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Show SURE OF A THIRD MAJORLEAGUE American Association and In- temational League to Go I Out of Business. BEST PAYERS TO STAY( Coast League Becomes Only Double A If Change Is Made. NEW YORK, Nov. 4. Thore will bo a third major league next season. This is a practical certainty. Tho American Ameri-can association and tho International league will go out of business. The best paying clubs in these two circuits will form tho new league. Ed Barrow, at present of tho International Inter-national league, will head the third league. This nows comes from powerful power-ful and well informed baseball authorities. author-ities. Not only will the American association associa-tion and tho International go out of business in 1918, but 60 por cent of the minor leagues will not too the mark when tho umpires call "Play ball" next year. This year has been a disastrous one for the minor leagues. The war was directly the cause. Only a few of the clubs made money, and these where the pennant race furnished an exciting finish. Twelve minor leagues finished tho season this year, as agalnBt forty-seven forty-seven that were In the field a year ago. The major leagues mu3t keep the little fellows alive in order to have a farm from which they can draw future stars. All the details of the plan for the new league have been mapped out-Next out-Next week the minor leaguers will meet In Louisville. While report has it that the plan for the third league will meet with much opposition, there is small doubt that it will go through. It means the salvation of the game and the keeping of fandom interested in tho sport during the period of the war. Most of the opposition will come from club owners who are not mentioned men-tioned in the proposed merger. The Providence and Milwaukee club owners own-ers are leading the opposition. But President Tener of the National league, and Ban Johnson, head of the American, are in favor of the plan. As a war measure it will form a stronger circuit than the two leagues now existing. ex-isting. Not only will the formation of the third league be a good thing for the game, but it will drop for all time the old Federal suit against organized baseball, kept alivo by the continual litigation of the old Baltimore Federal loague officials. President Tener of the National league will be given power to settle the controversy. The third lenguo will pave the way for this. It will mean that Baltimore will be one of the clubs In the new circuit. |