The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1953-01-22

thelr SHOWS winch Will be teleV1Sed
by suckers" like the beer COM
panies, the wiskey concerns and the
cigarette manufacturers, will sur
vive. They talk of four major
leagues - why they will be lucky
to have one major league that will
sell daily television shows with
different sponsor each day.
Let's look at how baseball oper-
ates. Major league clubs are sup
posed to own only forty ball players.
Do they abide by this rule? No =
they control as many as they want
and can pay for How? They have
an AAA club that has a working
agreement with an AA club which
has working agreement with an A
club, which in turn has B, then
c and finally d club. Through
this method, they control 200 or 300
ball players and multiply this by six
; teen major clubs and what do you
have as an answer - three or four
thousand ball players You know
who runs this business? The New
York Giants Carl Hubbell, the Phil
lies Joe Reardon, Philadelphia's Ar
thur Ellers, just to mention a few
of the brains They run our league.
They tell their Charlie McCarthys"
how to vote in our meetings. They
either control the ballplayers
through working agreements, option
ed ballplayers or they own the club
outright They control the president
and he represents you at the meet
ing of the brains" So, if you think
that your business can operate. sue
cessfully and make money under
these conditions, you are nuts"
Take for example, Bob Carpenter.
He hollers and screams about losing
money in the Minor League. Then
you read in the papers or hear it
over the radio and see on television
where he paid $4,000 for an untried
kid who has never played organized
ball You see where he takes on
three more scouts. Who is he scout
ing? If he signs them, he pays them
large bonus which doesn't require
a baseball man. Then, one day you
read in the papers where he gives
up the Wilmington franchise. The
next week or month at the Phoenix
meeting you see him drafting ball
players for the Wilmington club.
Then he withdraWs from the league
and two clubs follow him. What's
coming off? Your answer is as good
as mine. His idea is to kill Minor
League baseball and so far his eff
forts have accomplished their pur-
pose, that is, he has done a good job
for once. For this way he can sell
the television rights in Wilmington
and if the Interstate League folds up
he can sell them to several more
stations.
The big Boys" want to kill Minor
League baseball in the eastern sec
ton of the United States. Here they
have thirty-five to fifty million peo-
pie to view television plus all of the
big advertisement and plus the big
control chains of television. Without
the Minor League to stop them =
"this is gold" This committee to
study pooling television money is a
joke. l can see those boys cutting
in 1--WE small fry" on something of
theirs. No, sir, not Carpenter or
this New York gang they won't
cut you in on anything.
But thank God we still have the
courts and we can go as high as they
can, and that is where we are head
ed. 1t will be interesting to have a
jury of baseball fans hear all of the
information gathered by the Celler
Committee and decide just why base
ball is going down the MILL 1 would
like to feel that there is hope; that
they will see where they are headed
and change their course before it is
too late; to see the baseball COM
missioner and those who hold the
power awaken before the American
people do as they did in the No
vember election. For just as they
went to the polls so they can go to
the courts for justice, to stop this
running and running all baseball to
suit few millionaires. Get them
out of owning Minor League Clubs.
Working agreements are helpful to
both the Minor and Major Clubs if
they are done on three or five year
basis, not one year or six months.
Give city chance to encourage
men with money, who want to see
baseball live, to get into it and help
run it, Televising in Minor League
cities has to be stopped as well as
broadcasting on the radio and sell
ing season tickets to Major League