The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-02-07
By JACK CUDDY
United Press stan Correspondent

New York, Feb. 2 - (UP0 --- J. Edgar Hoover, director of the F. B. l., stands out today as logical can didate for the high commissioners office in baseball because, in addi- ton to other qualifications, he is best equipped to combat gambling to keep the sport clean.
 | A man who can crack down with 'the big stick" is needed now in the commissioners office-needed more than at any time since the wave of gambling that followed the first World War resulted in the Black So scandal and the appointment O. the late Kenesaw M. Landis to the job in 1920.
 Landis kept the sport clean as a whistle. Even his severest critics never challenged that. But the old judge died last November 25- shortly before the sports world was smacked on the nose by the realiza- tion that professional and amateur athletics are now menaced by the greatest gambling surge in the na- tion's history. This tremendous wave of wagering is by-product of the prosperity accompanying World War No. 2. It was reflected in the staggering total of $1,126,308,645 bet at U. s. race tracks during 1944.
 The recent Brooklyn College bas- ketball scandal, in which five play CTS admitted having conspired with gamblers to throw a game for money, jolted the sports world into quick realization that the menace from crooked gamblers has passed the rumor stage. Now the various sports are taking steps to protect themselves. College officials and bas- ketbal promoters are vigilantly try ing to keep gamblers away from games and particularly away from the players. Chairman Eddie Eagan of the New York Boxing Commis- sion has requested Promoter Mike Jacobs to keep Madison Square Gar den's lobby clear of all loiterers. The International Baseball League de- cided to refrain from issuing the names of probably pitchers during the AS season; the American League will do likewise, and the National League probably will.
 However, these preventive meas ures are but minor gestures, com pared to the warning smash that could be dealt gambling on spirits by the election of J. Edgar Hoover as commissioner of our national paStime. He could keep baseball clean by dusting the gamblers out with blackjack He's a guy who fights fire with fire-using lethal as well as legal weapons, as Dillin- ger, Machine-G Kelly Pretty Boy Floyd, Alvin Karpis and the Nazi Saboteurs found out. His election would not only warn gamblers and players that the game must be kept clean; but 1t would bring new as- surance to the public that. despite the death of LandiS the club oWn- CTS were determined that baseball should continue as an honest, fort right entertainment.
 It is important that organized baseball maintain this inviolable status, because the diamond game is the keystone of our entire sports structure, as far as public confer ence is concerned.
 Fifty-year-old Hoover, after di- recting the F. B. I. for 21 years. certainly could wield the big stick. Moreover, he seems to have all the other qualifications needed for the commissioners job. He has proved an efficient executive-a great or- ganizer. He is legal-trained: and 1t was he who insisted that all F. B. l. agents have legal training. More over, he is an ardent sports fan baseball. football and boxing.
 Whether Hoover wants the fob. or whether he would be available for the position in wartime. we do not know. The salary of $5OO00 and the sports association might tempt him. But if he'll take post, the club owners should grab him in a hurry: particularly now that there seems no change of electing anyone con- nected with the game.