Something for the Boys

Baseball's big league owners were worried about the loyalty of the help. A few genuine pros had already succumbed to Jorge Pasquel's gold-plated offers of Mexican liberation from serfdom. Many other ballplayers had cocked a sympathetic but suspicious ear. Quite a number had flirted fitfully with Robert Murphy's baseball union (TIME, June 3). Last week, the owners opened an offensive to kill disgruntlement with kindness.

In Chicago, a committee of bigwigs of both leagues mulled it over, made a precedent-breaking decision: before they draft next year's uniform contracts (containing rules for individual player contracts), they will listen to grievances of player-spokesmen from all clubs. Probable first target of the players: the "reserve clause," which makes a contract binding on a player but allows a club to terminate it on ten days' notice. Other likely demands: a minimum salary ($5,000 or more) and a share in the profit when owners sell players to another club.

President Lou Perini of the Boston Braves decided not to wait for fall. He heard that Organizer Murphy had held a secret meeting with his players, promptly flew to Chicago to talk it over with his boys. Result: he agreed to cut out doubleheaders on days after night games and pay a minimum annual wage of $6,000, the paychecks to start with spring training.

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