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Show MANY PLAYERS HURT IN HUSTLE FOR JOBS ART """N--..;- -V' " .-,. . 'y;y 'TrTzz vxtfZZ stay Gviszvy 4Zj SOME OF THE STARS INCAPACITATED THIS SEASON. - More star ball players have been injured in-jured this year than in any previous season in a decade and the fans throughout the country are mystified. They cannot understand why these accidents ac-cidents to stars should occur so regularly. regu-larly. The answer is that baseball is a different game this season. For several sev-eral years the players have been reaping reap-ing a harvest. The natural advancement advance-ment of the game and the increase of the profits of the magnates caused the salaries of players to mount rapidly, and then came the war between organized or-ganized ball and the Feds. The players took advantage of the conditions and held the magnates up for salaries all out of proportion to their value, with the result that the majority of the clubs lost money in 1914 and 1915. There was nothing left for organized ball to do but make peace with the Federal league, and the retrenchment policy was adopted by the magnates Almost every star player of the two ilajor leagues was tied up to two or three-year contracts, the majority of which expire at the close of the present season, and the players now are hustling. In recent years the players refused to take any unnecessary chances. They were content con-tent to draw their salaries and preferred pre-ferred to take no chances on injuries, realizing that a serious accident would hurt their earning capacity. When the magnates announced that there would be a general cut in salaries sal-aries after the long term, war-time contracts con-tracts nad expired, the players real- ized that they would have to get out and hustle or they would be cut even more i.han they expect. As a result, they are making plays and taking desperate des-perate chances which were unknown in the last two seasons. There is no question about the hustling hust-ling of the players this season. They are working harder than ever, realizing realiz-ing that their new contracts will be based entirely upon what they show this season and not on past reputation, as was the case when the Feds were in the field. Perhaps many fans have noticed how much faster the games are this year, Almost every club in two major leagues has been handicapped by injuries in-juries to star players, with the Athletics, Ath-letics, 1nkees and Indians the chk-l sufferers. " One list places the number num-ber of crippled players at 51, but this includes many of the usual ailments, such as sore arms and lame shoulders, which are in no way due to the revival re-vival of the fighting spirit of the players. play-ers. Nineteen members of the Athletics and Yankees have been out of the game, each for a week or longer, and six broken bones are included in the list of injuries. Other players who have sustained broken bones are Lo-bert Lo-bert of the Giants, broken leg; Chapman Chap-man of Cleveland, broken leg; Adams of the Phillies, broken finger; Cady of Boston, broken finger ; Magee of Boston, broken wrist ; Fletcher of the Giants, broken finger, and Archer of the Cubs, broken finger. |
