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Show THERE Is something about Brooklyn uniform that causes Its wearer to stand out amid athletes ath-letes who toil In less favored cities. Perhaps the player spends only a few days In Flatbush and Improves that scant time by catching baseballs base-balls on top of his head, but no matter. From then on, wherever ha goes, his faults are regarded with tolerant eye. The sfxlom "Once a Dodger, always a Dodger" Is his protection and his alibi. Perhaps also It Is his shirt of hair, but let us forget that For some hours I have been filled with a vague unrest and now the cause of it becomes clear. The stamp Is upon me. Once a baseball writer, always a baseball writer. I am pining pin-ing to be off to Florida where 28 clubs soon will be training and where so many things happen that are not usually printed In the papers. pa-pers. I want to find out, for Instance, if there still are pitchers such as the one who trained with the Ori-oles Ori-oles years ago. A lanky youngster from the Hookworm Hook-worm belt, this pitcher had shown great pramlse at the start of training. train-ing. He had a fast one that made even Lefty Grove a trifle envious and when he bent a hook across the corner such celebrated hitters as Sherry Magee and Tilly Walker merely stood beside the plate and wondered what had happened. Homesick Rookie Lost Control; Got No Help Then, little by little, he lost his control. Jack Dunn, the manager, fretted about this change In form but could not discover the reason for it. Neither could the rest of us. We knew that the pitcher was a "loner," one of those lads who keep strictly to themselves, but such types are not rare In the minors. So, when night after night we would see him pick up a magazine and head for his room almost as soon as dinner was over, we decided decid-ed that he was probably only a country, kid who was homesick. Then we would start up our own card games, or other nocturnal business, busi-ness, and forget about hira. Dunnie, though, couldn't forget about him. This was a challenge to the man who was winning more pennants and developing more big-time big-time stars than any other minor league contemporary. He talked and talked to the pitcher. Each time the pitcher listened Intently, promised prom-ised to do better. Next day he would look as bad as ever, but when we watched him sweat we all felt sorry for him. We all knew this lonesome youngster young-ster was not kidding when be told how hard he was trying to regain his control and make goofl. One night, when the training time was almost ended, I drove with Dunnie out past the ball park. The moonlight sent vague shadows through the low-hung boughs of the trees which surrounded the one-room one-room county jail a hundred yards from the park. It was a dismal scene. Fifty se-ands se-ands later It became even more dismal dis-mal we started ducking bullets. I don't like bullets but Dunnie was Irritated. The Orioles were to play an exhibition game the next day and he didn't want anybody messing up his ball park. We Investigated. In-vestigated. There on second base sat the county Jailer, what was left of a gallon of corn whisky, and the ailing ail-ing pitcher. The poor homesick boy had told us the truth. He had been trying hard. Each night, after he had taken hla magazine and wandered lone-somely lone-somely upstairs, he had sneaked out the back door. Then, for hours after that he would sit out there on second base with the Jailer and the gun and the corn and practice control by shooting at the home plate. McQuillan's Alligator Got in Wrong Berth C New Tur Post. WNC 8rvtc. Let Dixie Mentor Tell About Sane Scholarship View Some months ago there was a fluttering flut-tering in the lempci of higher education educa-tion because one of the morr important college group had decided to take an openly sane attitude toward its fooU ball obligations. Hugh Bradley has asked a Southern coach to discuss the raps and breaks that have come from such an enlightened deal For reasons that, at least, will be apparent to most college presidentsthe name used here is a phoney. By H.. E. McCOY WHEN the Southeastern Conference Con-ference took its stand concern-Ing concern-Ing "paid athletes" I naturally was delighted. I still feel that way about it, and so you have two very good reasons why I agreed to take over this space. One of these reasons Is that It pro-vldes pro-vldes the chance to get in the first blow before reformers commence classifying all "below the Mason-Dixon Mason-Dixon line" elevens as professionals. profession-als. The other reason Is that I may thus be able to offer some light and encouragement to those who see this new deal of 1936 as a truly forward step In Intercollegiate Intercol-legiate athletics. First It must be admitted that even the most self-righteous college col-lege In the country Is not fooling anybody taking a stand against the Southeastern Conference regulation that prohibits the buying of football foot-ball teams on the hoof. There are objections, certainly. We of southern south-ern football heard plenty In New York. But those are taken with a smile. In the South we feel that the men In charge of our Institutions remember, this rule was not adopted adopt-ed by athletic directors or football coaches wrote Into the books of the Southeastern Conference a measure with vision when they legalized le-galized athletic scholarships. Says Scholarships Exist All Over, Though Denied These scholarships are In existence exist-ence In all parts of the country. Even though there will be denials, I say this. What Is the result? Nothing more than a football coach, backed by business men with money, and free-spending alumni, going Into the field and literally buying a football team. Perhaps we of the South are more frank and honest in admitting admit-ting the existence of this evil. And it is an evil, have no doubt of that. It prohibits the college which is not backed by "free-spending alumni" from fair competition. It engenders and encourages the paid athlete. Now Just what will be accomplished accom-plished by this new regulation which the Southeastern Conference adopted last month that furnished board, room and tuition for deserving deserv-ing boys even If they are athletes? (First) It will completely eliminate elim-inate the paid athlete. (Second) It will bring aid to athletes ath-letes under the supervision of the institution, thus improving the administration. ad-ministration. (Third) It will virtually end the competition for boys, turning one from a college he desires to attend to one in which he has no interest, because the latter's offer is better than the former's. The first step will be accomplished accom-plished by the simple process of sending all athletic scholarships through a faculty board that rules on all scholarships, regardless of the qualifications. In the past, it Is common knowledge, knowl-edge, athletes have gotten Into all manner of schools by the most devious devi-ous routes because they were financed and sponsored by school supporters of great standing. Academic Ability First, Then Athletic Prowess In the Southeastern Conference this will not happen. A man's athletic ath-letic qualifications will be judged only after he has proved to the faculty fac-ulty that he is a worthwhile prospect pros-pect as a student Finally, there will be established through these athletic scholarships a means of admitting a boy who hasn't the means at his own command com-mand to attend the conege he really wants to attend. Alt of us in our lives have known boys who went to one school when they really wanted want-ed to go to anottier. They went only because the undesirable college offered of-fered better opportunity for aid in athletics than the one which they wanted to attend. Also I would like to know If train rides are as exciting now as they were years ago when the Giants left their St. Augustine camp with Zeke Barnes and his alligator. Zeke took a lot of pride in this pet even though It measured only seven inches long and was not much for looks even for an alligator. He planned to give it a nice home out In Kansaa after the season was over, and he probably would have done it, too. That is he would have if Hughle McQuillan had not also been a Giant. Hughle had Invested In the Florida Flor-ida staple, too, and alligator proprietors pro-prietors are just like horse owners. Whenever two of them get together there must be competition. So, since beauty contests and marathon dances were out of the question, they decided upon a race. Bets were drawn and a pulse-strumming pulse-strumming contest was in sight when the younger Barnes became worried. To convince himself that everything was all right he decided upon an early-morning workout in the aisle of the Pullman. Three minutes later the air was agitated by one of the most magnificent mag-nificent renditions of free and fancy comment that It has ever been the good fortune of any ball player to hear. The alligator had broken loose and had not shown much sense even tor an alligator. With 24 berths to pick from he had crawled into the one occupisd by John J. UcGraw. |