Eastern League Goes Into Discard

EASTERN LEAGUE GOES INTO DISCARD Attempt to Reorganize Basketball Organization With Four Club Circuit a Failure Squabble Over Players and Latters' Fickleness Caused Blowup; Trenton and Camden to Play Series The attempt to reorganize the Eastern Basketball League has resulted in a dismal failure. In an effort to get the purposed four-club circuit composing Philadelphia, Camden, Trenton and Reading, going the league held another special meeting last night in this city and when Reading failed to send a representative to the conference the other three clubs present decided to throw up the sponge for the season and officially disband. The magnates decided that this was the best course to pursue in the face of the existing conditions. The exhorbitant salaries demanded by the players and the inability of some of the four clubs to reach a mutual agreement over the allotment of players to certain teams left such a chaotic condition remaining that those present decided it was futile to attempt to make a re-start for the rest of this season. Those who were present, Dr. Charles B. Helm, of Camden; B. C. Kuser, of Trenton, and William Meyers, of this city, went on record that they were in favor of reorganizing next fall if the conditions improve There is little doubt, however, but that the league would have tried it again this season had Reading put in an appearance last night. The other three clubs expressed a willingness to continue and were ready to post their increased guarantee of $200. When the Reading club failed to have a representative at the pow-wow the magnates decided they had wasted enough time in trying to make the re-start and that it was time to call a halt for the rest of the season. When the league disbanded last Monday night when Jasper and Greystock quit the other four clubs attempted a comeback the next night with a four-club circuit. With the Jasper and Greystock teams out of business several valuable players were thrown on the market and the reorganization scheme was to have the best of these men distributed between three of the four clubs, Trenton being satisfied with its present team. This scheme was feasible enough and promised to give four equally matched clubs, but, unfortunately, there arose a violent dispute between the teams over these players, and it was this which ultimately resulted in the grand blow off last night. Thrown on the market by the retirement of Jasper and Greystock were McWilliams, Lawrence, Fogarty, Campbell, Zahn, Leonard, Dark, Norman, White, Moorehead and White. Most of these men are good players, yet of this group only three were in demand, McWilliams, Lawrence and Dark. There were two other players, however, who became involved in this grab list by the action of Camden and Reading in letting Brown and Sugarman go. This left a good field to pick from and during the first meeting of the attempted re-organization it was decided to let Reading have Brown, Dark and Lawrence, which was satisfactory to the Bears, who intended to round out the team with Morris and O'Donnell. This brought the issue up between Philadelphia and Camden. The latter club wanted McWilliams and Sugarman and Philadelphia expressed a decisive desire also for McWilliams. Over these men the two clubs bickered for nearly two hours on Wednesday night and then did not reach any conclusion. The next day Philadelphia waived the point and let Camden have free rein to go after Sugarman and McWilliams, which meant a mighty nifty lineup for the Skeeters, for with Steele, Deighan and Kelly as a nucleus the team would have been of championship calibre. Philadelphia was to stand pat on Beckman, Muller, Dreyfuss, Dengath and Powell, with the possibility of securing another first-class man. Tom Barlow, a Trenton boy, on the reserve list of the Philadelphia team, had been turned over to Trenton and apparently the clubs were ready for the re-start. They, however, had failed to take into consideration the fickleness of some of the players. McWilliams jolted the Camden club by announcing that he had quit basketball and would not play another game, Dark refused to go to Reading because he found it would interfere with his police duties in town, but expressed a desire to play with either Camden or Philadelphia; Sugarman announced that he was going to continue playing with Carbondale in the Pennsylvania State League, and Lawrence only wanted the modest sum of $25 per game to play in Reading. Finding that they could not get McWilliams and Sugarman, Camden wanted Brown back and when Reading learned this on top of the stand taken by Dark and Lawrence it brought a storm of disapproval from the owners. This brought about a condition bordering on panic among the other magnates, and after a hurried meeting on Friday night, which was adjourned until last night, the owners decided they had enough of the uncertainty pertaining to this season, and that it would be good business to disband. This probably could have been avoided had some of the clubs been willing to take Leonard; Norman, Campbell, Moorehead, White, Fogarty and Zahn, but these men were not satisfactory to the warring clubs, who only wanted the five men mentioned. After the meeting B. C. Kuser, of Trenton, and Dr. Charles B. Helm, of Camden, said they would like to give their patrons a few more games and agreed to play a series of seven games for the championship of New Jersey. It is a real championship series, for each team posted a $200 forfeit with President Scheffer. The winner of the series takes the forfeit. The receipts of the games will be kept by each home team, and if a seventh game is needed the receipts will be divided equally. William Kelley was selected to referee the games. The line-up of the teams will be the same as used in the regular league games, as follows: Trenton, Franckle, Tome, Newman, Hargreaves, Lloyd, Ballard and Watt; Camden, Steele, Deighan, Engle, Kelly, Kilpatrick, Muller, and one other professional and one other minor leaguer to be named. The first game will be played in Trenton tomorrow night, and the second in Camden on Wednesday of this week. The games will then continue on those two nights until one team wins four games. If a seventh game is needed, it will be played in Camden or Trenton, as a toss of a coin will decide. Jimmy Kane, of Camden, and Charles Barlow, of Trenton, will be the official timekeepers.