Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 233, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1914 — KRAFT CASE DISTURBS BASEBALL WORLD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

KRAFT CASE DISTURBS BASEBALL WORLD

Regardless of what it was that brought about the declaring off of the threatened strike of the ball players, It is for the best interests of the game that no strike was taken. Baseball has withstood numerous abuses since Its birth-and has lived and prospered under them, but there is danger of the public becoming disgusted with the. methods now in vogue, says the Washington Star. The advent of the Federal league, which'caused players to jump their contracts, has already had a detrimental effect on the interest tn the sport, the attendance this season having fallen off materially as a result Had the players gone into a strike, as they threatened the game would have been dealt a blow from which It might never have recovered. It is being intimated that there was something more behind the threatened strike than the Kraft case. It may have been a Federal league Scheme, for if there had been a strike, the chances are that many of the flayers would have deserted organized baseball and gone to the Feds. In this way the independent organization would have been made a major league proposition in a single night. BaH

players should not forget that they owe something to the game. No other profession has been so kind to those engaged in it as has baseball. The players* salaries have gone upward by bounds, apd yet they fall again to where they started If public interest in the game is marred. Clarence O. Kraft was drafted from the Nashville Southern association last fall by Brooklyn. After releasing Kraft to the Boston Nationals this spring and later recalling him, according to officials of the Nashville club, President Ebbets of Brooklyn agreed to players to Nashville under an optional agreement only. The Nashville club accepted the proposition, but later formally withdrew their acceptance when the Brooklyn club delayed in complying. The Nashville club later heard that Kraft had been released to Newark of the International league. President Shropshire of the Nashville club immediately filed a protest with the national commission and later was notified by President Herrmann that Kraft had been awarded to Nashville.

Clarence Kraft, Over Whom Trouble Arose.