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Show PLAYER LIMIT RILE MAY BE CHANGED BEFORE NEXT SEASON 1 (By Monty.) n New York, Oct 21. One of two H things -will occur before the start of J fa the next baseball season. Either the I H National league will rescind its 21 Lll player limit rule or the American M league will adopt a similar measure. IlljJjj Influential magnates in the former Rl) are exerting pressure on those of the pi latter to have the younger league put I) through such a regulation. If they j p fail, they then will insist on the senior jj circuit raising the limit. I That Ib the way the situation stands today. The facts are learned from I U loading National league men who are taking most prominent parts in the Ml 01 agitation. They assert that they have N a majority of the club owners with If ' them and that they are certain to 1 carry their point. I) Thinking men in the Tener circuit fl blame the present undenied and un- l (I deniable superiority of the American j league in playing strength on the 21 n limit rule. The younger circuit allows each club to carry 25 men during the H$ season, whereas the older one re- flfl strlcta each team to 21. Thus, with each American league club able to keep four more on hand, it has a better bet-ter chance to develop young blood into stars. Several instances might bo cited where National league clubs had to turn loose highly promising material this year Just because of the rigid restrictions re-strictions In vogue. It was necessary, particularly In the case of the pennant contenders, to keep tried and true veterans vet-erans on the Job in preference to some youth. The possibility that the youngster might prove a star could not be considered. The wail of the disappointed National Na-tional leaguers seems well founded. They seem to be picking the correct excuse. It is hardly reasonable to think there is a much larger amount of baseball brains in the Ban Johnson John-son organization and that the managers manag-ers are simply keener in selecting and developing players. Robinson, Moran, Stallings, Mc-Graw, Mc-Graw, Tinker, Mathewson, Callahan and Huggins are fully as smart a bunch of team leaders as Carrigan, Jennings, Rowland, Donovan, Jones, Griffith, Mack and Fohl. A study of iuoso lists of managers brings the conclusion that they are about equal In ability. With the brain argumont killed, there must be a further search for tho cause of National league inferiority. The only plausible explanation is the player limit rule. Paid More for Players. Some American league sympathizers sympathiz-ers point out that club owners in their favorite organization have been less greedy and have paid more money for crack minor league material capable of development They have paid out more in the last two years, but wasn't that also because of the higher player limit, that gave them room to carry more men on hand? What can these Ban Johnson adherents ad-herents say as to the spending of money a few years back? Didn't Barney Bar-ney Dreyfuss of Pittsburg give ?22,500 for Marty O'Toole, who turned out a lemon? Didn't John McGraw of the Giants talk the owners of the New York club into handing over $11,000 for Rube Marquard? There are plenty of other similar cases. Even this year, with tho drastic 21 limit measure meas-ure In force the Cubs paid something more than 15,000 for Wortman, a young shortstop. There Is no denying the fact that the American league has paid something some-thing more for young talent recently than its rival, but his has been largely large-ly because the clubs jn the senior circuit have been forbidden by legislation legis-lation of their own making from having hav-ing many new men around even if they were willing to give thousands for them. Need Not Economize. In its origin, the 21 limit rule was a wartime measure. It was put through in the days of the Federal league to force economy on the club owners, prevent them from making exorbitant salary offers to players .to keep them from jumping. Thus, by making the clubs be, reasonable they were all compelled to earn some profits prof-its or at least keep losses at a minimum mini-mum during the trying days. This reason for holding expenses down has passed now. Perhaps old Ban Johnson was a wiser owl than some gave him credit for being. He refused to Jet his magnates mag-nates put through a 21 limit regulation. regula-tion. Maybe he was playing a slick little trick of his own, as some National Na-tional leaguers now hint. They suggest sug-gest that Ban saw a chance to enhance en-hance the prestige of his outfit. Whether ho had that in mind or not, there is no denying that this is just what happened. His league surely is much stronger now than the National. The Dodgers, who captured the senior circuit's flag for Brooklyn, would have their hands full beating the Yankees and Browns which landed land-ed fourth and fifth in the other race. In the recent world series and the city series at St Louis and Chicago the American league won all three events and in a total of 14 games lost only two of them. It was the greatest great-est post-season cleanup in baseball history. Kept Pennant Races Close. One thing the 21 limit haB done for the National league has been to keep the pennant races close. If one club had an extra largo bunch of talent on hand, it had to get rid of somo of the men, which left an opening for other clubs in the circuit to grab the released re-leased ones. Thus nobody bad a chance to build to a point where he could outclass the field. This well-balanced and close race made it possible for even the tied tail-end tail-end clubs, Cincinnati and St. Louis, to make money. Both these teams were near enough in strength to the leaders to have a chance of winning any day, and such uncertainty drew out the crowds. Thero 1b not the slightest doubt that tho National loaguo clubs, altogether, made at least 30 per cent moro money this year than did the American leaguers. This would seem to be an argument in favor of the younger league adopting a 21 limit measure. Yet, on the other hand, tho greater strength of tho American league is an argument for the National to abolish its rules. If the grade of baseball slumps, the game in general will Buffer. Buf-fer. Is it hot wiser to spend a little money fattening the golden goose rather than run the risk of killing him by economy? That Is the question, ques-tion, the big question, before the baseball base-ball house as the winter league season sea-son opens. You may paste this In your hat as an absolute statement of fact: As said before, oither tho American league will adopt a 21 player limit rule or tho National league will abolish abol-ish Its rigid restriction when tho winter win-ter meetings are held. |
