The Sagging Gate

Telecasting and broadcasting of major-league baseball games are ruining the minors and will thus inevitably damage the majors, Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick told U.S. Senators last week. Facts & figures from the Frick argument before a Senate interstate commerce subcommittee: total minor-league attendance last year was 16 million less than in 1949; only 19 of 273 minor-league teams made money in 1952. Frick's pitch to the Senators: give organized baseball the power it used to have--before Harry Truman's Department of Justice threatened antitrust suits--to restrict the broadcasting and televising of big-league games in minor-league territories.

While Frick was making his plea in Washington, the Associated Press totted up the score on major-league attendance so far this season. The finding: a 24% drop in attendance as compared with the same period in 1952, even after allowance for games rained out.

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