem to
be a soft touch, for an individual
holdout, particularly when the
pickering was down to what
really amounts to small change
when you consider what the cost
of that proposed bonus would
have been.
All, me: the situation makes the
Tigers nothing short Of q setup
for Greenberg now.
His $1,000 holdout marg n
should be q pushover.
Dizzy Dean has no such wedge
In his differences with the Cardi-
nails, nor hao Buck NewSom when
he capitulated to Washington's Of
fer
But this boy Greenberg!
Is he sitting swell!