Sugar for the Bees

Last week the Boston Bees, orphans of the National Baseball League, were adopted at last. Their orphanage dates back to 1935, when Boston Grocer Charles Francis Adams (not to be confused with onetime Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams, no kin) took over controlling interest in the Boston Braves. Grocer Adams also owned Boston's sumptuous Suffolk Downs race track. That made him, in the eyes of Baseball's Tsar Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a greenbacked Satan. In governing baseball's affairs, Judge Landis has always had one rigid rule: no one connected with horse racing may own a major-league ball club.

Ineligible to run the Braves, Turfman Adams forthwith got hardy Bob Quinn, onetime owner of the rival Boston Red Sox, to take charge of the club (renamed the Bees) until a suitable buyer could be found. But customers for a big-league ball club do not grow on trees.

Last week President Quinn finally announced the formation of a syndicate to buy Mr. Adams' holdings (73% of the club's stock), reputedly worth $350,000. The 17 new owners, thoroughly acceptable to Judge Landis, include Casey Stengel, the Bees' manager; Max C. Meyer of Brooklyn, manufacturer of Richelieu pearls; and Francis Ouimet, Boston's idol who was recently exalted to golf's brand-new Hall of Fame. With new working capital (Judge Landis had forbidden Grocer Adams to put any more sugar into the club), the Bees may sprout new wings, buzz up out of the second division for the first time in seven years.

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