March 20, 1953: Minor league bust turns to boom
Submitted by BTGrimes on Sat, 03/20/2010 - 5:00am |
| Minor ups and downs WASHINGTON, D.C. - There was a time when Major League Baseball rules prevented teams from broadcasting games within 50 miles of a minor league ball park. The thinking was the major league broadcasts hurt minor league attendance. That appeared to be the case, but in 1949 the U-S Justice Department said the rule violated anti-trust laws. The broadcasts had to be allowed. As U-S Senator Edwin Johnson put it, "Then the heavens caved in." Senator Johnson's reaction may have been a little hyperbolic, but on this date in 1953 the Colorado democrat introduced a bill that would leave it up to each individual team whether to allow major league broadcasts in minor league towns. Johnson said the broadcasts, many now via television, were destroying minor league baseball in small cities and towns, but is that still the case? At its zenith in 1949, there were 59 minor leagues and 448 teams. Attendance nationwide was 39,630,433. When Senator Johnson introduced his bill in 1953 the number of leagues had dropped to 39 and many of them on shaky ground. Johnson's bill did not pass, and the minor leagues continued their downward spiral. By 1963 there were only 20 minor leagues and 132 teams across the United States and Mexico. But broadcasting may eventually have breathed life into minor league baseball because it is booming today. According to Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Daily, while there were only 15 leagues and 176 teams in 2008, a new attendance record of 43,263,740 was set. It was the 5th straight year a new attendance record was set.* And Gene Budig, former American League President and current co-owner of a minor league team, says the troubled economy may help minor league baseball because it offers a family one of the few affordable entertainment options. Contributing sources: *These numbers do not count independent professionall baseball leagues such as The Northern League and The Frontier League.
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This is incorrect. The Rock
This is incorrect. The Rock Band Stage Kit lighting functions work under RBN just fine. What charters don't have access to is the cue to trigger the fog machine. The rationale was that very few testers would have the Stage Kit to test the fog cues, and thus someone could release a song that would flood the room with fog wihout being caught in playtesting/peer review.
However, the lights on the Stage Kit follows from the stage lighting in the on-screen performance, and that can be set by RBN track authors.
Matt
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