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► Baseball Asks Congress Help Control Big League Telecasts Giles Says Majors Unable To Correct Situation Due To Present Anti-Trust Law By JOHN A. GOLDSMITH United Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON, D. C, May 6.— Baseballs top brass asked Congress today to help regulate Major League television and radio broadcasts before they destroy the entire game. Indiscriminate radio and television broadcasts are forcing the Majors to "eat our own young," the baseball spokesman declared, by killing off the Minors, source of big league player material. "The Major leagues cannnot exist without the Minor leagues," baseball commissioner Ford Frick testified. Frick, National league president Warren Giles, and Minor league boss George M. Trautman were among those asking a Senate commerce subcommittee for help in protecting Minor league areas from a "saturation" of Major league broadcasts. Trautman testified that Minor league attendance has dropped between 16,000,000 and 17,000,000 since 1949. He said many leagues and clubs have disbanded. Of 273 Minor league clubs reporting, Trautman said, only 19 showed a profit on last years operations. He said the trouble is not "exclusively" the result of radio and television. But he stressed the plight of a Minor league team which must compete with Major league telecasts. Consider Rule to Legalize Ban The subcommittee is considering legislation to. legalize a rule banning broadcasts and telecasts, without permission, by one baseball club in the home territory of another. Baseball junked a rule to this effect in 1949 at the request of the Justice Department. Giles said that "under the present situation" the Major leagues are "helpless to correct the situation" because they still are being subjected to "harassment" by the Justice Department. The Justice Department fears the rule might violate the anti-trust laws. However, Sen. John W. Bricker R-Ohio , a committee member, said he belives baseball is outside interstate commerce as defined for anti-trust laws. Sen. Edwin C. Johnson D-Colo., president of the Western league, heads the subcommittee considering the legislation. He said baseball has "been denied" the right to control "monopoly" in its own ranks by "an over zealous anti-trust division." Johnson said there never has been any question about the legality of the old broadcast rule that protected "home territories" for a 50-mile radius. The baseball men agreed. National league attorney Lou Carroll produced the catch-phrase of the session when he commented that the unlimited broadcasting amounts to asking the majors to "eat their young." Frick, Giles and others later used the phrase with variations. Trautman said radio sponsors in Minor league cities can get a wire account of a Major league game for less than it would cost to sponsor the games of the local team. Other witnesses supporting the proposed legislation were Frank Shaughnessy of Montreal, president of the International league; Joseph E. Cronin of Boston, vice-president of the Boston Red Sox, and Thomas E. Richardson, Williamsport, Pa., president of the Eastern league.
