Evening star., 1938-10-12
FANS SEEN T|R|NG
Of WONDER CLUB
Waning Public Interest Is
Likely to Brig About
Reorganization.
BY GRANTLAND RICE,
speci., correspondent Of The star.

BY GRANTLAND RICE,
Special Correspondent Of The Star.
NEW YORK, Oct. 13.-The over
powering strength Of the Yankees,
demonstrated once more in the World
Series, has been a problem for the
other clubs for long time. Now it pre-
sents a problem for the Yankees, too.
Are they going to 60 the way Of other
great ball clubs that were so great that
even their own fans will lose interest
in them-the fate which overlook the
Baltimore Orioles of Ned Hanlon's era
and two great machines that Connie
Mack put together?
There were nearly $4,000 vacant
seats in the stadium last Saturday and
nearly 10000 on Sunday. Some Of the
absentees on Saturday may have been
at West Point watching Army and Co.
lumbia or at Philadelphia peering
| down from the steep slopes Of Franklin
Field at Yale and Pennsylvania. Un-
doubtedly those two games, played
close to New York, were counter
| attraction. But the vacant seats on
Sunday could have meant only that
| the public conceded no chance to the
Cubs to win the series or even to grab
one victory as solace on the road to
| their doom.
Yankees Won't Sell.
Baltimore and Philadelphia and
some of the other towns boasting great
ball clubs had simple solution to the
problem. They sold OF their star ball
players, took a handsome profit and
created new balance In the league.
But where Col. Jacob Rupert is con-
cerned. such solution is unthinkable.
| His idea is the sound, basic idea Of
sport In general: Win as often as pos
sble. Ask no quarter, give none-and
play to win all the time.
AS business man. he naturally likes
| to see the Yankees make money. But
in baseball, he is business man Sec
ond-and sportsman first. And he is
content to let the profits 60 hang as
ship flags fly over the stadium.
His problem is not how to beat
| down his own ball club. But how to
best persuade his colleagues that the
only thing for them to do is to build
up their teams to match his and give
the Yankees the best fight that skill
and resourcefulness can make pos
sible. He must find a way to block
any attempt to limit the Yankees in
their scouting and purchase of and
training of young players.
Make Money for Rivals.
The strongest argument he has on
his side now is that while the YAM
KEGS win the pennant and the World
Series most of the time and pile up
records for the other clubs to shoot at
in years to come, they scarcely have
made any dents in the structure OF
the game.
Up to now, at any rate. they have
made money for every club in the
league, dating back to the time when
the Colonel stepped out and bought
Babe Ruth from the Red Sox and run
ming right down through the recent
pennant race. 1t may be-and those
empty seats at the Stadium over the
weekend may have been a warning
that the crowds will not continue
to pour through the turnstiles unless
the other clubs do something.
But the move must come from the
other clubs The Colonels problem
is to combat those who would tear
down what he has erected.
OF course, it may be that what
Miller Hugglns once so truely predict
ed will come true again: That in
spite of all that can be done to keep
the Yankees up there and make them
stronger as the years roll along, the
law of averages will catch up with
them and they will skid.
Law Of Averages to Get EN-.
Higgins predicted that would hap
pen when, in 1927-as nowhere was
grave discussion Of tentative plans to
curb the Yankees. The most widely
advocated scheme was that the Colonel
should sell Ruth, Lou Gehrig. Tony
Lazzeri Herb Pennock, Waite Hoyt
and some of his other stars.
That's ridiculous" Higgins said.
I'm the first place, the Colonel won't
do it and in the second 1t won't be
necessary. The Colonel will spend his
money and Ed Barrow will dig up the
best players he can find and I will
manage them as we'll as can, but the
law of averages will get us sooner or
later. 1t has caught up with empires
and great personal fortunes. Don't
believe for a moment that it will be
stopped by ball club
It wasn't. The Yankees won the
pennant on one leg, so to speak, in
1928. and then smashed the Cardinals
in four games in the World Series.
But they were beaten by the Athletics
| in 1929. 1890 and 1881 and the fans
were so busy talking about how abso-
lutely the Athletics dominated base
ball that they forgot all about the
Yankees.
Mop-Up Record Marvellous.
But until the law of averages gets
to work on the Yankees again they
will have that one phase of their own
greatness to deal with. That's their
part of the problem.
It must be admitted that no other
team has had the supremacy of the
Yankees in their World Series span.
In their last six World Series starts
not only have they bagged each series
Far beyond this, they have won "a of
their last ~ World Series starts
leaving them the incredible percent
age of 1888 against .112 for their op-
ponents.
No one else in baseball has even
come close to the unbelievable mop-up
of the Yanks through their last six