I I Page Ten. THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, September 7, 1973 ,.. ... _ .._ t ROZELLE AND KUHN PROTEST Seec13 , &emj i_ Ann Arbor M'usic M art Congress hits 336 South State Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108 From Wire Service Reports THE CONGRESS and the pro- fessional sports establishment edged closer to a decisive con- frontation yesterday when NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle join- ed Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn in denouncing proposals to curtail television blackouts of lo- cal sports contests. The U. S: House Subcommittee on Communications is studying a proposal which would ban local TV blackouts of home sports events which are sold out 48 hours prior to gametime. A sim- ilar initiative in the Senate has been spearheaded by John Pas- tore, Democrat from Rhode Is- land and long-time blackout op- ponent. Pastore's bill, which would ban hometown blackouts of pro- fessional .,sports for all games sold out 72 hours in advance, was approved yesterday 76-6 by the Senate. If passed by the House and signed by the President, it would expire one year after pas- sage, allowing Congress to check out claims by professional sports that such a move will inevitably cut attendance. R O Z E L L E CLAIMED that there is no question that a ban on local television black- outs would damage pro football. "The only realistic issue is now damaging . . . and how soon these damaging effects will be felt," he remarked in testimony before the House Subcommittee. Earlier, Kuhn had expressed baseball opposition to blackout limitations, claiming that such a bill would undermine the sport. APR ijUITAR LE SSOS BeCinners L SIGN UPNOWFOROUR6WEEK CLASS. Learn to play a song the k lackouts He opposed any law "that would compel any sport to make games available under , any circum- stances. That decision should re- main with the individual clubs." Not all Congressman have been particularly impressed by the sports magnates' testimony. Representative Torbert H. Mc- Donald of Massachusetts blasted Kuhn's statement as "typical of baseball. Don't rock the boat. Just leave it like it is, like it has been since Doubleday." CONGRESSIONAL observers rate the chances of some form of blackout legislation passing the Congress this session as quite high. The action of the Senate in passing the Pastore bill added strength to their position. Credit - if you want to call it that - for the local TV blackout of home games is generally giv- en to the late Bert Bell, former commissioner of the National Football League. Bell reasoned, quitesaccurately, that if home games could be made inacces- sible to local television, game at- tendance would increase. Since the local TV blackout was imposed, professional foot- ball attendance has soared. Many franchises have no trouble selling out for all home games, and have been able to compel season ticket holders to purchase exhibition game tickets in order to beablesto attend regular sea- son games. Baseball, which has generally not followed such a stringent policy, has not done nearly so well as football in game attendance during this period. IN SOME AREAS, football season tickets are considered so valuable that the rights to pur- chase them have been written into ticket-holders' wills. Many less fortunate people spend sev- eral hours driving beyond the blackout area to view their fav-. orites on television. s 1 I + "To the people who run baseball, colorful means wearing your cap at a jaunty angle"-Jim Bouton in "Ball Four" "Billy did a great job from foul line to foul line"-Tiger General Manager Jim Campbell tI very first lesson. The Martin axing ... ... sad for the game J I CLASS Dan Borus COSTS ONLY X12. Intermediate PRIVATE LESSONS AVAILABLE Blues ! Folk e Broadway ® Classical Jazz 9 Maranatha New Rele Potato Black Edition in Jazz, Rock, Blues, Folk & Clas- and Advanced: ase o Oldies 9 Progressive I e Commentary ts a Public Affairs Prad4 nFree GC'hetto sical. Harmony, Theory & Read- $3.50/ News 0 Spor ing mu s ic incorporated. TrikrInirLa HALF HR.--6.00/HR. Also: private or class instruction available on Flute, Recorder, Banjo, Bass, Keyboard, Clarinet, Oboe, Saxophone & Drums' FCall 769-4980 instrument rentals available at student rates - Ste o , 89.5 S tereo As almost everybody knows, the Tigers dropped a bombshell Sunday when they canned their rogueish manager, Billy Martin. Martin, whose exploits in a variety of fields attracted the ire of baseball's ossified establishment, was axed not because he couldn't control his team, but because he couldn't control himself. Although most of Detroit's "leading" sports journalists found the move both inevitable and fundamentally correct, the majority of the Tiger faithful have condemned the move. They should. Despite claims in some quarters that Martin lost control of the club, Billy was. the architect of Detroit's dar- lings. With baseball in grave danger of forfeiting its title of "National Pastime", the dismissal of a popular manager is likely to send the sport's popularity plummeting and the sport's patrons heading to buy football tickets. One reason that baseball, despite an upsurge of late, is suf- fering is that the "characters" that once made the game charming are being removed. No Dizzy Deans, Rocky Bridges or even Billy Martins remain. Stale corporate images, such as Campbell. seemingly desires, may be neat and clean, but they sure as hell don't stimulate the customers or arouse fan loyalty. r Martin's forte was that he gave a personal touch to a sport which is rapidly becoming innocuous. Despite allegations that Martin was irresponsible, that he "went too far" by knocking an organization that desperately needs constructive criticism no matter -how stern, the real issue in the Martin case is whether baseball will - or can - allow sparks of life to come to the front. Martin gave the 'Tigers a distinctive flair. A bunch of losers during their last year under Mayo Smith and branded "Geritol set" by sportswriters throughout the league, the Tigers evolved under his tutelage into a conglomeration of Damon Runyon characters. Their three season fight against the odds just barely fell short. Yet even though Martin packed rickety Tiger Stadium, even though he created a team that Detroiters could identify with, even though he still commands loyalty with key players on the squad, even though he took a stand on the spitter that a ball club should have supported; Jim Campbell couldn't take it. A manager's job, Campbell and Detroit press to the con- trary, is to A) win ball games and B) protect .his players. Martin may not have been in the genteel tradition,. but he was effective and all the outmoded Organization Man notions of the Tiger front office will not change that. The Detroit franchise - unlike the Detroit fans - has traditionally been uncomfortable with charismatic figures within the ranks. The Ty Cobbs, Mickey Cochranes, Hank Greenbergs, Rocky Colavitos and Harry Heilmanns were cast loose by the organization at the first sign that their talents were fading, while more staid figures such as Charley Geh- ringer and Al Kaline have been permitted to play out the string at Michigan and Trumbull. The result has been pre- dictable: a team which is often fun to watch, generally fih- ishes in the first division, but more often than not disap- points the fans by never "putting it all together." Martin is sure to catch on with another club-he has, that baseball savvy that will make him attractive. It will be a shamge if Billy decides that wearing his hat at a jaunty angle is excite- ment enough. 4 V, t . MASS MEETING For the Gilbert and Sullivan Society's area premiere of The Grand Duke SEPTEMBER 9th-8 p.m. FACULTY LOUNGE - MICHIGAN UNION .M Ii II I i inounced *1 , rF