The Critics Respond to ABC's Thomas W. Moore

Two years ago I posted about ABC's suggestion to cut the MLB season to 60 games for the 1965 season.  This week that story got picked up by Chuck Hildebrandt from SABR Media.  Then Rob Neyer, from FOXSports, picked up Chuck's posting.

There had to be more to the original story, though.  What was the reaction?  A bit of research shows that not everyone was in favor of it.

Noted Washington D.C. area sports writer Francis Stann got a bit pointed in his April 22, 1964 column, referring to Arthur Allyn's quote about Charles Finley's proposal to move the KC Athletics to Louisville.  "Mr. Finley is an idiot."

The Evening Star (Washington DC) - April 22, 1964

It wasn't just sports writers.  Joseph A.W. Iglehart, chairman of the board of the Baltimore Orioles, had some pointed words about being in the cellar.

Greensboro Record (Greensboro, NC) - April 23, 1964

By the end of October that year Francis Stann seems to be softening up his stance a bit, mostly in light of possible expansion teams joining the league.

The Evening Star (Washington DC) - October 29, 1964

His earlier statements of G-R-E-E-D by the TV executives seems to be on point as we see that in December a new television contract has been awarded.

Illinois State Journal (Springfield, Ill.) - December 16, 1964

I'm guessing all involved were much happier then.

images from GenealogyBank.com

Mails and Morals - or more Cigarette Pictures

While digging around the digital archives of GenealogyBank.com for articles on cigarette cards, I came across an article that centered around the dead letter office of the Post Office Department.  The article describes what the dead letter office does with objectionable material.  I found the last paragraph, describing the process of manufacturing cigarette cards, to be most interesting and I've transcribed it below.

  The cigarette manufacturers entered into arrangements with photographers by which the pictures were turned out on an enormous scale.  The photographers went into the market and purchased all the photographs suitable for their purpose that they could get, including portraits of actresses, dancers and event society women in ball costume.  Girls were even hired to pose.  The photographs obtained were mounted in sized matched on huge cards, 100 or more on each.  Each card was placed before the camera and reproduced on a smaller scale.  From the resulting negative whole sheets were turned off, the little photographs being afterward cut apart and delivered to the cigarette manufacturer.  In this simple manner they could be reproduced by millions.

The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) - November 30, 1895

15 years later the cigarette cards were still going strong.

The Palestine Daily Herald (Texas) - June 2, 1910