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Show 1H NOW TSCIIEJIIISIS Mays Case Gives Good Example Ex-ample of What May Disrupt Dis-rupt National Game. By L. E. SANBORN. . (Chicago Tribune. D Professional baseball, like everything else in the world, la facing a crisis. ! Its future depends, like all other enter- i prises, on the proportion of cool heada to hotheads engaged in it. Putting it another way, it depends on the ratio of ', profiteers to sportsmen, j The Mays wrangle In- the American I league contains the possibility of the I disruption of that organization and of professional baseball as it has been successfully conducted for more than a decade. If it proves possible for a star player affiliated with a second di- i vision team to violate his contract and compel liis employ em to trade or sell him to a team which has a chance to participate in the world's series, or at least to cut in on the split which gives the teams finishing second and third a part of the world's series coin. then the only salvation of professional baseball base-ball is .the abolition of the world's series. The natural outcome of the Mays case, if he is permitted to get away with his balk, will be that all good players of his mental caliber will be prompted to regard re-gard their contracts as mere scraps of paper when they find themselves tied to second division teams and demand that they be sold or traded to come club that has a chance, to cut in un the postseason postsea-son melon. The best way to combat that brand of baseball will be to abolish the world's series, which has done the sport immeasurable im-measurable harm ever since its inception incep-tion under present regulations. By substituting sub-stituting for it a sliding scale of salaries the same impetus for personal endeavor on the part of the piayers could be supplied, sup-plied, ut there still would be the Mays type of player to be dealt with. It ia a difficult problem which needs . cool heads and wise ones to solve. What chance would any manager have to build up his team if in midseason the star players of a second division club were allowed to quit and compel their transfer to teams which had a chance for the world's series? It might solve some of the problem if legislation were enacted forbidding the transfer of players play-ers between teams in the same league after June 15. One the players get the upper hand of their managers and employers em-ployers the game of baseball will die a professional death and revert to the open lots where it started nearly half a century ago. |