Show THE ME DAYS the saddest season of the year for baseball players rOVEn TT what stare staria of the diamond 1 ill 0 next V ln tor the parable of tho the tinn man and nil the ho hear near baseball suid horse compared S THE poet it sang about sk AA the e melancholy A days that come the saddest of tile year it is not unlikely he lie wrote from the tile standpoint of a baseball 6 player in november A that solemn period of the annual cycle of time Is about to swoop down once more upon the per fesh 11 the men who make babeo hits bits fly catches and runs in the spring summer and early autumn are ure for the most part improvident particularly ticul arly in i i it ibe the characteristic of th those oe who came up from comparative poverty within a few years to bo be the commanders of 2000 and salaries there are men who received each in baseball salary last summer who will borrow money before spring to pay their board bill very few of the ibo league players corn comparatively P amatively arat ively will go home with enough money saved to pay their winters keeping and yet these ISO men have been paid in c cash ash since the of last april not lese less than 1000 DO winter to a baseball player has more terrors than it has to a hairless mexican dog there was a timo time when he lie could hi ways beat tho the game and control simo advance money against the fol following lowI es eon son but that cenap is obsolete tho the foxy magnates have him lim at their mercy ile II 11 is now dow lucky to get his salary when it fulls falls due as was proved by the new york clu caul I 1 when they recently repudiated the last half months pay of their most valuable player amos rusle it has come to that fate in baseball business where the magnates owing to the he peculiar constructor const mcton on of the players contracts have every thiD their own way what do baseball players do during the winter mostly nothing and they do it to gracefully too tool their professional life 1 vj a school which teaches them the art ol 01 of doing nothing with skill and ease Rel kelly lybas has signed an agreement to start tho the horses ac a st louis winter race racetrack track hutchinson will go home to cedar rapid ia where he usually gets some work to do in a railroad freight office anson plays billiards and talks about some champion ship lie intends to win probably next year he never talks about those he has won or n nearly ea aly won comiskey Com lakey hibernates in the b bosom osom of ills family at chicago ewing goes to cincinnati where he lie gets tat fat enough to kill by butchering time ward stays in new york where he hobnobs hobnob with actors among whom ho lie Is very popular john is a dudish figure on broadway and fifth avenue every fine winter day those players who have bare families join them after 4 the playing season those who have no families beat their way through to spring AS best they can amid all the talk of young blood anson stand stands forth as the napoleon of the profession it may not bo be true that he lie wears a double set of false teeth and a wig or that be lie was the first white child bom born in iowa but your uncle adrian is no longer in danger of tearing the skin every time he be lifts wing awing nor is the tip of his breastbone pure white cartilage in spite of his full f ull me au as of years however he lie quits the season the most talked of figure in baseball tor for the anticipated events of I 1 1893 every spring newspaper men writa write column columns to prove that anson is entering his last year of active service every autumn they are profligate with use of ink discussing his prospects to win the championship tor for chicago the following season anson is the only player who has been a member of a league team every season since the league was organized in ISM what a contrast between horse racing and base baseball balli recently I 1 sat among a thousand baseball patrons who booted hooted groaned and hissed at the umpire for halt half an hour because he blundered in a decision which however did not affect the game next day I 1 was on the race track when the judges bya by a mistake displaced the horse hors 0 which came in third and named an outsider that place yet there was not a hiss a groan nor a loud word of protest from the crowd of spectators in the ball game there was not a dollar bet on the result but in the horse race the judges blunder caused the loss of hundreds maybe thousands thousand of dollars to men who saw their one two three horse denied the place he won in the first case it was purely sentiment enthusiasm and partisan feeling which was outraged in the latter case sentiment and local pride had nothing not liing to do with the blunder it was a matter of mere business some of the magnates have been to europe thia this year and others are going but the expenses of their trips will not come out of club profits profit this is the third successive season of bleed tor for baseball backers they have gone down three times in succession success son but every one of them has expectations of riches for the future this faith in the to be blessed in some instances ie Is marvelous take the case of mr von der of baltimore lie ile has been in baseball for seven clars and never played to am a winning inning season EC ason ilie ills six seasons prior to the present one had cost him CC and this year he will probably add to the sum yet he be is 09 he 0 pia ta t 41 discuss I 1 betus his plans for 1893 1803 the oli league magnates remind me of the hunter who always had a strong desire to capture a bear alive one day ho be came upon a bruin which stood erect and had his forelegs for fore elega legs around the limb of a tree busily engaged at sharpening his claws slipping up on the other side the hunter crabbed grabbed a paw in each hand band and held the brute fast at first be he danced with delight dolight soon ho be grew serious anon he be began to perspire and grow red in the face fact then ha he called loudly for help and his cries attracted a it second hunter who came running up why do you want help said bo be as he took in the situation you have caught the bear bet your life I 1 have lave panted hunter no L 1 now tor for gorie gods sake help me to let him go well the ely sly old league magnate magnates caught their american association bear at indianapolis last winter they chuckled over their capture all last spring uy mid hum mer they began to sweat more freely than the temperature was responsible tor for now they are silently praying for help to let their bear go 0 P |