The Press: Red Sock

The Sporting News (circ. 219,545), the baseball fan’s bible, took a mighty cut at the ball last week and fell into the water bucket. “Because sports are nonpolitical in nature,” declaimed the dead-serious News, “no censor hobbles sportcasters . . . [But in] parlous times … it behooves us to know who are working at the microphones and whether they . . . might be subversive or convert themselves into mediums of communication for an enemy that might strike overnight.” Not pointing “the finger of suspicion,” the Sporting News nevertheless recommended: since labor leaders, scientists and teachers get loyalty tests, why not sportcasters too?