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Show I Speaking of Sports 'Hutch' Stays Level - Headed Despite Praise By ROBERT McSHANE I7REDERICK CHARLES HUTCH-1 HUTCH-1 INSON. Detroit's $50,000 pitcher, has one outstanding virtue which will do much to save him from his friends and well-wishers. "Hutch" Is a solid, unimaginative player. Much more so than the average av-erage youth his age, which Is 19. Imperturbable and unemotional, the youngster has been the subject of more publicity pieces than any pitcher of his age In the history of the game. So far this spotlight hasn't dazzled him In the least. Most of the stuff written about the Seattle youth has been in superlative superla-tive praise. One author gave him the "pitching magic of Christy Mathewson In his right arm." Another An-other article was titled "The 'Nothing 'Noth-ing Ball' No One Can Hit" Hutchinson still has to prove himself him-self In big league competition. Un- Court Puzzler UASKETBALL'S rules manipti-- lators soon may be faced with another task that of devising some method to make goal tending illegal. As the rules now stand any unusually unusu-ally tall player can station himself beneath the basket and with no more than a slight jump bat opponents' shots away from the danger zone. This was thoroughly demonstrated during the past season by Mike Novak, No-vak, six-foot-nine-inch center of the Loyola university team In Chicago. The altitudlnous Mike stationed himself him-self under the basket and when the opposition shot from outside he would merely raise his long right arm, jump about two and a half feet oil the floor, and flip the ball away. Novak's contribution wasn't only to the defensive side. His tremendous tremen-dous height enabled him to tally something better than 10 points a game to Loyola's total. Officials and fans are generally agreed that too great a premium is placed on height. It gives a player an almost unsurmountable advantage, advan-tage, demoralizing members of the opposing team. On the other hand they argue that It isn't fair to penalize pena-lize a player because he happens to reach nearer the clouds than his fellow-athletes. There isn't quite as mach danger In the situation as Is seen on the surface. A majority of abnormally F v 7 I lirnif"'"''"'"'' ''"lar i 4 ,Aaiil i'HiHir",v'"'"J tall athletes are physically handicapped handi-capped In that they are often slow, awkward and a trifle freakish. This Is not true of Novak. Nat Holman, the old Celtic hero and for 20 years coach of City College basketball, calls Novak a fine athlete and the best college player he has ever seen. The argument is one that can stay fresh for years. And it is doubtful if the rules committee will take drastic dras-tic action on the question in the very near future. Plus One VfILLIE TURNESA, national golf champion, recently was singled out for the Metropolitan Golf association's top honors when he was ranked at plus one in the honor role of leading mashie wielders. Wee Willie, the only amateur member of the famous Turnesa golf- lng family, received re-ceived the highest ranking ever accorded ac-corded a New York player, Indicating that In the eye of officialdom Willie la a stroke better than par every time be tees off. The Metropolitan Goll Association's ratings are sport's slipperiest pole. It's even harder to stay Willie Turnesa FRED HUTCHINSON questionably his admirers had very worthy motives in heaping praise on his head. But they also succeeded succeed-ed in putting the boy on the spot. To live up to his publicity would require re-quire the skill of a genius. If he fails It will be largely the fault of his friends who have built him up into a pitching juggernaut He will need all his composure and steadiness. American league wits are practicing for Hutchinson. - A high-priced and highly publicized player, he offers a fair target for their "riding." And they won't be gentle when they start ribbing him about his "nothing ball" and his "magical right arm." Dest in Minors? Termed the greatest pitcher in the minor leagues last year, Hutchinson's Hutchin-son's claim to that distinction or rather his friends' claim to that honor hon-or for him can be disputed. Paul Trout, Sandcut, Ind., idol, won 22 games and lost 6 in the Texas league. Hutchinson won 25 and lost 7 in the Pacific Coast league. Trout's victories were gathered in three and one-half months of play while Hutchinson's Hutch-inson's were compiled in six months of competition. All in all. Trout's record for the year was the more formidable. Nevertheless, Hutchinson Is a great ball player. He was beaten only once as a high school pitcher, twice as an American Legion pitcher, pitch-er, twice while hurling for Yakima and seven times last year. That is a great record. His immediate future would be in less doubt if the superlative praise would come to a sudden end. Few things are as harmful to a young athlete as extravagant, over-done acclaim. His personal cheering section sec-tion would do well to soft pedal its applause until the season is under way. there. A ranking golfer has to produce pro-duce in tournaments to keep his place. In addition to the plus rating ol Turnesa, there are three players rated at scratch, despite the slip of Ray Billows, who was dropped one stroke. At scratch are Frank Straf-acl, Straf-acl, who defeated Turnesa in the metropolitan amateur championship final at Ridgwood, N. J.; Dick Chapman, Chap-man, amateur darkhorse, and John Burke, handicapped by M. G. A. for the first time. Burke captured the intercollegiate championship in Louisville, Ky. That feat shouldn't be underestimated, underestimat-ed, however, as Turnesa failed to turn the same trick in three years of effort Bracketed in the two stroke handicap handi-cap are E. H. Driggs, Tommy Goodwin, Good-win, John Parker, Mark Stuart, Jess Sweetser and Charles Whitehead. White-head. No. 1 Contender '"PONY GALENTO, the animated - beer vat from Newark, has retained re-tained his National Boxing association associa-tion ranking as the No. 1 heavyweight heavy-weight title challenger. Association records show that Joe Triner, Illinois committeeman, voted vot-ed to leave vacant the No. 1 post which the N. B. A. first awarded the New Jersey heavyweight last year. Two-Ton Tony's high ranking position posi-tion carries little glory with it. He's merely been designated as top man of a particularly unimpressive selection se-lection of challengers. Committee members did not take themselves too seriously when they designated Tony to lead the list. They made it clear that Tony cannot be considered con-sidered a very grave threat to Champion Joe Louis. Heavyweight boxing's sorry state of affairs is evidenced by the first 10 ranking fighters. In addition to Galento the committee ranked, in order, Bob Pastor, Lou Nova, Max Baer, Red Burman, Maurice Strickland, Strick-land, Nathan Mann, Roscoe Toles, Johnny Paycheck and Tony Musto. Divisions other than heavyweight show a great deal more class. In the light heavyweight class Champion Cham-pion John Henry Lewis is followed by Melio Bettina. Dave Clark and BiHy Conn, in first, second and third places, respectively. Finishing out the list of 10 are Ron Richards, Gus Lesnevich, Len Harvey, Jock Mc-Avoy, Mc-Avoy, Tiger Terry Warrington. Eddie Ed-die Wenstob and Joe Wagner. Top middleweights are Solly Krie-ger, Krie-ger, champion; Freddie Apostoli, Al Hostak, Walter Woods, Ceferino Garcia, Teddy Yarocz, Fred Hen-neberry, Hen-neberry, Eric Seelig, Attilio Saba-tino, Saba-tino, Tony Zale and Gene Buffalo. First five welterweights are Henry Hen-ry Armstrong, 'champion; Charley Burley, Fritzie Zivic, Sammy Luft-spring Luft-spring and Milt Aron. Western Newspaper Unloa. Sport Shorts LJ ASKELL Indian institute has bowed out of the big time with an announcement that hereafter the school will meet only prep teams on the gridiron. Haskell, in former years, played Notre Dame, teams of the Big Six and the Big Ten . . . Prof. Herbert Oflvecrona, Swedish brain specialist, says boxing is no more dangerous than any other sport, but that a fighter should retire re-tire from the ring for at least a year after being knocked out . . . Three Florida golf courses, abandoned aban-doned during the depression, have been reconditioned and reopened . . . Stagehand, winner of the Santa Anita handicap and derby, was the leading money winner of 1938. Prior to that Joseph E. Widener sold him for only $8,000 . . . Sixty-five year old Tom Sharkey, heavyweight contender con-tender in the days of Corbett, Fitz-simmons Fitz-simmons and Jeffries, is appearing as a strong man in the Golden Gate exposition . . . For the past five seasons, Ernie Lombardi of the Reds, who led the National league in batting last year, has not made a sacrifice bunt . . . The Canadian Futurity for three-year-old trotters and pacers has been awarded to Strathroy for Labor day. Purses for feach division of pacers and trotters trot-ters will be $3,500 . . . The American Ameri-can Olympic rowing committee has decided to send oarsmen to compete com-pete in five events in Finland in 1940 . . . Harry Hillman recently started his thirty-first campaign as track coach at Dartmouth. |