Back in the 1950s I read an article titled something like "How to Tell
a City." It was a humorous piece that began with the idea that in
earlier times one could tell whether an urban aggregation was a city
or not by the fact that real cities had major league baseball teams. I
had thought that the article was authored by Goodman Ace, and I talked
to him once about it, and he denied any memory of it. He was, however,
quite old at that time and may not have remembered a lot of things. My
onw recollection is that the article was in a magazine called "The
Reporter," but that could be wrong. I would like to have a citation
for the article and, if possible, a notion about where a copy might be
found.

Hello emporer-ga:

I couldn't find a copy of this article you'd described; however, I did
find some books (collections of Goodman Ace's essays) at several
sites, including Barnes & Noble's (www.bn.com) out of print book
dealers network. The problem is, I couldn't find a list of the essays
included in such Goodman Ace compendiums as THE BETTER OF GOODMAN ACE.

I suggest you contact a used bookseller, for instance:       
http://www.usedbookcentral.com/texis/ubc/searchbooks,sid,10191,jump,40.html

which lists the Goodman Ace anthology noted above, and ask the
bookseller if the book includes the essay you wanted about cities and
major league baseball.

Btw, I'd never heard of Goodman Ace and enjoyed learning about his
career as a humorist and radio star. During my search I discovered
that he was a very close friend of Groucho Marx.

Sorry I couldn't find the precise article you wanted, but it's nice to
know you can still buy some of Mr. Ace's books.

Good luck with your search,

nancylynn-ga