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Show NATIONAL LEAGUE TO RETURN TO 1 54-GAME SCHEDULENEXT YEAR Season to Open April 14; Nine-game World's Series Popular With Club Owners; Court Decision De-cision Holding Baseball Is "Commerce" Source of Regret; Reestablishment of Friendly Relations With Minors Presents Difficulties. NV.W YnliK, Dim-, 'p. The annual meeting- ut' lh(i linard (iL' directors direct-ors (i I' tlic National league anil I In' regular meeting nf 1 he chll) nvuT took plaro tmiay. I'Teaident HoytJlrr :i iJ niiicli urgent lillslliej'S still Ti'iuaineii iiatinisht'il aiol I hat. the meeting meet-ing ipitht last through the greater art of the ueek. The new hoanl of iliivi tol'3 was elect-P'l. elect-P'l. cimaUtiiij; of .Messrs. Stoneham, Now York; 11 rant, llnslon: Jryl'us, ritlshuro. an. I eeek, Chi.aL'o. It was dee.uleil that in future two western anil two eastern i-lulis will lie. repnesontoil on the hoard and that they would alternate alter-nate eai-h sueeeedin year. A rumor that the llrooklyn club lind I. een sold to a syndicate of Urooklyn men was deny1!! hy I'residenf Kbhets. Major Uranrli Rickey, . resident and manager of the .St. Louis cluh, explained that there was still a dould as to whether wheth-er he or some other person would inan-u,'u inan-u,'u tin' leain next season. Penally for Tampering;. The eons! it utiou was amended so that any elub owner, manager, player or n'ent coin ieted el' tampering with players play-ers hrltmK'mg to other loagtio clubs would be lined .flOOO. I-'xinilsion may bo tlir penalty for second otl'euse. The leaouo voted in favor of a 134-Came 134-Came schedule for the sesisnu, which will open on Wednesday, April II, subject to the approval of the American leniriv. which will meet here tomorrow. The training season was extended ex-tended from four to six weeks prior to the opening of the idnviiio; season. Mr. llevdler unofficially stated that the len'theniuc of the world series to nine oauies and the new rules for the division of the receipts seemed to find favor nniotii,' the club owners. President Tleydler presented his annual an-nual report on league affairs during the past year, part of which r?ad as follows: fol-lows: Hopes for Reversal. lOn the debit side of our aff.-urs we rail place the ruling of dude Stafford In the Kaltimore suit, that professional baseball is commerce, and that the system sys-tem of operating organized b.a?vba!l is a monopoly or an attempt at monopoly ;nnl thcroforo in violuliou of the blicr-iiiiiu blicr-iiiiiu law, ' Thin fiii'lin has been appealed from to (lie higher court which hearing, hear-ing, Iniwever, may not le reached until tho spring or siunmer of 10U. We are hopeful that in t he final analysis the national sport will not be clashed as a commodity or us a combination .in restraint re-straint of trade. "The lireukintr away of the minors from the national unuement may likewise like-wise be viewed unfavorably: for, although al-though (lie majors have not suffered by this breach, vet chaotic ' conditions are bound to nnsuo unless proper working understandings ane re-established under a central government. The minors have notified u-i that they have appointed a committee of eiht for this vnrPStS and there is no question as to t!? wisdom wis-dom of holding a joint conference. It is my .judgmeut, however, that no new afrrcement can be entered into except on leal ndvieo of how best this can be done without running into conflict with the Washington court's ruling on t lie question of monopoly. Baseball's Comeback. ' ' Passing to the credit side of the year's work, we are all to be congratulated congratu-lated on the thorough and rapid manner man-ner in which baseball made the transition transi-tion from a wartime nonessential to an a t for-war public necessity and stabilizer. sta-bilizer. ; 'Baseball lias full reason to bo proud of its share in the reconstruct ion and in its share of furnishing money to the treasury department at Washington to help pay the price of victory. We have it on the best governmental authority au-thority that no interests contributing to the national taxes have shown a liner spirit of co-operation than has professional baseball. It came through right, with a rating of 100 ir cent.' Several deals were spoken of. including includ-ing the rumored purchase of Shortstop Kogers ITornsby of t. Louis bv the Xew York club. President Rickey spiked this rumor by saying: ''Thero is not money enough in the National league to buy Hornhy from St. Louis." Tt. was said that Manager John J. ?.Ie-Graw ?.Ie-Graw had ofl'ered a record price for this player, exceeding the $75,000 mark, which was fot bv the purchase of Carl Mays bv the New York Americans. |