PJEJUJUU-W
&
BASEBALL SPORTS OF ALL KINDS BOXING
Nothing happened at the Federal
league meeting at Indianapolis yes
terday to cause a palpitating baseball
public to lie awake nights. The mag
nates met, swapped a few words of
N encouragement, declared that the
season recently closed"had been a
grand success, and then a majority of
them hiked out for French Lick.
Charley Weeghman returned to
Chicago, but will journey on to the
watering place today. Several rep
resentative men of organized base
ball are stopping at French Lick, and
this has given rise to reports that
peace negotiations would be entered
into.
The Feds dropped Kansas City and
decided to remove the franchise to
New York, strengthening the team.
A stand to hold 55,000 people is to be
built In time for the opening in 1916.
That sounds like a physical impossi
bility, and there is also some ques
tion as to where the 55,000 people
would be found. "
Buffalo's franchise was taken up,
but the club will be reorganized and
left in its present place. Jim Gilmore
was re-elected president of the
league.
Now for the peace talk. There was
a rumor, supposed to be right out of
the feed box, loose in the loop yes
terday to the effect that the sale of
the Cubs to Weeghman had been
completed. It vanished into thin air
" when investigated, just as scores of
similar rumors have done previously.
This arranging of peace between
Feds and organized baseball is more
than a matter of a friendly meeting
and the signing of a few papers.
There are long-term, high-price con
tracts that must be taken care of and
the athletes must be looked out for
in all negotiations.
Take the talk of consolidation be
tween Whales and Cubs. We have
Tinker as manager of the Whales at
$16 000 a year, with a contract hav
.:g a year more to run. And we have
Bresnahan, manager of the Cubs,
with a salary of $12,500 a year for
two more years.
Both pilots will have to be taken
care of and it is obvious that a team
cannot have two managers. One
would have to return to the ranks or
be fixed with another team and the
salaries must be paid. There are also
some plain atheties who have healthy
salaries which run at least through
next season, and they, toomust be
taken care of.
When the war first broke out there
was a rush to sign players to three
year contracts. The war has been on
two years. So it is reasonable to
guess and one guess is as good as
another that peace will stand a bet
ter chance of coming at the close of
1916. Magnates in the past have
shown no disposition to pay athletes
for remaining idle.
Some time between the 10th and
14th of next April, however, there
will be some ball games started, and
whether three leagues or two leagues
get into the race is immaterial to the
fan who wants to see ball games and
cares little for politics.
And it is also strange that this
peace talk grows hottest during the
meeting of the minor leagues. Is it
possible the organized people are try
ing to stiffen the backbone of the
smaller leagues?
Ga"ry received a big boost as a fight
center when Joe Welling whipped Joe
Sherman In a ten-round bout last
night The match was a thriller from
gong to gong and kept the fans on
edge throughout. There was no
stalling, and if the class of entertain
ment is kept up there will be no
doubt about the popularity of the In
diana ring.
Welling won, and won put in front,
but the stockyards man matched him
in gameness. And he fought, too.
It was one of the few real grudge
fights of recent ring history. The
two men wanted to smash each other