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Show What Coasters Are Gossiping About in Off-Season President Murphy of the Salt Lake chib yesrerday received a telegram from Por-terviUe, Por-terviUe, Cal.. in regard to hotel accommodations accom-modations for the Saints during: their training season. While the telegram was j not wholly tsatisfai'iorv. Mr. Murphy I (thought tho matter could be easilv adjusted. ad-justed. Tie and Manager Bernhard wilt i rstop at Porterville on their way to San Francisco for the schedule meeting and will then arrange the details for training. train-ing. ''There doesn't seem to be any doubt that we will train at Porterville," said Mr. Murphy. Out of the clouds nf disaster that hover threateningly over the 1917 baseball season sea-son one little ray of light has come to warm the hearts of random. President Baum is going to fire an umpire. Or rather, to put it in the way that it should be put, he is going to hire not more than Ave of his umpiratical staff of last season. You'll find no fan on - the circuit who will not rejoice. In fact, if all six were fired there would be six timee as much rejoicing, not that Prexy Baum hasn't got at least five good umpires, but that no umpire is ever quite good enough to suit the fans. The attitude of the fan mind is that all umpires are bad, only some are worse, and that there shouldn't be any difficulty in getting a new one who is just as bad as the others. As a matter of fact, class AA umpires are rare indeed, and Pre.xy Baum has fine-toothed the country often enough in his search for them to know that they aren't to be picked up in profusion. But it can he taken for granted that, having decided to use but five of his old staff, he has his new man in sight and Is confident confi-dent he will be an improvement on the man who is not coming back. Prexy Baum mentions no names, but general opinion is that the man who is . not coming back is Jack Doyle. Doyle was unpopular with the fans all over the circuit last season. He had the I poorest Judgment on foallB and strikes of I any man in Baum's employ, if the fans are to be believed. At the end of the season, during Billy Phyle's Illness. Doyle handled several games alone, and gave better satisfaction than he did when working in double harness. The five umpires um-pires to remain with Baum, provided Dovle is the man to go, are Bill Guthrie, Red Held. Ed Finney, Billy Phyle and Kitty Brashear. Pan Francisco Examiner. Exam-iner. That the signing of Byron Houck and Gus Fisher was good news to the Portland Port-land baseball magnates goes without saying. say-ing. This fact was announced in the Telegram yesterday, and only emphasized the statement made in these columns ; Monday that the Portland club wouldn't1 suffer much from the threatened strike, if it did come. Action in the matter was entirely voluntary vol-untary on the part of both Fisher and Houck. In the case of the former it was a foregone conclusion that there would he no trouble, as Gus never did belong to the Players' fraternity, and has always been fairly dealt with by the McCredies. It is the case of Houck, however, who has been an active member of the fraternity, frater-nity, which pleases the baseball owners best. They didn't know how Houck stood on the proposition, and were inclined to believe be-lieve tliat he might be one more who might, hold out and cause them trouble. trou-ble. Houck came to the front. like a man. and was perfectly willing to sign at the present time, announcing that he had no grievances against the local club, and was perfectly satisfied with the manner man-ner tn which he had been treated last season. This action leads the local owners to believe tha t other players on the club, who are known to be members of the fraternity, fra-ternity, will also be in the same state of mind, and readily sign their contracts. Portland Telegram. Justin Fitzgerald, seal outfielder, who is an ardent member of the fraternity, admitted ad-mitted yesterday that he didn't believe the strike situation would loom large on the horizon so far as the Coast Is concerned. con-cerned. 1 "1 haven't received any notification from Fultz not to sign my contract for 1917." said Fitzgerald, "and so far as I am aware no word has come to any of the hoys in this western country. What I will or will not do is something hard to sav until the crisis comes to hand. Naturally, Nat-urally, there's no use in joining any association asso-ciation unless you figure on staying by that body when there Is a fight on hand, and I would probably stink. However, I'm not going to say what I will do until there is occasion for me to make up my mind." President Baum does not view with any degree of uneasiness t he proposition of the ball players joining ha nds w ith t he American Federation of Labor to have a union all of their own. "The ball players themselves would not agree to such a proposition." declared the head of the league. "There are, as the fans know, a lot of average players and a few men who are wonh more money because t hev can draw it into the eate. These stars would nver be willing to accept a standard salary, and the result would be the plavers themselves wouldn't be able to get together. I don't think there's much chance of anything of the sort being brought to pass." San Francisco Fran-cisco Chronicle. The Oaks' new second baseman will probably be one of two young chaps, both j from tlie ame town, who are fighting it: out in Brooklyn for the right to be un- i derstudy to George Cntshaw. The chap i wiio loses will pro ha bly be turned over I to Pel Howard, while the winner will be retained in the utility position unless It: ' should develop enough cla.ss to dtfh Cut-' shaw out of a job. The dope has it that Olile O'Mara will lie tried out for second base. F lis ohirf rival will be .la hips i Red Srnyt h. Rot h hail from St. l.'HiK They are about the same size, both incline to sorrel Ions, they were rival players on the lots and now they clash again in the big show.1 Yet he Iwii are gre:, t friends a ml i he ! sumgie will result in no hard lechu-i. j Oakland Tribune. J |