Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-01-29
THE BASEBALL
BEAT
Predicoment for Griffith
BY BURToN HAWKINS


fabulous offer Of SOS share for 2274 shares OF Wash
ington Baseball Club stock the estate of the late Mrs.
Clark Grih, that the man Is getting weary OF waiting
He's saying the tune Of $lS757C that he wants In
and he's demonstrating that he's willing to get tough
about It,
We wouldn't know the various ramhcations behind
the bid for we have trouble figuring how many green
stamps have coming to at the grocery But takes
no Bernard Baruch TO calculate that Cal Grith Is placed
in the unenvahe predicament Of being in conflict OF
interests situation
Cal Is executor of the estate and such committed
10 extract the maximum from 1t for the benent OF all
concerned including himself The estate is being offered
fortune and eventually half Of it would become Calls
and the other half would 60 to his sister Mrs. Thema
Haynes This would 1857 8S5 each before taxes,
exclusive Of their othes stock holdings.
Investing that sort Of loot at per cent ADDS TO
ss4ss4 year each. barring rusty arithmetic They say
bright boys do better on investments but without
getting greedy about It, that annual income would
represent reasonable security for most Of u.s.
BUT CAL ALSO WOULD like to cling to the ball club
understandable ambition which permits him to chat
with the President of the United States at least
year. As major league club president he's one OF 10
in the world. There's degree Of distinction attached
to the position regardless Of where the team finishes
Now he's caught in squeeze He can say It's not to
the best interests Miss Jeanne Robertson Mrs Haynes
himself their children TO sell But II he says that
there's whoppng tax problem generated by the word
mo"
Poised with pencils are United States and District of
Columbia tax experts. ready figure value on the
estate The could be szabe with $25OOOO considered
conservative estimate the estate is based on the offer
of $605 share.
WHERE TO RAISE the money and how? The obvious
solution appears to be to place stock collateral Since
the Senators Grhith Stadium, their ball park in
Chattanooga and another In Charlotte outright there
may not much difculty obtaining loan There's
of valuable property in the Senators setup.
But If he puts his stock in hook. will he be ieop-
ardizng the future? This question which makes one
grateful that he must wonder only about where the rent
money is coming from and glad to beam hamburger
and forget the idea Of that new car.
The maneuverng Of tax attorneys of financial wizards
is wonrous behold There's the of Arnold Johnson
present owner OF the Kansas City Athletics for instance
In December 1883 he purchased Yankee Stadium in New
York and Blues Stadium in Kansas CITY, then in the
minors. for SIS million.
johnson then sold the land under Yankee Stadium
to the Knights of Columbus for s25 million Then he
rented the land back from the knights of Columbus and
leased the whole works back to the Yankees Deductbe
rentals capital gains and other items figured in the
confusion.
Dei.webb. Dan Topping and Larry MacPhaf paid only
% million for the Yankees empire in 1945 the baseball
cal Of the age Two years later MacPhai sold his interest
50 million. Both Webb and Topping pointed out that
ny the heavy inheritance levied against the estate
OF the late Col Jake Rupert made possible for them
transact the an-time baseball bargain.
IN MID-FEBRUARY, 1856. a three-man syndicate,
headed by william r. Daley completed arrangements TO
buy all 2556 shares of stock in the Cleveland Indians at
$3.50 per share. This represented total outlay Of
s3.96l 300 and no real estate was involved.
When the deal went through 1t provided for stock
holders to receive $500 in cash and note for $3.50 from
the corporation for each share As part Of the trans
action the issued total of 5000 shares at
500 each and permitted former stockholders to buy
share in the organization for each they owned
in the old firm. Thus the Daley group had to shell out
only $750O0 less than half the announced purchase
price. to obtain controlling interest.
There's no telling when the Murphy Grifith sparring
match will end who's going to win but before it's
wen all be forced to sharpen up law and mathematics
II we're going to understand 1t.