Sunday, May 25, 1958

THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE

D,,., , Ti.,: s.....,.

S a 5{l- * L-.rage hirteen
The Decline and Fall of the Minors

I

(Continued from Page 7) baseball talent must have a place HERE are many hardships in ballplayers will be adequate. Any-
belp the majors adopt a sane TV of origin. Before the rapid advance minor league ball. But regard- time a profession pays a minimum
program, via Congress, of the electronic age a major less of the poor conditions, it is salary of $6;000 a year on a scale
George M. Trautman, president league player who did not serve a up this ladder, rung by rung, from that goes to $50,000 and up, you
df the National Association of Pro- gradual apprenticeship in the Class D on finally to the majors, will never be at a loss for boys
fessional Baseball Leagues-better minors was a rarity. surmounting terrible infelds, out- eager to join it."
known as the minors-sent the Thefields in which a player risks his
'ollowing resolution in December, te basebalg the vel life chasing a fly ball with aban- BUT AS baseball's grass roots
1957, to Rep. Emanuel Cellerevel don, fumbling teammates, disap- dry up, the search for talent
!Chairman of the House Antitrust ment of a play throgh the pointed big leaguers, and inept gets rougher. Baseball scouts will
subcmmitee:chain system of a big league club minor leaguers. Many people in
subcommittee: with farms, or the climb without and out of the national vouch for that. They have been
"Destruction of national asso- a big league attachment was the trade now are questioning the wis- finding 'that fewer boys have an
Tiation baseball cannot be averted only way a boy could master the dom of undercutting this school of opportunity to play today and
unless professional baseball is per- technique of the game, experience, these spawning that job grows more competitive
mitted to adopt reasonable rules A fellow would have to love grounds for the major leagues, every year. The number of boys
o prevent the unfair and ruinous baseball an awful lot to accept the In answer, the White Sox's signed every years grows smaller
campetitian from major league low pay, the feeble lighting sys- Frank Lane made this statement and smaller.
radia and television within na- tems, the long bus trips, the one- last fall: "With high schools and ,Television has gripped the mi-
tional association trritry." arm diners, and the flophouse colleges supplementing the exist- nors at its very core-the turnstile,
hotels. ing minor league clubs, the flow of but the "eager, young boys" men-
I HEREFORIE, since Sen. John-____ ________ ______
son'a prophecy was expounded
back in 1953, some interesting re- JAMES, WELLS:
actions have occurred. Currently
the issue is resting, as it has since A
December, 1957, with the House Tae o wo iters
subcommittee.
The antitrust subcommittee has
investigated the problems of minor (continued from Pale $) strument of self-examination" criticism, is placed in the other-
league cities in some detail. The man was aroused not only at the does not mean that it is to be "a wise chronological order of the
minr lagus eencame to Wash-,bok
r leauesen cylea in' ah way in which he was-he felt- new sort of pulpit." Rather, the book,
rin el January pleading in unjustly criticized, but also at the, novelist is to "present conduct, THEN follows Wells' essay, "Of
The minor league contingent limitati and resictions which devise beautiful conduct, discuss Art, of Literature, of Mr. Henry
The minorJames placed on the novel as an~
iold the subcommittee: ". . . the a f conduct, analyse conduct, suggest James," in which Wells says all
survival of minor form.ue bascball conduct, illuminate it through and he can of James. The book can
.in America 'a den ndent upon In a 1911 essay on "The Con- through." only conclude with the three let-
swift, concise action by the Con- temporary Novel," included in The novel, then, would become ters terminating the friendship.
gress and by the Justice Depart- Henry James and H. G. Wells, a social force-but an unobtrusive In that last essay, however, as
-ment . . Telecasts of major Wells launches what seems to be force that would work through ex- rude as Wells may be, he does
league games on Sunday after- a very fair discussion of the novel ample without blatantly moraliz- achieve a rather magnificent
nouns can nail down the lid on and of James' viewpoint of fiction. ing or urging on ways of life. "Be parody of James-as bitter as it
noons can nail don thge lid oThe novel Wells says, must be fore we have done," Wells asserts, may be. From this parody the
'the coffin of minor league base-
ball." "kept free from the restrictions "we will have all life within the reader learns what Wells really'
imposed upon it by the fierce scope of the novel," and that pos- thought of James and should
HE SITUATION has apparently pedantries of those who would de- sibility seems assured, never have said. Indeed, Wells
run up against a brick wall: fine a general form for it." At this point, the suspicion indicates later that he regretted
baseball is a business which, ac- Yet Wells does see social impli- creeps in that perhaps both the his tactlessness.
cording to Commissioner Frick, is cations and purpose for the novel: James and the Wells theories of Had it not been for this last
"not subject to Federal antitrust So far as I can see, it is the only the novel could exist together. In bitterness, Wells would probably
'laws." medium through which we can Henry James and I. G. Wells, a have come out of the "debate" in
Yet on Jan. 14, 1958, Frick said discuss the great majority of the section from the latter's Experi- much better standing, his philos-
he couldn't curb baseball telecasts problems which are being raised ment in Autobiography, telling of ophy of the novel being tlie more
'because doing so might violate the in such bristling multitude by Wells' final estimation of James' understanding of the two.
same antitrust laws. our contemporary social devel-
So the greedy ways of big league opment . . . . And I know of no
baseball continue. At issue is means of persuading people .. .
whether Congress will permit the and of creating an intelligent,
-16 club owners to force the rest controlling criticism of officials
of the country to enjoy its baseball and of assisting conscientious
vicariously-via TV officials to an effective self-ex-
LHowever, there is another more amination, and genrally of
personal issue which is directly keeping the atmosphere of offs-
connected with these events. vial life sweet and healthy, ex-
cept the novel.f" I

tioned by Lane will feel the reper-
cussions a little harder as their
opportunities dwindle with each
bankrupt franchise. And, to rub
a little salt into the open wound,
it's killing the majors.
When you
think of
think of
Inc.
1313 S. University
Phone
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r

lv ILL the shrinking number of
minor league clubs decrease WELLS, however, in seeing the
the flow of big league talent? novel as "social mediator, the
It must be remembered that vehicle of understanding, the in-
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