view raw text
Baseballs Top Legal Talent Meets to Study Celler Report COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 12 UP .—Baseballs top legal talent met here today with George M. Trautman, president of the minor leagues, and other baseball executives to discuss the Congressional committee report issued recently after a 10-month investigation of the game. Trautman said the meeting was to make a "preliminary examination" of the report. He said that the session was "simply exploratory and there will be no statement concerning the meeting made by anybody* concerned." The Congressional committee, headed by Rep. Emanuel Celler D.-N. Y., issued a report May 23 generally favorable to baseball. The committee recommended that Congress not interfere with *the reserve clause in player contracts, under which a player becomes the property of a club as long as it wants him. The committee, however, urged that major league baseball be extended to cities west of the Mississippi river, a recommendation that is expected to help the Pacific Coast League in its efforts to attain major league status. Those attending todays meeting included Benjamin Firey, Cleveland, attorney for the American League; Louis N. Carroll, New York, attorney for the National League; William DeWitt, vice-president of the St. Louis Browns; Harold Roettger, assistant to the president of the Pittsburgh Pirates; Edward Allen of Mobile, Ala.; L. M. OConnor of Chicago, and members of Trautmans staff. •