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Show Sporting Life. As was predicted in last week's column, base- ball in Utah has gone to a place where no snow-I snow-I ball ever returns intact, and it is now up to the magnates and supporters of the game if the local interest is ever revived. The fat part of the story I lies in the fact that it is the supposedly weak I teams which have proved the strongest in so far K that for the past two weeks they have been making the hitherto invincible Ogden aggregation look like 20 cents worth of dog meat, while the White I Wings have been performing a stunt usually cred-I cred-I ited to a sixty-year-old soubrette trying to con the I public into the dream that usually comes out of the box labeled "When We Were Sweet Sixteen." I Ogden started the bad acting last week when "Daddy" Gimlin took a bunch of barnstormers up B to the densely populated city of Logan with the intention of forcing the latter team to throw up B both mits and quit. President Keeler of the Logan B club had been waylaid the night before on his way B to a special meeting of the ''mags" in Salt Lake B and filled full of Junction City dope until an in-B in-B nocent farmer's lad could have sold him a hand-B hand-B ful of dried peas for an infant's rattle. After slop-Pi slop-Pi ping up the rush orders of Ogden "sen-sen" the B astute president returns to. the Temple city and, at B the meeting of the directors of the club, held im-B im-B mediately after the first song and dance exhibi-B exhibi-B tion held by the two teams, arises in all his wise-B wise-B ness and gravely informs his coadjutators that B theie is no possible chance of the Logan team con-B con-B tinning in the league. "They might as well draw B out and save what money they could," whereupon B there was some uneasiness manifested in the back H row of long-whiskered supporters. At this point H Harry Stoney, the hired manager of the club, drove H into the assembly hall in his hand-painted automo-B automo-B bile, and, descending to the floor without the aid H of a net. proceeded to throw a sheaf of glacial B glints into the features of the "old ladies' home" H piesident. showing up the intention of the Ogden management to jolly Logan into withdrawing so as to give the Lobsters a chance to work a two-team H league betweqn Ogden and Salt Lake, the former to H take its pick of the Logan bunch while Chief H Borchers would be allowed to grab whom he liked B at Lagoon. With such a bunching together of the B best players in the league there would have been B some warm baseball, but the foxiness of Gimlin B and Borchers over-reached and resulted in what B will ultimately result in the killing of the league B for the final curtain will be rung down on the liv-B liv-B ing picture of the Utah league Monday night. This B is no idle chatter, but a straight statement of what B is coming. Ogden, finding that the Temple city B crowd could not be buffaloed, got their daubers B down and on their return to the swift city where B the only excitement is to be found at the train B social held every hour or so at the depot, to which B the whole town turns out and marvels. Hausen B accepted an otter from Colorado Springs, where he B te playing at present; Ferris and Thomas drifted B to Baker City in the Oregon brush league, while B Gimlin and Fred Bluth are considering the labor B question. The former has been offered charge of B a train on the Southern Pacific line and will shake B his old love unless he can make arrangements to B ave the job hold over for a couple of months, in B whlch case he will take up the Baker City propo-B propo-B s'tion as an easy way of earning cigar money. The B franchise of the team is still intact, no one having B Bhot it to pieces. The forfeit money of $250 is up B and tue games "what is" to be played will be cov-B cov-B ere(1 by a brilliant gang of amateurs. B Bj Sden's break was followed by trouble among B the Wings. So soon as the followers of Borchers B found out that their Lobster rivals were Bide-B Bide-B tracking all the good jobs there was a flurry B among the feathers which almost reached the extent of a cyclone when the men drew their checks last Tuesday. At least four of them were notified that as the league was in such a wobbly condition that they would have to stand for a cut in their salaries. Wow! There was trouble to incinerate from then on. Prof. Borchers locked as wise as a tree full of owls and seemed to be under the impression that he had all the jobs in the country done up in a bundle right here in the Salt Lake bunch. If the men didn't like the cut, why they could leave and it would be up to him to "explanation" how they jumped their contracts con-tracts and there would be a few dollars saved which might float his way. Instead, there was a run on the telegraph office and the wires were burned up with the messages flashed out. "Handsome" Jack Huston was the first player to get located and late Wednesday night boarded a train for his home in Bakersfield, Cal., turning down an offer of $125 a month and free transportation transpor-tation from the Cedar Rapids team of the Three I league. Bert Shils and Tom Adams followed him within the next forty-eight hours, the former having a chance with the San Francisco team of the California league, while the latter had something some-thing doing at Pondleton, Ore. "Father Tom" Kelly was the only one, outside of McNichols and Borchers, who remained, and he will leave for 'Frisco so soon as he receives an answer from his "old college chump," Graham, who is catching for that team. This exodus means that a gathering of amateurs ama-teurs will be held at the ball park, if, Yy any circumstance, cir-cumstance, it is concluded to play out the schedule; an improbability for the local public have had the gold-brick gag tossed at them to a fare-you-well this season, having received a worse dose from the sportive diamond artists than they ever did from the knights of the padded gloves. It is a shame and a disgrace the way the game has been handled here this season with a couple of men at the head of things who squeezed a dollar until the eagle screams, or worse, and think they can get together a winning ball team with such a peanut policy. They alone are to blame for the death of the national game in Utah, for dead it certainly is and we are open for schemes to revive re-vive it. Speaking of the mit artists, the big wrangle between be-tween James J. Jeffries and Robert Q. X. Fitz-simmons Fitz-simmons will take place in 'Frisco on the 25th and a large number of the sporting element in this city have already arranged to attend the festivities. While Fitz has many strong followers in this city, the bix ex-boilermaker seems to be the favorite and justly so, for he is heavier, stronger, nearly as fast on his feet, has learned a whole lot morn about the game since their last battle and is a hundred per cent cleverer, while his ability to swing a sleeping powder over onto an opponent has never been questioned, his left hand especially being a terror. Some of the writers who are having hav-ing a vacalion out on the coast covering the preliminary work to the "main go," say that Fitz will change his tactics when the two men come together again and instead of keeping away will mix from the start with the giant Californian. If true, it's a case of "good night, Fitz," and "it may be forever," for the rough husky from Los Angeles doesn't know his own strength and if the lanky Cornishman steps in close enough to let Jeff get a good crack at him there is an even chance that Ruby Bob will be looking up at the grass roots forever more. |