On March 20, 1953 — U.S. Senator Edwin C. Johnson offers a bill to give clubs the sole right to ban radio-TV broadcasts of major league games in their own territory. The antitrust division of the Justice Department outlawed this practice in 1949. Johnson believes that it started the decline of baseball in small towns and cities throughout the country. His bill aims to restore the equity between large communities and the small areas.

The lawmaker, who is baseball executive Bob Howsam’s father-in-law, presently serves as the President of the Class A Western League and played a significant role in the construction of Mile High Stadium, formerly known as Bears Stadium.