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Show Till' OITION II ttNI. Thanks to tha controversy over the National I.eaguo's playera contracts the (porting slilo of baseball Is being once mora overshadowed li) the bust wim end The lawyers arc having a I pleasant ami probably profitable In nlng, and tho land Is filled with their conflicting claims nnd opinions which nettle nothing and servo but to befog the public nnd bewilder the magnates mag-nates Amldat nil thla noise nnd on-fuilon on-fuilon the star ball player la the only ono who can't lose, no matttr which aide wlna That he National League, through some one of Its clubs will make, a tist, however reluctantly. Is assured for the reason that It la nbsolutoly necessary to ascertain Its position for the future ' If the league contract should be Ju- dlclally sustained the league woull have nothing to fear henceforth, so far as Its players arc concerned, It can hold them Indefinitely, and the American Ameri-can League, will hate to develop Its own players nnd educate the public at Its own expense. If the lengue contract con-tract Is not legally valid then no base ball contract la alld any here, and tho rival magnate will have to get together ero next fall, unless they wish to risk putting themselves nnd their Investments completely at the mercy of the plnyer, and thus Invito suro ruin and chaos Tho only present alternate o Is for each league to stand pit, on such baxo-ball baxo-ball law as remains, for one season, with such players an each now has, without tho fearful risk of recourse to law, and trust to the lessona of tho coming season to bring the warring factions together, as ono season of strlfo will be pretty suro to round off oven the sharpest horns It la probably prob-ably eafo to aiy that both leagues particularly the National league , now regret not having pursued a different dif-ferent four to toward each other Hut, all things considered, It would pcr-. pcr-. haps bo well to havo tho matter onco moro threshed over In court. If only to giro tbo magnates a much-needod lesson ns to tho great dlfferenro between be-tween legil learning and horso sense. F. C. Hlchtcr, In Sporting Life. , IIIIMIIMI SUNTII l-ATIONS. While mourning the loss of her greatest player, Lajolo, Philadelphia rejoices that she succeeded In retain- Ing Flick, whom the American league p made strenuous efforts to capture -Jfi Cincinnati baseball enthusiasts nro " jislo by tho Uods Ilo belongs to tho typo of players who are drawing cards every placo Iluslo has long been regarded re-garded ns the greatest pitcher In tho profession Ills "cam on-ball" delivery has ovoked comment all over tha country, coun-try, Tha big Hoosler believes hla arm has lost none of Its cunning. "1 am now In as good physical condition as I ever was In my life," says Amos, "and I will makn good At Cincinnati Cincin-nati the surroundings will bo differ- ' ent from New York city and that has a great deal to do with tho work. My arm Is as good or better than It over I , was and tho speed that has holped mo I In former cars will not bo wanting : this year. I CIIAI1I 1.1 (1IIAXT. , (.Former Second llascman of the Co lumbia fllants, whoso Indian namo Is Tokohoma and who will play with McGraw's Baltimore team ) (JlllTH Till. JIAJCIIt I KAIIUK. Fielder A. Jones, who has cast his . - lot with tho Chicago White Stockings la preference to tho Drooklyn National League team, has been ono of tho star outfloldora of tho league for sovornl years Ho was boru In California, and began hla baseball career there oa an amateur Hla first professional engagement en-gagement waa with an Independent I team In Dlngbamton, N. Y, In 189S, Tom Hums was then manager of tho Sprlngflelda of tho Eastern Lodgue, and stopped off to play an exhibition gamo In ninghamton Jimmy Canahan pitched tho gamo for Springfield, and Jones, wlio was playing left fleU, made a hit every tlmo at bat, besides ! covering all kinds of ground After tbo game Durns made Jones an offer to Join hrs team, and tho pliyr left town that night with Hums" club Ho played center field the rest of that sea- son In Springfield and led tho East ern Leaguo la balling besides attract ing so much nttcntlon otherwise that he wna Immediately drafted hy tho Drooklyn club In tho fall, where lo has played for five years past Jones' odd given name Was the cnuso of an amusing tilt over tho wires between be-tween President i oung of tho National Inguo and President Ilyrno of the Brooklyn club at tho time the player signed his contract Ilyrno notified oung that he had signed 'Fielder Jones " Ilcfore Issuing his week y bulletin bul-letin Young wired Ilyrne ' Ssnd Initials Ini-tials or full name- of Outfielder Jones " Ilyrno wired back "Fielder Jones" nnd received the reply "Slop jour Joking, Jok-ing, I want name for odlclal bulletin " Not until Mr Ilyrno had sent n din gram and explanation by mall dll ' Uncle Nick" understand that the player's nnmo wo really Fielder Apparently Ap-parently the Drooklyn club will feel tho loss of Jones nil tho moro keenly because of tho practical certainty tint Ai-Jl Ai-Jl w fieldeii a jones. It will not have tho service of Outfielder Out-fielder Shcckard, nlthnugh ordinarily outfleldcra oro easy to replace. until im win. m tii hit. Colonel John I ltogcrs, of tho Philadelphia Phil-adelphia Club, make no bores of saying say-ing that bo will tako tho League contract con-tract Into court, Tho loss of I-aJolo and Dcrnhard has aggravated Mm very much, so much so, that when Interviewed Inter-viewed by a "llecord' reporter tho other day ho savugely aald "What will wo dof What can wo doT We will bring, suit, of course, when we aro ablo to find out who wo nro to bring suit against Who are thesa.iooDloMauywavAnailuliifV)rpa-t rated body,' wlthoufnanir-f'wlthout homo or any known quantity Has anyone seen ono of their contracts? Have they ever mado tha contents of one known to tho general public through tho pre? "Who nro these people who como along and steal our players, after wo havo paid fancy prices to secure their rolcaso from other clubs? And yot theso nro tho peoplo that oro being lauded to tho skies by the newspapers of this city When the Philadelphia club ahowed Itself weak In any respect theso samo papers called out for us to 'loosen up' and such llko expressions, urging us to purchase tho release of aomo particular star "Last season wo were offered (IS 000 for Ijijole, but sooner than bo called speculators wo refuted Now theso now people como along and steal hlra without paying a cent, and yet not one of our Philadelphia papers has printed a Una In protestation Is that fair? Is that manly? Certainly we will bring suit when these people, who havo been doing business In hiding and under un-der cover come out and declare themselves them-selves In tho open " Another soro spot with Colonel Itogers Is thnt tho number of local conflicting dates created by tho American Am-erican league achedulo Antnt that point ho sarcastically remarked tho other day that ho could hao mado up n schedule with leas conflicting dales "all by his lonesome" than that arranged ar-ranged by Dan Johnson nnd hi loynl followers Tho colonel forgets that the American leaguo could do nothing else. In vlow of the fact that the National Na-tional leaguo schedule keeps tho Phil-lies Phil-lies almost continuously at homo In May nnd June, the best months In baseball Ha could hardly expert Mack's team to remain on the road all that time. |