The Washington times., 1934-01-16
Of TIUenty-three Fans Think Them Punished
TlUenty Want the Judge Enough for Breaking
To Pardon Chase, ct al | The Baseball LGLUs
By BILL CoRUM

But we are not campaigning
to get them back into baseball.
What we'd like to see Judge
Lands do is announce that so
far as baseball is concerned
they have paid the penalty Of
their mistakes. We think they
have. We think it is absurd
that they are refused admission
to the parks or organized base
ball even in the role Of specta-
tors. We think that they have
been made horrible examples"
of long enough, and that in
common fairness and decency
baseball should officially &C
knowledge the fact.
It is perhaps significant that
throughout this controversies
controversy in which the fans
plainly are interested-nobody
officially connected with base
ball has had anything to say.
Or if they have, it has escaped
my eagle eye. The baseball
folks always have been pretty
good at playing ostrich, as wit
ness the year it took them to
take official cognizance Of the
Black Sox scandal in the first
place.
AS a Chicago correspondent
puts it:
"Tn September, 1920, on the
day Of the Black SOx scandal
bIOw-Off, I was in Los Angeles
with Frank Chance, the peer
less leader voiced my sur
prise that an entire world series
had been crooked without some
baseball authority knowing it,
and Chance told me I must have
been the only man in Chicago
who didn't know the series was
crooked after the last game in
1919.
"'Then,' I asked him, why
did the owners allow those
seven White SOx to go on fool
ing the public until tOday?'
Because he told me, the
owners thought it would be for
the best interests of the game
to hush it up and try to throw
q smoke screen around it.
Different Age
But all that was long ago. It
is not hard to understand the
attitude of those who had mil
lions invested in baseball, even
though one does not condone it.
This is a different age. An age
in which the frank discussion of
everything, from the once sacred
COWS of big business to the once
sacred COWS Of politics, is the
common custom.
So we'd like to hear some
thing from the baseball people
about this situation. They must
have some ideas on it since it
affects them directly, and there
is no reason for them to be
afraid to speak up.
Mind you we are not trying
to revive the half-forgotten
scandals Of another decade in
the game, but to end them.
To write ''finis" after them for
ever. They will not be ended
so long as these men are al
lowed to go on suffering oStra-
cism and punishment for mis-
takes that have long since
ceased to mean anything.
''Finis" Is Needed
After all, even a horrible
example loses his effectiveness
in time. Nobody is being
warned by what happened to
these men any more. Nobody
will be deferred from doing
anything he might overwise do
because of them. So it IS time
that their cases be marked
"closed" for good and all.
But they cannot be so marked
until baseball officially ac-
knowledges that the penalty has
been paid. No case is closed
so long as somebody is suffer-
ing because Of it. It is one
of the Oldest principles of just
ice that the punishment fit
the crime, and this punishment
has long since become an over
size.
Or don't you think so, Judge?
k sports writer, 1Drites for the