Double Trouble

For the Brooklyn Dodgers, it was just one of those weeks. First, the eighth-place Pittsburgh Pirates gave them their worst whipping of the season, 16-1. Then, to make matters worse. Catcher Roy Campanella had the kind of trouble that can drive even normal, non-ballplaying citizens to distraction: doctor bills."

Ever since January, said Dr. Samuel Shenkman, a Manhattan neurosurgeon, he had been trying to collect $9,500, his price for an operation on Campy's left hand. Campy had referred the bill to the Dodgers; the Dodgers had refused to pay.

Unimpressed by the fact that Campy had snapped out of a batting slump soon after the operation, Dodger President Walter O'Malley suggested that it was earlier surgery by another doctor that really turned the trick. Let Dr. Shenkman sue. said he. "It appears that [Dr. Shenkman] thought he was operating on Roy's bankroll ... He offered to arbitrate before a committee of doctors. I told him I preferred a jury of people accustomed to paying doctors' bills, not sending them."

Said Roy Campanella with admirable restraint: "I ain't saying no more about it. O'Malley's my lawyer, but I hope he don't charge me 10,000 bucks."

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