Murphy's Mistake

The papers were full of strike threats, but somehow no one could quite believe the talk of a baseball strike. There hadn't been anything like it since 1912 when the great Ty Cobb was suspended for climbing into the grandstand and slugging a fan. Then, 18 Detroit Tigers had gone on a sympathy strike--and the management had broken it in one day by fielding a pickup team of substitutes.

Last week Bob Murphy, the Harvard man who hopes to organize big-league baseball, moved in on Pittsburgh. At first the Pirates' management had seemed willing to talk collective bargaining (TIME, June 3); now they were full of legalistic side steps. Bob Murphy hotheadedly called for a strike vote.

Deadline night, 16,884 fans filed into Forbes Field. They were not sure whether they would see a game, but they did expect to see some fun. The management was all set to field a team of the two "loyalists" (Pitcher Rip Sewell and Infielder Jimmy Brown) and a grab bag of has-beens and sandlotters who might do almost as well as Pittsburgh's seventh-place regulars. The visiting Giants warmed up on the field, while 36 unionized Pirates locked themselves in the dressing room for two hours to argue and take a vote. Outside, newspapermen stood on ladders and a pile of trunks peering in through a high window; Organizer Murphy, also excluded, paced nervously up & down.

When the Pirates came out they walked past Organizer Bob Murphy as if they didn't recognize him. A two-thirds majority was needed for a strike. The vote had been 20 for a strike, 16 against. The Pirates rushed on field, beat the Giants 20-to-5. Bob Murphy's baseball union had lost the first round.

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