Poor Feller

Governed by laws of astronomical complexity, professional baseball has one which says that a major-league team may not hire an amateur player until he has first played for a minor-league team. Only exceptions to the rule are college players, who are occasionally able enough to join major-league teams without serving an apprenticeship, but major-league club-owners long since perfected a method of evading their own law in the case of non-college players. When a major-league scout spots an able sandlot prospect, he notifies a friendly minor-league team, which hires the player with the understanding that the major-league team which discovered him has an option on his services. Last week, a remarkable case in baseball law concerning a remarkable player was ended by a remarkable decision by woolly-haired and altogether remarkable Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball's tsar.

In Des Moines, in 1935, a scout for the Cleveland Indians discovered a sandlot pitcher named Robert Feller, who, although he was not yet 17, seemed promising enough to hire. Following the customary procedure, Feller was given a contract with the Fargo-Moorhead Club of the Northern League. Before he had played a game with Fargo-Moorhead, Cleveland had him transferred to New Orleans. Before he had played a game for New Orleans Cleveland arranged for Feller, while still young enough to have his father sign his contracts and be prevented from playing minor-league baseball because his family wanted him in school, to "retire." Last summer, needing a pitcher in a hurry, Cleveland decided to see whether by any chance Feller was yet good enough for major-league competition. Instead of showing himself good enough, Feller showed himself far too good. Most astonishing prodigy in big league annals, in his debut game, an exhibition against the St. Louis Cardinals, he pitched three innings, struck out eight of the nine batters who faced him. Modern major-league strike-out record for a full game is 17 (held by Dizzy Dean). Feller missed this record by two in his first regular major-league appearance, but equaled it a fortnight later against the Philadelphia Athletics.

Far from being delighted by Feller's prowess, Cleveland was alarmed. Other clubs promptly offered to buy him. When Cleveland refused to sell, other club-owners raised the question of whether Cleveland really had any title to Feller in the first place. A minor-league club protested to Tsar Landis.

Alternatives before Tsar Landis were precarious. If he simply declared that Cleveland owned Pitcher Feller, he was openly countenancing a breach of baseball law. If he declared Feller a free agent, it worked an injustice against Cleveland, raised doubts as to the ownership of numerous other big-league players acquired in less spectacular fashion but by more or less the same means. Other club-owners, although they wanted to buy Feller, hoped the judge would choose the first alternative. The second alternative would have benefited Feller, because as a free agent he could sell his own services to the highest bidder, for perhaps as much as $100,000. Last week, as a climax to the annual meeting of the big-league club-owners who pay him $40,000 per year to arbitrate their affairs, Judge Landis announced his decision : Cleveland was to keep Pitcher Feller, pay $7,500 to the Western League Des Moines club, which had protested because their scouts had spotted him first.

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