Celling on Baseball

Baseball got its first orders last week from Washington's economic mobilizers. Digging out an old regulation of the Wage Stabilization Board, WSB lawyers decided that St. Louis Outfielder Stan Musial may not pocket the $35,000 wage boost (up from logo's $50,000) which would have made him the third-highest salaried player in the game,* the highest salaried in National League history. No one in baseball, the WSB explained, may get a salary higher than the highest paid by his club in 1950.

The order will not affect players like Cleveland Pitcher Bob Lemon, whose $5,000 raise still leaves him well below the club ceiling (Pitcher Bob Feller's $50,000). But it was a rough jolt for Stan the Man, now 30, who knows that he has only five or six years more of big-league earning power at best. Cardinal President Fred Saigh immediately announced he would appeal the ruling. Major Leaguer Musial, who spent one earning year in the U.S. Navy, was not so hopeful: "If it's the law, there isn't anything I can do but abide by it."

* First and second: Boston Red Sox Outfielder Ted Williams ($125,000), New York Yankee Outfielder Joe DiMaggio ($100,000). Neither got a 1951 raise.

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