Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 90, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1917 — MORE MONEY WANTED [ARTICLE]

MORE MONEY WANTED

Strike Threat Throws Light on Mercenary Motives. I' ■ ‘ ' ■ •, - --- - *•—• -« —" 1 . "■ 1 —■" Not Intended to Protect Misused Minor Brothers, but to Bluff Magnates Into Paying Larger Salaries to Themselves. The death blow struck the players’ threatened baseball strike at the National league meeting brought documentary proof that the strike was primarily called, not for the unselfish notive of protecting the misused minor league brothers, as had been annouced, but for the pure reason that the players believed they would be ahle to bluff magnates into paying them larger salaries. All of which suggests that baseball would be a greater game and a bigger drawing card if the players would take a little more interest in baseball and a little less In what they were going to get out of it. The really great players of today and of the past generation were the players who were actually interested in the game—the men who loved baseball on and off the field. Played for Love of Game. In the days when $5,000 a year salaries were practically unheard of every player had his heart in the game and was out for his love of the sport and not his love of the coin he was to get out of it. Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb with the highest salaries in baseball may not seem to be good examples to illustrate this point in present-day baseball, but nevertheless these two stars are always in the game when they are on the field and are always planning off the field to devise some system to improve their play. It is brains and deep thought as much as anything else that makes Tris Speaker the greatest outfielder in the game and he is constantly striving to Improve. The same thing may be said of Cobb’s hitting and base-run-ning.

A connle of months after Jim Dunn had bought the Indians he declared that Speaker was always trying—not only to help his fellow players and to do anything in his power to help the ball club and win games and make money. If more ball players would work with their club owners there would be less friction and better baseball. Dreyfuss Friendly. For years Barney Dreyfuss used to travel with his ball club. He liked the atmosphere and wanted to be on friendly terms with his players. A few years ago he noticed a difference in their attitude td him. -They avoided him and. gradually-let him see that they wished to have nothing in common him. This caused Dreyfuss to discontinue his trips with the club and caused him to lose interest in them as individuals. Feeling of that sort is not a good thing for baseball, and the sooner the players learn it, the better.