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f THE CHRONICLE, Clinton, S. C., June 11, 1970—7-A BILL CURRIE Mouth | of the South I The Flood Case Organized baseball’s defense against the anti-trust suitbrought by former St. Louis star Curt Flood has been querulous and irre- velant diatribe by a conglomeration of frightened and greedy men. Obviously from the whimpering tone of their sworn assertions, they are afraid somebody is about to lick the stripes right off their candy. As one who is easily moved to tears, I have been sniffing and snubbing through the, whole trial as one after another bloated mil lionaire took the stand to weep to the judge that he wouldn’t have invested in baseball except he believed it was exempted from the anti-trust law. Rot! On cross examination several admitted they had invested in basketball and football, neither of which has any slave-holding reserve clause. One actually told the court, and under oath mind you, that he wanted the reserve clause kept in baseball because without it salaries for the players would go down. This guy ought to be indicted for perjury' Any baseball official who can think of a way to lower salaries puts it into immediate operation. (If you don't know what the reserve clause is: A baseball player signs with a ..am for the life of his career. He cannot quit, but the team may fire him any time it chooses . It may also trade him without consultation to any other major league club, and if all the big league teams agree, he may be traded down into the minors. He may “negotiate" for his salary each year, but lacking the trump card of ‘I quit” he lacks any coer cive power once the team digs in. The player is very like a horse or a* used c^r, and is frequently abused worse than either.) What makes the testimony so ridiculous in its effort to win judicial approval of baseball's operation is that it is sniveling and petty. The question is not whether baseball needs the re serve clause, or even that the grand old boring, hidebound national pasttime would perish without it. The only question is: Does the reserve clause constitute a violation of the Sher man Anti-Trust Law, and does it violate the constitutional rights of Curt Flood and all other baseball players? Anyone with an ounce of legal perception, and with an iota of fair min dedness can readily perceive that the reserve clause in manifestl illegal, and does criminal violence to the rights of the players. baseball ownership has always been greedy and unfair to it^ employes. Of course there are a few big salaried players, buf by and targe, playing baseball is a poor way to make a living. Somehow the magnates who own it all have managed to equate the great old gime with the Dag, motherhood, and apple pie. But the phony qualities of it all have begun to smell. Pro fessional baseball owners are in it for one thing: Money. There’s nothing wrong with a pecuniary motivation, but it is certainly reprehensible to lie about one’s motives, and try to lard one's selfishness with a putrid cloak of hypocrisy. Why should base ball or any other commerical operation be allowed to form trusts when it is illegal for Genreal Electric or American Motors? For it has been conclusively demonstrated that no such ar rangement is needed for the successful >peration of a profes sional sports league. Beth football and basketball have option clauses, but a player can become a free agent after he plays out his option, and players on multiple year contracts cannot fired unless they are paid off. The shadows are lengthening the oldtime baseball myths, and not a moment too soon. be for YMCA Offers Many Summer Activities The YMCA of the greater Clinton area will conduct se veral programs of team sports this summer. Team participa tion will be offered in six se- perate divisions. These include boys’ Small Fry Baseball Lea gue, Boys’ Little League, Boys’ Pony League Baseball, Girls’ Softball League, Men’s Softball League, and Women’s Softball League. The Small Fry League is composed of boys seven, eight and nine years of age. The Lit- tle League is made of boys 10, 0 and 12 years of age, and the Pony League is for boys 13 and 14 years of age. The Girls Softball League will be compo sed of girls of all ages, and the Men’s and Women’s Leagues will be composed of Adults. All games are scheduled for the Clinton High School field. The Small Fry League will play their games at 5 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Frl- day. The Little League will see action at 6 p.m. on the same days. The Pony League will play their games at 4:30 on Monday, Tuesday, 1 We<toesday and Thursday. The Girl’s Soft ball League will see action on Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30 The adult men will play at 6:30 the time of the games for a- dult women will be announced later. > According to officials of the Clinton YMCA, the purpose of the team sports is to provide an opportunity for a greater number of people to enjoy a quality program of team sports conducted under the proper su pervision and leadership. They explained that the Small Fry and Little League Teams are made up by placement accord ing to skill and age. This will result in a more balanced lea gue composed of more uniform teams. The Pony League teams will be composed of teams from se- perate districts, and boys must play on the teams from their particular district. BIG CATCH — Tami Parrish, 11, caught this 13- pound rock bass recently while fishing from a boat in Santee-Cooper. She was using live bait when she caught the big striper. She is a daugh ter of Mr. and Mrs. Perry Parrish of 276 Locust St., Lydia. Santee-Cooper Fishing Good Boys' Baseball Opens Monday John Bingham, director of the Clinton Y.M.C.A. announced that the Small Fry, the Lit tle League, and the Pony Lea gue will begin their schedule this Monday, June 15, with all 17 teams participating in these three leagues. Smokey Says: r Observers on the Santee- Cooper Lakes report that the rock fish continue to be good and 1970 already is rated as being one of the finest years for this important species. This peak fishing success will continue as long as herring are available. The other lakes and streams also are yielding good catches of fish and weather permitting, the coming weekend should be good. TROUT FISHING IN THE MOUNTAINS'- Fishing condi tions and fishing success in all three coufities continues to be good. In Oconee County fisher men are advised to try either the Chattooga or Chauga Ri vers. In Pickens County, the streams to try would be the Eastatoe or Laurel Fork. In Greenville County, the North, middle or South Saluda Rivers are recommended. In all of these streams, fish are taken on small spinners, small shysters and an assortment of flies. CLARK HILL - The early morning hours or later in the afternoon continue to be the best times to fish at Clark Hill. Good size largemouth bass, white bass and hybrids continue to be reported and the general fishing prospects should be ra ted as good. Crappie are scattered and fishing for them is good when they can be located in deeper water. Night fishing under bridges at 8 to 12 feet of water appears to yield the best cat ches. LAKE GREENWOOD - Both the lake and the river below the dam offers <good fishing oppor tunities. Largemouth bass are hitting well on underwater plugs and floating worms. The bream are also biting well using cric kets and small lures on fly rods. The bream are now off their beds. Crappie in Lake Greenwood are rated as good, but the fisherman must first find them in the deeper water. Minnows are the preferred bait Catfish is rated as poor. Below the dam, rock fish are steadily taken using bucktail and zarrows. Most of these fish weigh 5 to 7 pounds but a num ber of specimens in the 20 to 30 pound class are also being taken. Conservation Officer John Ellison of Ninety Six reports that below the dam it is pos sible with a cane pole to catch your bait and a good rock fish at the same time. A gentleman was fishing for bream with a cane pole and after hooking a small bream he found he didn’t have time to get his catch out of the water before a rock fish took the bream. This story had a happy ending, for he took home a 6 pound rock fish. Lose Opener Juniors Host To Greenville Next Monday ••••••••• LAKE MURRAY - Fishing conditions on Lake Murray con tinue to be approximately the same as they were last week. Largemouth bass are rated as excellent using top water plugs during the early morning and late afternoon around the points. In the middle of the day, fisher men using purple worms in 15 to 20 feet of water are boating good fish. White bass continue to school and very good catches are bemg made on spoons and top water lures with trailers. Fishing off points in 10 to 15 feet of water using Mr. Champ are also taking nice fish. With crickets or worms, fish ermen are making good catches of both bream and shell crac kers. LAKE HARTWELL - Fishing activity on Lake Hartwell, es pecially over the weekend, has slowed somewhat because of the increased use of this popular lake by boaters. The best area for fishing appear to be in the vincinity of 6 and 20 creek and 3 and 20 creek. Here, crappie fishing is real good using live minnows and walleyes are being taken around the rocky points. Successful fishermen for wall eyes are finding that nightcraw- lers fished on the bottom on the rocky point can take as many as four or five fish. Ponds Provide Fising Fun BY J. B. O’DELL District Conservationist With the fishing season in full swing, many Laurens coun ty pond owners are now being provided with many hours of recreation, as well as supply ing delicious food for the pond owner’s family and friends. More ponds are being stocked this season. Bass were de livered recently to 22 new pond owners cooperating with the Laurens Soil and Water Con servation District. This brings the total to over 600 ponds in the county. The fish for stocking these ponds were furnished by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service from the Hatchery in Orangeburg. The delivery of bass will complete the stock ing of the new ponds as cat fish and bream were delivered last fall. Fishing usually can be gin one year from date of bass delivery. After ponds are stocked, re gular fertilizer applications should be made during the warm months of the year - when the water temperature is 65 de grees or above. Weeds and other vegetation should be kept from the water edge. Where a suitable site exist, a farm pond makes good use of the land and the impounded water has many uses. Wade Hampton of Greenville defeated Clinton on Monday night by a score of 6 to 1 in the American Legion season opener. The defending champion of League IX got the runs needed for victory in the top of the Sanders Has Slim Y Lead With the season almost half over, Sanders Spur holds a one game lead over the Jewel Box and Rhodes' Runners in the A- dult Men’s Softball League. Sanders Spur has a record of seven wins and one defeat. The Jewel Box and the Rhodes team have won six and lost two. These teams are trailed by Bailey’s Bombers with a record of four wins and four losses, Joanna with a 1-7 record and by the Big O’s with no wins and 8 losses. In action this week, Sanders Spur defeated Joanna by a score of 24 to 7. Jones lead the of fense for the winners with four hits. Owens, Evans, F. Cooper, and J. Cooper all had three hits for the winners. In other action on June 4, Bailey’s Bombers defeated the Big O’s 12-8, and Rhodes’ Runners defeated the Jewel Box 17-7. Young, Foster, and Davis all had three hits for the winners. On June 2, Joanna defeated Rhodes 7-4, the Jewel Box was leading the Big O's when the game was halted, and Sanders Spur defeated Bailey’s Bom bers 15-5. Owens, Ward, andC. Cooper had three hits each for the league leaders. seventh inning on a three homer by Billy Griffith. run Clinton pitcher BuzzTedards pitched a strong game and held Wade Hampton scoreless for the first six innings, but a pair of errors and a wild pitch set up Griffith’s game winning home- run. Wade Hampton had threatened several times in the early innings. In the fifth, they had a man on second base with only one out, but a pair of sparkling fielding plays by se cond baseman, Jimmy Garrett prevented the man from scoring. Tedards struck out nine but was hurt by the shaky play of his infield in the latter innings. Clinton scored its only run in the bottom of the first inning off Donny Moore, the winning pit cher who allowed only three hits. Matthew King singled in Stan Elrod for the score. Clinton will play Greenville at home on Monday, June 15, and, according to Coach Sam Owens, will probably play Greer here on Thursdaynight, June 18. The game had originially been scheduled for Wednesday, June 17, but a conflict will prevent the use of the Clinton Mill Ball park on that date. Swim Team Meets Monday The YMCA Swim Team will meet Monday, June 15, at the Lydia Mill Swimming Pool. All boys and girls through se venteen years old are invited, to join. The meeting will be at 8:00 a.m. YMCA Learn to Swim for 4 and 5 year olds will begin Mon day, June 15 and will continue through June 25. The classes will be held from 11:30 till 12 Please call the YMCA and re gister by Saturday, June 13. 3L270 Lose Drivers Licenses The South Carolina Highway Department has found it neces sary to withdraw driver licens es of 31,270 persons in the past 10 months for violations of the state’s various traffic safety laws. Department records show that since July 1, 1969, the be ginning of the Department’s fis cal year the greatest offenders against safety on our highways who have been apprehended has been persons driving'under the influence of intoxicants. A summary of license sus pensions prepared by the De partment’s Driver License Re cords section shows that in this 10-month period more than 8,333 persons lost their licens es for driving while intoxicated. National studies show that drinking of intoxicants is in volved in at least half of the fatal accidents on the highways. The drinking driver is, of course, very dangerous to him self, but often he also involves innocent victims. The second most prevalent reason for driver license with drawals is the poor driving hab its of persons who accumulate 12 points under the state’s Point System law. 4r clcm-m-out prices 1968 OLDS Cutlass Supreme 2-Dr. Hdtp. One Owner, A. T., P. S., P. B., AM-FM Radio - Stereo Player. Maroon With Black Vinyl Top. White Vinyl Interior. 1967 DODGE Monaco 2-Dr. Hdtp, Sil ver Gray, Locally Own ed And Fully Equipped, Including Factory Air. 1966 FORD LTD 4-Dr. Hdtp. Fully Equipped, Inc. Factory Air Cond., White With Black Vinyl Roof, Ma roon Interior. 1965 FORD 8 Pass. Station Wagon. Fully Equipped, Includ ing Air. 1967 CHEV. Pick-Up x /i Ton, 6 Cyl inder, Standard Trans. 1968 OLDS Cutlass Sport Coupe. Low Mileage, Locally Owned, P. S., A. T„ R, H. See These And Many Others On Our Used Car Lot Now — Before Vacation Time Is Here! If You Can’t Trade With Cooper —You Just Can’t Trade LYNN COOPER, Inc 302 E. Main St. 833-1741 The cost of eareleuBCMl THANK YOU For Your Support In Tuesday's Democratic Primary James R. Jacks Candidate For County Council SUITS by Sewell Latest Styles and Colors from 44.95 SHIRTS by Wings and Norris Those new loud colors! Short sleeves and French Cuffs from 4.00 TIES by Wembley To Match Those New Shirts — Stripes and Solids. from 3.00 SHOES by Bob Smart Summer Fashion Buckles from 12.95 FISHING EQUIPMENT ELECTRIC RAZORS by Norelco WATCHES by Benrus AIR CONDITIONERS by Hotpoint FANS—by Hunter PANTS by Hubbard New Summer Weights and Colors from 10.00 Father’s Day is time to gift Dad with handsome apparel gifts that tell him just how much you really care. r 0 DONT FORGET THE FURNITURE UNE! • Recliners • Smoking Stands • Portable TV's • Radios • Tape Players • Anything Dad Might Need I * § COMPLETE LINE OF GRILLS AND COOKOUT EQUIPMENT Free Gift Wrapping And Delivery Lydia Mills POPLAR STREET