‘CHestnut 2300

 

 

 

 

 

Glendale bSeverage (a

 

3115 EAST 12th STREET
KANSAS CITY, MO.

June 24, 1940

Mr. Forrest Allen
Athletic Department
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas

Dear Fog:

I have a team in the Kansas City Ban Johnson League
and we are having trouble with the major leagues taking
our players in the middle of the playing season. I am
tickled to death to have them take the players at the
end of the season, but do not think it fair for them
to take them in the middle of the year, thereby chang-
ing a club from possibly a first division to a second
division. My contention is that a player is not a
professional, even though he has signed a contract to
play professional ball, until he has either played or
received money for playing or signing a contract.

I have just had a case of one of my players whom the
New York Yankees wanted to sign, and, due to my objec-
tions, promised to sign the young man at the end of the
season. The Detroit Tigers come along and sign the
young man now, and have him report to a minor league
club. Had the Yankees been permitted to sign this
young man now to report in the spring, this would never
have happened.

Frank Goodman, President of the Kansas City Ban Johnson
League, contends that when a player signs a contract to
play professional ball, he then becomes a professional,
which makes him ineligible to play in the Ban Johnson
League.

Would you be so kind as to tell me whether the Conference
rules would consider a young man a professional who is
signed to play in the future as I explained above. I am
trying to sell Frank Goodman on the fact that he is wrong
in his ruling.