Exit with a Sigh

Major-league baseball was confronted with one of its worst scandals since the Black Sox series of 1919: the owner of one of the nation's most famous baseball clubs was heading for a prison cell. The culprit was a trim, glib little St. Louis lawyer turned businessman (real estate) named Fred M. Saigh, who parlayed $60,800 in borrowed cash into a $4,000,000 baseball empire.

Owner Saigh (rhymes with high) first bought into the St. Louis Cardinals in 1947, in partnership with the late Robert Hannegan, former Democratic National Committee chairman. By 1949 he had got outright control of the Cardinals' stock (90%). But somewhere along the way, the Bureau of Internal Revenue began sniffing into Owner Saigh's financial methods, charged him with income-tax evasion. Last week in St. Louis, Saigh pleaded no-defense to the charges, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and fined $15,000.

Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick has the power to bar anyone from the game for acts "detrimental to baseball." But Saigh saved him the trouble. He agreed to turn control of the Cardinals over to a trustees' committee before starting his prison sentence.

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