| Show MAJOR LEAGUE OFFS CAST I FAIL TO MAKE GOOD HERE Coast League eague has Sent a Higher Grade of Ball Talent to the Majors Major Than Have Come Down F Feds eds Proved to Have Much Poor Material Stars Material Stars Are I Grabbed by the Large Clubs I I We hate to brag but In the light of the experiences of ot tho last two years it would seem to be in order to revise the classification of the various leagues by raising the Coast league to major rating and dropping the National and possibly the American down into class AA company company com corn pany writes Harry Williams in the Los Angeles Times In recent reasons so BO many athletes have been shipped out here from the majors majors majors ma ma- jors who have failed to make good or who have displayed only mediocre form Corm that we are becoming skeptical regarding the class of the majors outside of a few of the stars they have corralled and In Intend intend in- in tend to keep True they have sent us some good goodmen goodmen goodmen men but even the best of these thee have not found it easy sledding It has been Interesting in interesting interesting In- In to watch the sad sad awakening of some of these major league recruits who had expected to go through the Coast league without half trying so to speak An expression of surprise Illuminates their countenances and Is followed byone by by- byone byone one of extreme pain Then comes a period of seriousness when they realize that they are arc up against a a. fight for their very baseball lives Few men come here from the East and start a conflagration in the circuit Men with good records in the majors frequently frequent frequent- Iy ly fall fail to duplicate them here her while youngsters going from Crom here to the th big show often show Increased class Doubtless Doubtless Doubtless Doubt Doubt- less there are contributing causes Possibly Possibly Possibly Pos Pos- sibly the widely varying kinds of climate and degrees of altitude snake make this a hard league to make good In Climate Freedom from the intense heat found i In the East and an absence of the congealed congealed congealed con con- conI I conditions of the spring and late fall would figure to make this circuit Ideal climatically from a baseball standpoint stand stand- point and yet there seems to be some subtle element in the atmosphere that militates against the tenderfoot athlete Pitchers have complained and observation observation tion substantiates the claim to a certain extent that they find Jt it difficult to control control control con con- their curve ball and get the usual break brenk on It Jt until they have played here i ithe the better part parl of a year However these handicaps do not disguise disguise dis lis- guise the fact that thai a majority of the themen themen men recruited from tIla majors have i failed tailed to startle the nat natives and have not shown the class expected of or athletes with big league training In fact It has become an axiom of Coast league baseball that a a. player who Is not quite good enough for the majors will have a hard time getting by In this league Odds Favor Us A review of ot the troops shows how that Inthe Inthe in inthe the last few years the Coast has sent up upa a a. higher class of players than has been received ed In return Last fall fail we graduated graduated grad grad- d thirteen players In the big leagues and all but one remained This Is a far better percentage than the majors can show on the recruits sent us Eastern athletes contemplating a Il career on the Coast who imagine that it is going to be In the nature of a a. Joy ride should make haste hute to themselves themselves themselves them them- selves and gird their loins for tor a real battle The next year or two should see an Improvement In the quality of pf players available for the Coast During the baseball baseball baseball base base- ball war the majors were compelled to take what they could get and rather than run the risk of ot letting a a. diamond In InI Inthe Inthe the rough slip through the screen loaded I up with a vast ast amount of material much of which was of low grade When peace was c concluded It was necessary to unload I much of or this by some flome means or manner I Some were turned loose while others hooked to copper riveted contracts were I peddled in the open market minor league clubs sometimes being paid a bonus to assume the player and his contract Explanation President Powers of th the Los Angeles club has a logical explanation for Cor the tile comparative scarcity of good players available for the big minors When tho tIle last shot was fired in the baseball war I and the Federal league hung the crepe on the front door It was believed that the country would be overrun with topnotch- topnotch ers era out of a Job Sad awakening The majors grabbed most of the Feds who were really worth while The discovery was soon made that the bone and sinew or rank and file of the Feds wasn't even good minor league material ma ma- Also that erstwhile good men had been set back a year or two or had their efficiency permanently impaired by the free and easy scheme of ot life In the outlaw outlaw outlaw out out- law organization Meantime it became apparent that the Feds had developed comparatively few valuable menAs men As Powers points out there also was wasa a falling off In development elsewhere During the war the number of minor leagues dropped from more than fifty to tw twenty nty or less The game Is still feeling the effects of this period of ment In the tile present dearth of material |
