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Show : WARDS OFFER TO GIVE j RUBE BACK TO GIANTS Brookfed Magnate's Letter Surprise to Organized j Baseball; Collins Likely to Become Manager ) of White Sox; Yankee Sale Pending. 3y International News Service. ' TEW YORK, Dec. 9. The Federal M lea10 is ready S've Kube :siar :i l quard back to the Xew York i Giants. President R. B. "Ward of the Brookfeds, who signed Mar-f Mar-f jjuard for his team, wrote a Jotter to ;i :hat effect today to President H. X. J Jempstead of the Giants. All tho or-ij' or-ij' ;aniEed baseball forces must do to get '.; Vlarquard back is to convince Mr. Ward :hat the $11,000 beauty really was under r- l binding contract with the Giants when 1 re signed w ith the Federals, in which :' ase the Wards do not want him. 1 In his letter to President Hempstead VIr. Ward takes occasion to demonstrate ! 'hat the Federals are making much j jreater efforts to play the game fairly :han is the Giants' management. He I nstanc.es the case of William Rltter and aya that player was actually under contact con-tact to the Brookfeds when the Giants Jigned him away from the Ward team ;,. iv using: Influence with his father. Mr. Ward also discloses that Marquard tought the Federals instead of having aeen kidnaped bv them. He says that Rube literally came to the Brookfeds ramp with his hat in his hand begging :o be signed up and assured the Wards :hat he was under absolutely no obliga-, obliga-, :ion to the Giants. 3. B. Magnates Surprised. The receipt of this letter literally nocked the magnates off their fe;t. They had never expected such action in .ha Marquard case and at all sessions 5f the league during the present meet-nsr meet-nsr "What we are going to do to the ! iVards in this Marquard case" had been i topic of ' discussion that e very bod y i deemed to relish. President Hempstead said it was too won after the receipt of the' letter to . . -liscuss it. but President Tener declared mere was a string to the Wards' offer to give Marquard up. "Thev want to be shown that the Slants 'have a Contract with him,'' said Tener. "It may be that we will show them without going to court and it may be that we will not." Wards Proposition. The text of the Ward letter is as fol-ows: fol-ows: New York. Dec. 8. Mr. Harry X. I iempstead. president New York Na -lion;! League Baseball club. New York Citv. Dear sir: It has been brought to our attention through the public press that the National Exhibition company and the New York National Na-tional League Baseball club claim to have a player's contract with R. W. Marquard calling for his services for the years 1915-10. If these H.iims can be substanti-ated substanti-ated to nur satisfaction thy Federal League Baseball club of Brooklyn is willing to consider with Mr. Marquard Mar-quard a cancellation of the contract he made with its. The facts in connection with our transaction are as follows: 1 On Wednesday, December 2, the , wrKer was called to the telephone i and on answering was informed that Mr. Marquard desired an interview. He was told that I iiad an appointment appoint-ment down town ft.t 1 o'clock, to 1 which h1 replied that he would be j at my offire at about 11 o'clock. ! Tt was announce'! in duo time and stated that he. was under contract with your club for the year ITU 4. I that the contract had expired and i that he was free to make a new con- tract. He was asked for a copy of ! ' his contract with you and replied he did not have one in his possession. posses-sion. Thought It. Over. After discussing the mat ter for some time we advised him to go home and think it over for a couple of day. This he did and returned again on Friday, December -1. Wo then talked the matter over further, drew up a contract in triplicate and ! handed him a copy for reading. He read this very carefully and was then asked if he understood it thoroughly. thor-oughly. He replied that he did. whereupon we called in a notary public pub-lic and he signed his name in Unon different places. Including the affidavit, affi-davit, which, by the way. is included in the majority of Federal league contracts, for the reason that we want to know the status of a player before signing him to a contract. This action on our part is in direct di-rect contra version with your action in tile Ritter case. We are now prepared pre-pared to show you the contract entered en-tered into by William Ritter with the Federal League Baseball club of Brooklyn, which contract antedates your contract bv several days, you knowing full well that he had' contracted con-tracted wkh us. It is an open question whether by securing his lather's approval to his contract, the New York Baseball club or Hitter's father did not condone a wrong and the fact that he did does not make it right. That Ritter has been farmed out by your club does not enter into the case the New York Baseball club had no contract with Ritter at the time of his signing with the Federal League Baseball club of Brooklvn. Our purpose in writing this letter is to advance the cause of honest baseball. Very trulv vours, FEDERAL LEAGUE BA SI3BAXL CLUB OF BROOKLYN, INC.. t R. B. Ward, President. Marquard in Trouble. It is not. known what arrangement the Wards have made with Marquard About the SI 500 which was advanced him when he signed the Federal league contract-The contract-The general feeling has been that the rube was in a worse fix than either the Brookfeds or the Giants for the reason that his action in swearing that he had no contract with the Giants and then an-cepting an-cepting money from the Federals on his affidavit to that effect laid him open to a criminal charge. Mr. Ward's letter, however, where it says "we will consider with Mr. Marquard ; a cancellation" of his contract, leads to i t lie belief that the rube will p-'ove amenable amen-able to any suggestion that will serve to extricato him from an awkward posi-: posi-: tlon. . FAVOR RETURN TO OLD WAIVER RULE By International News Service. NEW YORK, Dec. 9. Julius Fieiseh-rnann Fieiseh-rnann came all the way from Cincinnati today and entered himself as an added starter in the annual meeting of tne club owners of the National league. Arm no sooner had the yeast man projected himself into tho big doings than lie got a rise out of his fellow magnates and forced tiiein to abandon the project of adjourning their meeting today. Mr. Fleisehmann came to New York 'with a grievance. He allowed that the big club owners had been able to give their lesser brethren much the worst of it in tiie waiver. He said it had come to a point where it must stop. And after they had wrangled over the matter for four long hours In the sun parlor of the Waldorf the magnates permitted the introduction of a resolution having for its purpose the elimination of the abuses which Mr. Fleisehmann says have grown up about the waiver system. This resolution will be considered at a session tomorrow morning and. tonight the various cliques of ma gnats ' a re scattered scat-tered Jill over tiie Waldorf corridors and bars discussing the best way to deal with it. John C. Toole, counsel for the National Na-tional league, drew up and presented the resolution, which provides merely that once a manager has asked for waivers on a player he cannot withdraw the re-ouest. re-ouest. Tf it is? adopted it will mean a return to the rules in force up to a few vears ago. which gradually grew into such disfavor that they were dropped. Fleisehmann asserts that the chief abuse which has grown up about the present system of asking waivers in a tentntive way is that weaker clubs in the league have been unable In strengthen their trains by adding good players from the stronger teams at waiver prices. He says that when a manager under the present system has a trade In view with some minor league he will ask waivers on the men Involved,' but if any other team lh his own league shows a desire to buy any or Jilt of the players at the waiver price the manager will crawfish, craw-fish, saying, perhaps, i hat he v sked waivers by mistake or has changed his mind. This charge by Fleischmpnn may be unfounded, but it is significant that there was anything but unanimous acquiescence acqui-escence in his proposal to go back to the old rule, and there is a promise of another an-other hard battle In tomorrow morning's meeting' when the. resolution comes up lor a vote. That Weeghman Confab. The drad name. "Federal la gue," was spoken right out loud in meeting this afternoon and this is the first tun the magnates hav admitted tha t they have recognized the opposition in any 1 way. Even today there w as an effort to give the matter an "unofficial" aspect. as-pect. Garry Herrmann was called on to tell th meeting as a private individual just what, had been done between him and Charles Weeghman, president of the Chicago Chi-cago Federals, In their famous peace discussion dis-cussion of a few weeks ago. "Mr. 7-Ierrmann addressed the meeting unofficially.'' said Secretary John F.. Heydler. "He said that his conference with "Weeghman had been undertaken by' him mcreiy as an individual and In no 1 way as a representative of the league. ; His account of what was done was not 1 news, as the result of his conference with ; Weeghman was accurately reported by j the press at the time It took place." Today's session of the club owners was j remarkable, chiefly for what it did not ' do. Tt took no action after Mr. Herr- 1 mann had told of his conference with Weeghmi n: tt took no action to investigate inves-tigate the ugly rumors that have sprung up In connection with Charles W. Murphy's Mur-phy's alleged "wash sale" of his stock in ' the Chicago Cubs; it took no action on the proposal to lengthen the world's series to eleven games (although that is naid to have heen because of the feeling feel-ing that this proposition never should h;ive hfen put forth and nfier could be fidop'rri with profit), and It took no action ac-tion looking to any use of the S2.0o0.nfi0 war fund, which is said to be In the bank ready for use in a determined ficht against the Federal league encroachment. Revise Constitution. About the only positive thing done was the appointment of a new committee on constitution, composed of Garry Herrmann Herr-mann of Cincinnati. W. F. Puker f Philadelphia and Schuyler P. Britton of Pt. Louis. Tt now seems likely that the meeting will adjourn without any exciting a nnouncementa, so far as tho Federals am concerned. There were busy times in the corridors, which may be fair! to benr the same relation rela-tion to Cue meet ing room that the curb I iniirUet does to Hie stock r.v change. Managers Man-agers nnd pin ycrs tlin ed 4ibout mysteriously mysteri-ously ii nd talked trail es, a nd once In a while something almost crime to pass. Roger T-Jresnahan, for instance, almost trade I Heine Zimmerman to Md Ira w. "Jawn" asked "Uajuh" If he would con- sider trading Zimmerman, and the new Cub boss said he certainly would. "What do you want for htm?" asked MeGraw. "Larry Doyle," said Bresnahan. "and Burns a'nd Fletcher and Fred Smith, the catcher." "Oh!" said MeGraw. 'Roger and Charley Herzog of the Reds also got together and talked and talked. Kresnahan was trying to get Heinie Groh, but at last reports he and Herzog were unable to agree, the reason hinted at being be-ing that Roger was trying to get Groh for a couple of hat boys and a ground- j keeper, while Herzeg was holding ou for i a little better offer. Dooin May Jump. Charlie Dooin, who is on the fence so 1 far as jumping to the Federals is concerned, con-cerned, got a concession from Pat Moran, ; the new manager of the Phillies. Pat ' announced that any National league club 1 was at liberty to try to make terms with Dooin that would keep him in the league, and Dooin promised McGrew and Miller 1-Jugglns, botli of whom are eager to land him, that he would give them until next Saturday to mnke their best offers, after, which ho would go to the Federals if he ' could not do holier in his own league. Sherwood Magee also appeared as a possible Federal recruit, hut after talking with Pat Mora n lie announced that he would stick to the Phillies. It seems that Sherwood told Pat he had heard that the Phillies were gctling'ready to trade him. "I have been offered a three-year contract con-tract nt SSOOu a year by the Federals.'' said Magce. "If you are fixing to trade me I'll sign with them. If you nre going to keep me with the Phillips, I'll stick." Moran assured Mage that the Phillies wanted to ktep him. The magnates have set their session tomorrow at 1J o'clock in the morning, which is rather early for a magnate to get up, and this lias given rise to th belief that they will adjourn some time during the da y. If they tin, and if tomorrow's to-morrow's sessions are productive of no more real action 1 ha n today's, the 1!H National league meeting will go down in (Continued on Following Page.) IS MAY RETURN gBTOGHTS (Continued from Preceding Page.) history hh the prize "do-nothing" sfion in the history ut the game. t TRANSFER OF YANKS HINGES ON $50,000 ; NEW YORK, Dec. U. President John-! John-! son of the. A inerla n league fcaid late to- night that there were nu developments in tiie proposed change of ownership of tho I New York American league ciub, but he j wa in private runiereni:e during the dtt1-' witli Frank J. Farreil, the present execu-I execu-I live of the ciub. and representatlven o the New York Natiuiia) le;iw:-ie Hub- K j wan reported an agreement had been reached whereby tne local Amn'-an , league team would he permitted to play at the PHo grounds during 1'jlO and possibly pos-sibly KjIo. Thin agreement removed another oh-sh'Ue oh-sh'Ue in the way of completing the transfer trans-fer of the Hub and it appears that tho question of the price to be paid is the one detail to be arranged. That this difference differ-ence of opinion b"tween Parrel! and Colonel Col-onel Jacou Ruopert. ihe pro.-jpeeiive purchaser, pur-chaser, may can.e tiie -d -h 1 to fail through, was indicated by a remark mada by Johnson tonight. 'pretident FarreLI." he raid, "has named his price, but Colonel Ruppert lias not seen fit as yet to meet it." li was reported thai Furrell had offered to sell hi control fur ? !ri.,0uC, which was i-"''','0 less titan hit original Jigure, but the new men whom Johnson was endeavoring endeav-oring to enlist In the ciub stood on their first ofier of $4'K'.0O0. During the evening even-ing the American h-ague president denied a story from Philadelphia that the Athletics' Ath-letics' franchise had been sold to a new group of capitalists. |