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ON SECOND THOUGHT By Barney Nagler NEW YORK, N. Y., May 30. The baseball magnates decide to permit a few of their number to take it on the lam and there is a crisis m town. Grown men in long pants adjust their bibs and weep that all is lost in the land, as though Marilyn Monroe had just taken monastic vows, which is more probable than the realization that baseball owners are just guys in the business for the swag. For years the customers have been spoon-fed the notion that baseball is pure sport and the moment of reality has found them unprepared for life. They remember dancing in the streets when Brooklyn won a World Series and they forget that Walter OMalley went prancing off to the bank. They remember and weep, and some say Mayor Wagner had better find ways and means to keep the Dodgers and the Giants around lest his career in politics be ruined. He can clean up the city council and bench dishonest guys and keep the streets clean, but should he prove a foul ball in baseball statesmanship, watch out, hes dead for " good. AAA They say all these things and they mean it, because not to mean it is un-American, to say the. leasts and. to lend ear to baseballs detractors is an invitation to testify in Washington. It isnt done, not by real patriots, no more than motherhood can be attacked or our flag stomped upon. The facts are not to be confused with fancy: Baseball is a business even if it is not a monopoly in the eyes of the Supreme Court, and the profit motive is as compelling at Ebbets Field as it is at Saks Fifth Avenue. Yes, even at 34th Street. This having been granted, the seemingly inevitable westward march of the Dodgers and the Giants is in perspective. It is contemplated because it is necessary. It is a fact of fiscal life. OMalley and Horace Stoneham are victims of habit: An affection for money. It is perhaps reasonable to point out that both have not been outstandingly far- sighted in their stewardships at Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds. Long ago it was apparent that neither the Dodgers nor the Giants could continue playing in their obsolescent parks, yet neither took a giant step toward the inevitable moment of transfer. AAA Instead of looking for new housing, OMalley put off the big question and kept the Bums in the same old ball park. Finally, he decided to make a move: He asked the city to build him a park. Inevitably, Mayor Wagner and Bob Moses and the others concerned with such matters moved slowly, because indecison is the widest avenue in. politics. Just as inevitably, the cry went up that Continued on Page Forty-Four I ON SECOND THOUGHT I By BARNEY NAGLER Continued from Page Two the city was being asked to put money into a stadium for the further enrichment of the Dodgers. Would the city, a man asked, build a new store just to keep Macys in business? And how about Sam Smith, private citizen, who would like to have a larger fruit stand but cant afford the cost of construction? Would Moses move mountains to help out Smith? Apparently OMalley knew he was not going to be helped out and went about the business of setting up the migration. He held hands with the mayor of Los Angeles. He showed Stoneham the beautiful Golden Gate and suggested that the Giants would just love to trudge uphill in San Francisco rather than go downhill financially at the Polo Grounds or even the Yankee Stadium. OMalley went beyond all this. He sought out the men running at least one pay-as-you-go TV corporation and set in motion a deal which would be activated if and when the Dodgers move to Los Angeles. And, as solace, he had the men heading the pay-TV firm with which he was doing business put ,000,000 in a bank to be picked up the moment the deal was consummated. The same went for Stoneham. Now the National League was asked to give the Dodgers the high sign, which they did in Chicago the other day, at least TJub-licly. In fact, the transfer had the cachet of the other six teams in the National League weeks ago. Putting it before the public, however, put the public officials of New York on the spot. Now Mayor Wagner must make a move or confess that the teams are lost to Gotham. Would New York die if the teams went? Not exactly, although it is a fact of community life that the loss of these entertainment factors would rob the town of a source of entertainment. Some believe another National League team would come in here the Cincinnati Redlegs have been mentioned and this might well happen, if it does, it will have tough sledding. A city jilted not once but twice might turn its back on the culprit. The national pastime as represented by the major leagues may wind up a coast-to-coast project, but it may be a municipal pain in the neck here. Even the Yankees may suffer. Folks may begin talking and 4. asking, "They cant have our hearts. Hell, they may be in Topeka next week."
