Cold Wind from Wisconsin

If baseball is here, spring can't be far behind. It can't come too soon for Houston Pitcher Turk Farrell: last week he complained that the saliva on his spitball was freezing up. Then there was Mickey Mantle, who wore gloves to bat--and Whitey Ford, who was desolate when the umpire took away the hot-water bottle he was using to keep his pitching fingers warm.

There was nothing wrong with the weather in Atlanta--at least until the north wind blew. A crowd of 150,000 turned out to cheer the Atlanta (formerly Milwaukee) Braves as they paraded down Peachtree Street in the company of the Dogwood Festival queen, Mrs. Atlanta, the Queen of Posture, and a whole hutchful of night club bunnies--blinking in the unaccustomed sunshine. It was still 70DEG at 8 p.m., and 50,761 excited fans jammed the city's new $18 million stadium to watch the Braves take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in the season's first night game. "Who's going to win the pennant?" somebody asked Dizzy Dean, and Dean replied unhesitatingly: "Milwaukee! Er--Atlanta!"

Maybe he was right the first time. Next day in Milwaukee, Circuit Judge Elmer W. Roller, 64, finally handed down a decision in one of the angriest and most complicated rhubarbs in years: the 18-month argument between baseball's moguls and the state of Wisconsin over whether or not the Braves had a right to forsake Milwaukee for the greener lettuce in Atlanta. Judge Roller, a pretty hot fan himself, said no. After a six-week trial and 7,000 pages of testimony, he ruled that the National League had violated Wisconsin's "little Sherman" antitrust laws. The league, said Roller, had conspired to "control and allocate" players, to "assign exclusive territorial rights and privileges," and to "limit the number of members in the National League"--thereby "substantially" restraining Wisconsin's trade and commerce. He fined the league $5,000 and each of its ten teams another $5,000, assessed them for court costs (which could run as high as $500,000), and ordered them to 1) give Milwaukee a new team or 2) bring the Braves back. He gave them until May 18 to comply.

Not for All the Cheese. National League officials naturally disdained the decision as a case of bruised rural pride. They said that they would appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, maybe even to the U.S. Supreme Court. President Warren Giles claimed that the league was "denied a fair trial," and Braves Manager Bobby Bragan growled: "I wouldn't go back to Milwaukee for all the cheese in Wisconsin." Wisconsin officials retaliated by threatening to seek reciprocal injunctions in other states that have National League teams, prohibiting those teams from playing the Braves and thereby hopelessly fouling up the Braves' 1966 schedule.

As if they weren't fouled up enough already. Dropping two straight games to the Pittsburgh Pirates, they flew to New York to play the Mets, were greeted in Shea Stadium by a banner that read: BEAT ATLWAUKEE--OR IS IT MILWANTA? Either way it spelled loser. The Mets kicked away the first game 3-2, next day scalped the Braves 3-1 to put whatever-their-name-was in ninth place.

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