Show UG urs rs A 5 I B By Steve ey BULL 1 THE HE MiNORS I RE BILL MCARTHY of the Paci Pacific c Coast league even if his vision no further than S San Il Fran Francisco isco in i isn't such a bad duck after all He will will defend San against the whole Pacific Coast league but when the thel l gue rue is threatened hell he'll make a mighty effort to save i it i This This was exemplified yesterday when Bill got on the job to r vent an embryo case of perse persecution ution of the minors minor for the unwillingness un Un- willingness to cancel their S contract with the majors in r regard gard to tot t draft The whole situation can be told in in a paragraph Two years gO 80 the major leagues and certain of the minors including the theP P Coast league made an agreement whereby the majors were to 0 be deprived of the right of draft for seven years These leagues In turn could not draft from smaller leagues The high prices ft obtained for st stars rs of the Pacific Coast league has as a result m made de tough on the majors and they are looking for an out First t th x y demanded the cancelling of the contract although it still has fi Jears to run Then they threatened and aud in a covert manner I Inave 1 nave deprived the minors of many players They o obtain tain all of oft t t e bushers bushels they can and hold this talent t to dispose of only when t minors yield players they want Now comes the latest move of the majors against the minors I s 's an alleged agreement that the majors shall not release any players Ia ers to the minor leagues without a proviso that they be subject 10 draft The move amounts to nothing mote more e or less than an anT ana a T t to bullyrag the recalcitrant cl clubs b bs' bs into line with the desire of the he the major leagues McCarthy registered vehement protest with Baseball CommisSIOner Commissioner Commis Commis- Landis against the alleged treatment He claimed that it Amounted to nothing but a breach of faith and contract p 11 McCarthy is right Within I a year of two with all of the S players sold to the minors being held subject to draft the league Id ld be filled with these men and although th the h contract between minors minors and majors still held the agreement would in fact be WI hout any force S Such Suh actions on the part of baseball of-baseball officials will do a great greata a 1 to help kill the game which has suffered many a severe blow f late ate S 4 4 IP Paul Corbett writhing in the Sydney Referee Pittsburg Referee Pittsburg Leader Lader Oh well we writhe a afew few paragraphs ourselves n now now w and then I I I C FOR THE TELEGRAM READERS r weeks from today Sunday January 21 The Telegram will Jl 1 present with pride to its readers the greatest sport feature of ofHie Hie th last decade a feature which has been obtained exclusively for form this m section by this paper It is the memoirs of John J. J McGraw th wonderful leader of the New York Giants eight times champions 0 of the National league and at present worlds world's champions This feature which is called My My Thirty Years in Baseball was ivas bought by an alliance of newspapers in the United States t- t e North American Newspaper Alliance of which The Telegram i ia a member It will be printed exclusively by these papers 1 This department could go on praising this wonderful feature which we will present to our readers but that would appear to be beb b on our part We Ve modestly let Damon Runyon a great 4 i writer tell of the memoirs of McGraw I John McGraw manager of the Giants is writing his memoirs My thirty hirty Years in Baseball t This should shoud be interesting in spite of the fact that McGraw is ia only about 50 years ago an age at which most men are not prepared to write their memoirs Even Even if it is to be purely and merely a historical narrative of events in ba baseball during McGraws McGraw's long experience it will be valuable as a record J. J Coming into the big league with the great Baltimore Orioles as a spidery l Kid ra id McGraw has been an active figure in the game down to tho the last day last fast fall when ho sat on the bench of the Giants portly gray haired dl directing his eighth pennant winning club to his third worlds world's championship V More than any other man in baseball McGraw has understood the value S of 5 publicity We half suspect that the underlying motive of many of his hisa a actions Ions that seemed merely born of a turbulent spirit was publicity not 0 much for himself as for his club f If we were guessing at the chief baseball regret of McGraws McGraw's life we would say that it was the fact that ho could not from force of circumstances bot the man who bought Babe Ruth That was a deal that would have appealed Appealed to McGraw w McGraw has since made deals deala Involving more money but they did not P Possess the spectacular features of the Ruth deal And McGraw would have dearly carly loved the tho spectacular nature of Ruth McGraw can tell many interesting things if he will He does not need to ojeo GO o back beyond his career in New York to hold the attention of his re reader eader der though the story of the old Orioles when he played with Keeler elley Robinson Jennings Sadie McMahon and all the rest would absorb th tho o old timers He can tell toll what he knows and what he thinks of the famous Merkle Merkie dent when an umpires umpire's decision took a pennant away from his Giants Th rhe inside talc of the row on his cl club b during the worlds world's series of 1917 against h he White Sox would clear up an old mystery I His battles with the umpires the tho magnates and leagues' leagues officials familiar cough nough to the past generation of fans would be new and exciting reading to he le present generation His wil wild 1 experiences with the fans of hostile towns notably o ably Chicago his of such famous baseball players as Mathewson Ginnity Mike Donlin Big Chief Meyers Bowerman Rube Marquard and a ae e of others would furnish many chapters He could make of his memoirs not merely a record of baseball but iut an II I tale from behind the scenes of pf the world of sport or the Porting orting world as y you u please for over a quarter of a century t An intelligent man McGraw has always been a keen koen observer He has a If Y ne memory He seldom loses a verbal argument Tn n the days when he C hose se to indulge in conversational mixes with all comers corners his tongue was like Tho years bringing on indisposition toward trouble have soft soft- ned his words to some extent Those if-Those Those who know McGraw Intimately know him not as the hard boiled bolted factor so long pictured I to the baseball public but as an entertaining chap given to doing nice little things for persons persona less fortu fortu- ate than himself It lt is understood that McGraw Is being assisted in the compilation of is memoirs by Sam Crane dean and peer of the baseball writers of this V I Sam Crane was playing big league leage e baseball before McGraw wa was ever ard eard rd of As baseball writer for the Evening Journal Sam has for many jars ars been a close associate and intimate friend of McGraw V N I It is s indeed a happy choice on McGraws McGraw's part Sam knows the game oame of and the history of baseball better than any other man He also ws McGraw Tho The combination of knowledge cannot fail to make the emoi a splendid record and an entertaining tale talo |