European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 19, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Thursday june 19, 1966 the stars and stripes a Page 19 commentary the real franchise is in the Booth baseball which is periodically worried about the disappearance of the .400 Hiller the 30-game Winner or the 50-60 Home run slugger might do Well to worry about another disappearing species he Silver tongued Golden throated non roster player in the broadcast Booth. It s not the arms they have to worry about it s the Laryn xes on most scoreboards it s customary to think of the fastball Pitcher or the cleanup Hitler As the but the real franchise May be a Guy who can t hit or throw a cur Mcball steal a base or drive Ina run but who can weave such a mystique about the game that he s Worth More to the Box office than any three people who can. Baseball needs dramatizing. All sports need dramatizing. If you have to depend solely on the people who know and love this game for its own Sake Chelate Bill Veeck who knew the game As few men did used to say you will be out of business by Mother s Day this is not always readily apparent to those whoa know and love the game for its own Sake nor is it always readily apparent to the athlete who knows and moves the Money and thinks the game has always been around in its present form to provide it far him. But the facts of the matter arc baseball became Niclot a Golden City shimmering in the distance for Young imaginations not alone on Ibe skill of the players but the imaginations of their chroniclers. Radio like silent pictures always left room forthe free roam of imagination. We supplied our own dialogue for wordless pictures and our own glorified action words. The men who brought them to us became stars of the dimension of any they talked about the Vin sculls. Ted musings red Barbers. Graham . Harry carats Bab princes. You wonder who is going to replace Idem when they re gone. Bob Prince is already gone. Gowdy has Hung up his Headset. The new Breed does t seem to see Knight in Shin ing Armor in Pursuit of a holy grail. The new Breed seems to concentrate on the nuts and bolts of the Competition. Offering us insights on the arts an mysteries of the infield Fly ride and the nuances of the run and hit As opposed to the hit and run. Jim to Murray the Romance of baseball has never seen it technical data. It s not in How Sandy Koufax held his cur Mcball it s in How pie Traynor got his one wants to know where babe Ruth gripped the Bat but everyone wants to know what it was like the Day he called his shot. The compelling drama of Long Chris s life was not How he faced Bob Feller but How he faced death. Sports As a metaphor for life i what gives it its fascination. Technical aspects is just pipe fining and no one wants to broadcast that. Ernie Harwell who has done the Detroit Tiger baseball the past 25 years is one of last of the old Breed. Like Scully and Mel Allen and like Tycobb and Henry Aaron he Sinthe Hallof Fame. I fled with the melodious tones of a Wood Thrush Ernie like most of the Hall of Fame throats Learned his business at a Lime when a Man had to make do with a ticker tape for inspiration had to describe games he never saw recreate action that May or May not have taken place. Real games were easy Afler that. On the other hand it s easy to make people larger than life when they exist Only in your head. The lesson was driven Home to give the game dra Matic Impact you need More than eyes. Ernie has described his career in a new Book tuned to baseball published by Diamond communications inc., and it s a fun trip through the most nostalgic sport of ail also the most american baseball. It was Roy Campanella who said that in order to play in the big leagues you had to be a Man but you had to have a lot of Little boy in you Loo. What was True of players was True of their broadcasters. You had to have a lot of the wonder of the Little kid watching the game through a Hole in the Fence. Burnout is a word to describe what happens to those who Don t love what they do. Ernie Harwell was never one of those. His Book is a description of a 45-year love affair with the grand old game and the characters who walked through it. Here is the late Paul Richards the burning eyed Mentor and Stern Leader silting scowling in a steamy dressing room after a loss for three hours knowing his players Are forbidden to dress and Shower until he his. Here is Charlie docs san eyeing Utility player dying to be put in the game to Emch Iii Barking George grab a Bat and go in the clubhouse and stir that pot of Chili i i ave cooking near the Here is Willie Mays coming up to batting practice the first Lime a 19-Ycar-Olct kid put logic her by someone who must have had baseball in mind when they did it and spectators begin to feel their Scalp prickle As he goes Afler a cur Mcball. Here is Bobby Thomson s historic Home run curving toward the stands and the announcer who has already told the country on television it s gone suddenly wondering if Andy Pafko is going to catch it after All. Here is the Man responsible for engaging Jose Feliciano to sing the Star spangled Banner at the world series getting threatening Calls after Jose elects to sing a soul version of our National Anthem. The baseball broadcaster is As much a part of american As the Coonskin Cap. But the bad news is he May soon be As Long gone As the circuit a Der. Baseball is the president of the unite states throwing out the first Ball says Ernie har Well and a scrubby Schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. Baseball is a Rookie his experience no bigger than the Lump in his Throat As he begins fulfilment of his dream. And it s a Veteran a tired old Man of35 hoping those aching Muscles will pull him through another sweltering Augusi. Baseball is Cigar smoke hot roasted peanuts. The sporting news ladies Day Down m front take me out to the Ball came the Star spangled Banner " baseball is also the 66-year-old Man in the Boot who can be the game through inc Little boy s eyes and give it a dimension in could never achieve can spin dreams for yet another Genera Tion in the Happy kingdom of baseball our own Golden Pond they 11 see to it we a ctr lose our wonder Over. Lai an thai time Einhorn warned Usel owners of to risks new York not Eddie Ein Hom the United Stales football league s television contract negotiator and the owner of the inactive franchise in Chicago Laid the other owners at a league meeting in 1984 that vacating Large cities would jeopardize the league s Chance of gelling a television contract for the fall in 1986. His statement came to Light monday u the minutes of the meeting were read into the record of the Usel s anti Trust Case against the National football league in Federal District court. To the months following Einhorn i warning the league moved out of Phila Delphia and the Detroit area. Earlier a bad moved teams out of Washington and Boston. Zeinhom s message to the owners would appear to support a Contention of the nil that the Usel had a merger strategy to move teams into non nil cities and Fiat the strategy contributed to the Usel financial difficulties. In pre Vious testimony Harry usher the us commissioner said thit the franchise re location came about As the result of pushing and shoving by the nil. You can t get out of All the cities ahead of time because then you got no to Market left Einhorn was quoted As having said at the meeting. It s one of these Chicken and egg deals. It s great to get out of them if we re absorbed but i you re going to exist and need someone else to pay us television Money we can t get out of every City we be got Here and just move into cities thai Aren t in thenal or we re not going to have any product Einhorn qualified those remarks Mon Day by telling the jury that at the time Many of the Usel owners were in a survival Mode and were considering moving franchises As the Only Way to stayin existence. He added that he did not Ai the Lime favor a merger. Testimony in the trial was not expected to resume for a couple of Day because Harvey Myerson the Usel s Lead attorney is ill. Myerson was hospitalized monday with an intestinal infection and is not expected to return to court until possibly thursday. No testimony is scheduled for Friday. His unavailability has caused the Usel to shuttle the order of witnesses Myerson intended to Call in the final Days of arguing the league s Case. Ein Horn was to be followed to the stand by Jay Moyer the executive director of in enl Donald Trump the owner of the Usel generals Al Davis the managing general partner of the los Angeles raid ers Howard Cosell the sports commen Tator and Nina Cornell an economist. However in Mereon s absence Usel attorneys intend to put Cornell on the stand next and leave the others for Myerson presumably next out 01 a Aih flu in Frazier says trainers should be better educated air 1.1. ,. A Uma a Kacal Vatt Al to nov uj9v " Trenton
