Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 143, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1917 — MINORS IN BIG MOVE [ARTICLE]

MINORS IN BIG MOVE

I Plan to Withdraw From National Association by Class AA. International, American Association and Pacific Coast Organizations Dissatisfied—To Be Brought Up at Next Meeting. (By JACK VEIOCK, International News O. W. Wathen, president of the Louisville American Association dab and vice president of the league, expressed the sentiment of the three Mg minor leagues recently when he said plans are being made for a withdrawal from the National association by class AA leagues. : For a number of years the three big minor leagues—the International, Pacific Coast and the American Association- —have been ’ the minority faction In the national organization. *TESBE fall, for the first time, they succeed Al in dominating the annual meeting of the minor leagues at New Orleans. They managed to secure a resolution on the part of the association asking for a change in the draft rules, and the support the move received was a real •surprise. But the three big minors are not satisfied. They feel that they should he permitted to withdraw as active members of the National association. They would like to be recognized as a third party to the national agreement, for they feel that the affairs of their leagues are of no vital interest to. the smaller minors and they believe they could conduct their business to a much better advantage on the outside. President Edward Barrow of the International - League has admitted that such a plan is on foot, and he intimates that it will be brought, up at the next meeting of the national association, which is to be held in Louisville next November. .. . The plan being worked out by the big minors Ls expected to receive the support of the national commission, for it will in no way interfere with the smaller minors, and it will not affect the major leagues in any way. Class AA owners feel they should be set apart from the smaller leagues, because they are In a distinct class by themselves. Furthermore, the vast amount of business in which the many small leagues are interested has little or no interest for AA owners, except in a very few cases where there is a controversy over players. Many of these cases are threshed out between the owners themselves. The new move of the big minors Is in no way an attempt to cut loose from the protecting wing of organized baseball. They merely feel that they, as a distinct branch of the national game, should be permitted to form an organization of their own and operate under the laws of organized baseball in the same manner as the National Association does at present.