"SLAVES" OF SPORT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13101, 14 June 1913, Page 10

"SLAVES" OF SPORT.

DISSATISFIED BASEBALL PLAYER

WITH £2400 A YEAR

NEW YORK, April 22. The system under which baseball players are "sold" by their own clubs to rival clubs, often for very large sums, is 1 about to be made the subject of an investigation under the Sherman Anti- , Trust Law, if a resolution prepared by Mr Hardwick, a representative of Georgia, secures the approval of Congress.

Mr Hardwick's resolution has reference especially to the case of "Ty" Cobb, a famous Detroit player, who is prohibited by the terms of his contract with the Detroit Club from ever transferring his services to any rival club. ! This is a. common form of contract m •the baseball business m America, which t is capitalised to* the amount of many millions sterling. The Detroit Club .pays Gobb a 'salary of £2400 a year. Me ; Wants £3000, and could obtain it frbnx any other leading club. But whereas the' Detroit Club might, if it saw fit, sell 'his contract for a large' sum-to -a - rival organisation, Cobb cannCit against the wishes of his Detroit managers ever negotiate independently with another club.

LONDON, April 23

The ■ same system applies m football m • this country, although the salaries paid* to. professional footballers are nothing "like so large as those of American baseball players, £4 a week being the ma&iihum. ' Any League club has the power to place any one of its players on thfc transfer list, although after March 16th m each year the club desiring the transfer Of a player lias to satisfy the management committee of the Football League that -such a transfer is not sought for the purpose of obtaining an unfair advantage. English League football players who have served for five years m one club are entitled to a "benefit," and to a second "benefit" after ten years' continuous service. The rules further provide that a transferred player may participate m the benefit of any increase m transfer fee m Jieu of the presumed accrued share of the benefit not exceeding a percentage varying between 10 per cent, for, one year's "service, and 50 per ;cent'. for five years' «ervice.