Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 202, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1916 — JOHNSON HAS CORRECT IDEA [ARTICLE]

JOHNSON HAS CORRECT IDEA

Falsely Advertising Star Player in Effort to Pad Box Office Receipts Is Displeasing. Ban Johnson has the right idea in trying to break up the practice of falsely advertising a star player in an effort to pad the gate receipts, but he is picking on the wrong club as the horrible example, writes Harry Keck in Pittsburgh Post. The recent advertising of a Covaleskie vs. Covaleskie pitching duel which was not staged, or some other similar occurrence, is more like the thing Ban should get at. Another abuse along the same lines is the carrying by a club of a high-priced beauty for weeks before sending him into a game, thereby leaving it up to the fans to presume that he will be used almost any day. This has been done time after time when it was clear to everybody that the big idea was to use that particular player as a box office attraction as long as possible without working him. Yet no one ever started a rumpus in these instances. Such practices are not fair to the fans. In fact, some of them smack of deliberate misrepresentation and if Ban Johnson can curb them* he will be given the united thanks of the baseball public and not in his own league alone. <