view raw text
Trautman, Minor League Head, i Rules Against Woman Player COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 23 UP. — Stern 62-year-old George Trautman, head j J of the Minor Leagues, thumbed willowy ! Eleanor Engle out of baseball before she ! ever got in when he ruled today that no woman can ever join a team. The beautiful brunette was signed yesterday by the Harrisburg, Pa., team of the Inter-State League and immediately touched off a raging controversy. Her manager, * who didnt like what his front office J bosses had done, snapped that shed play "when hell freezes over." . Trautman didnt use that kind of | language, but he was just as definite when he announced that he and baseball commissioner Ford C. Prick agreed no woman J could play baseball. A club which signed a woman would be punished, he said. Mrs. Engle bit her lip to fight back the l tears when she received the sad news at t Harrisburg. "I think baseball is making a 1 big mistake," she said. "But I still have my accordian. Ill just keep up my entertainment work. "Im through with baseball." She added one barb at the Harrisburg players who didnt want her on their team: "I still feel I can bat a ball just as far as s any of those fellows." Trautman admitted that theres nothing in baseball rules about the sex of players. •• But he said that the signing of a woman l would be a "travesty" and "not in the best t interest of baseball." Trautman said no contract with Mrs. ;. Engle ever was executed by the Harrisburg club, but that he would not tolerate e any club which attempts to "go through i the motions" of signing a woman.
