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Show Ad Wolgast Regarded One of Gamest Boxers In History of Game Had Sterling Lightweight Trained He Would Have Won Many More Battles; Work of Gus Christie Marks Him as Strong Opponent for Darcy. By T. S. ANDREWS. MILWAUKEE, Wi?., March 31. Ad Wolgast, the ex-champion lightweight who recently suffered a severe nervous collapse, was without doubt one of the gamest little fighters who ever stepped into a ring. Freddie Andrews, the Milwaukee lightweight, who trained with Wolgast and acted as his sparring partner for two or three years, thinks thatWolgast had it on all of them when it came to grit and real fighting ability. abili-ty. "Had Wolgast taken my advice,-" said Freddie the other day, " he would have quit the ring a year and a half ago. It was the hardest thing in the world to get him to train for a match, and I think that his present breakdown is due, in a measure, to the extra exertion exer-tion he was put to in some of his fights when he had to go through without being be-ing in condition. I know positively that in many of. his fights he was absolutely ab-solutely in no condition for a hard struggle, and it was only his extreme up percentages over .800, but they worked in onlv a few games. Bill Malarkev hung up the lowest percentage per-centage of any leading twirler. winning twenty and losing eleven games for a mark 'of .645 in 1912. . Bennv Henderson, who practically won Portland 's first championship in t 1906, and Bill Steen, whose great pitching pitch-ing aided the Mackmen in 1911, were the Beaver hurlers to head the league in pitching. Jack Lively was Oakland's first leader among the pitchers, the big apitbaU star piling up a percentage of .674 in 1910, when the Oaks were nosed out in the pennant race. Johnny Williams Wil-liams was Sacramento 's leader and Claude Williams, Salt Lake, southpawed his way into the lead in 1915. Pitching Feats. The following are the leading pitchers of each team since the organization of the league: 1903. Pitcher, Team. Won. Lost. P.C. Newton. Los Angeles 35 lii .744 Theilman, Portland IS 7 .720 Huphes, Seattle 24 15 .693 Thomas, Sacramento . . . . 2S 16 .636 Whalen. San Francisco 2ft 21 .580 Lee, Oakland 17 17 .500 1904. Newton, Los Angeles 30 17 .696 Keefe, Tacoma 34 15 .694 Buchanan, Oakland 33 21 .611 Wheeler, San Francisco. . 18 12 .600 C. Hall, Seattle 2S 20 -5S3 Shields, Portland 25 22 .632 1905. Gray, Los Angeles 30 16 .652 Hitt. San Francisco 24 14 .632 Keefe. Tacoma 30 22 .57 Garvin, Portland 26 20 .561 O. Graham. Portland 2S 25 .52S C. HaM, S-eattle 23 27 .460 I 1906. Henderson, Portland 2S 10 .737 1907. Gray. Los Ancreles 32 14 '.696 Henlov, San Francisco ... 21 15 ,6!6 Hopari. Oakland 20 14 .588 Kinsella, Portland 20 19 .513 1908. Nagle, Los Angeles 24 10 .706 Groom, Portland 29 15 .659 Sutor. San Francisco 26 20 .565 Wright, Oakland 16 15 .516 1909. Henley, San Francisco 31 10 .756 Tozer. Los Angeles 31 12 .721 Grancv, Portland 19 7 .654 Wh3len, Sacramento 23 IS .561 SrhaoTer. Vernon 20 16 .556 Christian, Oakland IS 17 .514 1910. i Livelv. Oakland 31 15 .674 ' Krapp. Portland 29 Ifi .644 Henley, San Francisco 34 19 .642 ! Nanle Lop Angeles 25 15 .fi2.i' Hitt. Vernon 26 IS .591 Uaum, Sacramento 17 20 .459 1911. Steen. Portland 30 15 .667 Ahlrs. Oakland 22 11 .667 Castleton. Vernon 22 13 .629 Henley. San Francisco 17 14 .549 Fit z q era Id, Sacramento . . 20 17 .541 Delhi. Los Angeles 27 23 .540 1912. Malarkev. Oakland 20 11 .645 I Chech. Tais Angeles 25 14 .641 ' Hitt. Vernon 21 12 .636 I Kiawitter, Portland 23 14 .622 Arellanes. Sai'rrtmeito 22 16 .579 Miller, San Franctsro 20 22 .476 1913. Williams. Sacramento 17 7 .70S Fannin San Francisco ... 26 15 .651 West. Portland IS 11 .61 Malarkev. Oakland 25 16 ,6li Hitt. Venice 22 15 .."95 Porritt, Los Angeles 20 Hi .513 1914. Ryan. Los Anccles 24 11 .fiSfl piuim, San Francisco .... 21 12 .636 j 1 1 i gain hot ham. Portiand ..31 20 . 60S I Klepfer, Venice 23 15 . 605 I Strotnl. Sayramento 21 IS .526 Kiawitter, Oakland 20 26 .435 1915. C Williams. Salt Lake 33 12 .73S j Smith, San Francisco 17 S .n I Love. Los Aneeles 23 15 .Si"3 j Kiawitter. Oakland 26 1 .5f-l Oovelesk ie. Portland 17 17 . 5 ' 1 Hitt, Vernon 15 11 .577 1!'16. I Ryan. XjOS Ansoles 29 10 .714 I Frnmmc. Vernon 23 14 .622 So; Imron. Portland 31' 17 . 63i Fittery, Salt Lake 29 19 ,6"4 ."ou''h. San Francisco .... 1 15 .5;5 Martin. Oakland 16 IS .471 grit and nerve power that pulled him through. He was really very funny in some of his doings before taking part in matches. ilOn one occasion,'' continued Freddie, Fred-die, ' ( in fact, the biggest match he ever had in a limited-round contest, that with Willie Eitchie in Milwaukee, when they drew over $40,000, it was Wolgast Wol-gast 's gameness that carried him throuch there. His rijrht hand was in bad shape and he took electric treatments treat-ments every night and stood all kinds of pain to get in shape. The night before be-fore the match Wolgast and I retired about 10 o'clock. Toward 3. o'clock in the morning I happened to be awakened and there was- Wolgast sitting up in bed with a big cigar in his mouth, purring away to beat the band. When he saw that I was awake he laughed loudly -and thought it was a great .joke. I told him to try and sleep as he would need all his strength, but he only laughed and said that Eitchie would only be a workout work-out for him. In that fight Wolgast was put down bv what was claimed to be a fair blow, but I will take an oath that after the fight there were, indications that Wolgast had been hit low, but whether it was the blow that put him down or not, I could not aay. Never Lacked Confidence. "On another occasion, the time when he fought Richie Mitchell on the south side, he refused to train because I had told him that I boxed ten rounds with Mitchell myself. When he heard that he laughed and said: 'Gee. if you can go ten'rounds with Mitchell, I can whip him with one hand and without. training.' train-ing.' The funny part of it was that the day before the match Wolgast began to get stories that Mitchell was a very clever boy and might outpoint him. This got on his nerves a bit, and that night he sent for me at one of the theaters and wanted me to come over and train with him at once. I was late getting back, but just the same Wolgast insisted upon boxing that night, and it was near midnight when we boxed several sev-eral rounds so that he might be in a little better shar. Mitchell beat Wolgast. Wol-gast. but I think it was a great deal due to the lack of condition on Ad's part, although he was outclassed as to speed and cleverness in fact, so ranch so that in the ninth round he started to leave the ring, thinking the fight was over. " There were many other instances where Wolgast refused to get in condition condi-tion as he never wanted to think that an opponent had anv chance with him if he was in shape. The above incidents regarding Wolgast Wol-gast only go to show what a wonderful wonder-ful little fighter he was and how much greater he might have been had he taken proper care of himself. Gus Christie Good. While various promoters about the country are looking for opponents for men like Lcs Darcy and Jack Dillon, why hot give Gus Christie, the Milwaukee Milwau-kee middleweight, a chance. Gus has been boxing for nearly ten years, start-: start-: ing out when he was 16 years of age. During the past three years he has been 'meeting all classes of middleweight and ; light heavyweights, but, it seems he has never been given any recognition be- i j yond the second grade. In Milwaukee, ' ! his home town, he was never given much recognition, although away from home the critics have praised Gus to the skies. During his career ho has fought such men as Bob Mnha, Billy Mbke, Jack Dillon. George ( hip. Young Ahearn, Johnny Howard. Mike Gibbons, Tommy Gibbons. Al McCoy. Jeff Smith, Knockout Brown. Battling Levinsky, Jack McCarron, Buck Crouse and others. Tie has never picked soft ones, judging from the above list, and his last encounter en-counter with Buck Crouse showed that he has improved wonderfully C rouse is not a slouch bv anv means and the eastern critics praised Gus very much for his work against the Pittsburg man. They said ho had given Crouse the most artistic trimming he ever received in his li t'e. Following this contest with Crouse. Gus took only three days' time rind went from Xew York to Dayton. . Ohio, where he met Tom McMahon in a fifteen-round battle. In taking on this I match Christie cave nwnv nrnrlv twon- tyMve rounds in weight, whii h. to a I boxer like McMahon, was a very big handinn. Surelv if Gus errn get a war with matches of that kind and make the proper kind of showing, there is no reason rea-son why he should not lie matched with Da rev and also Battling Levin kv for the light heavyweight title. It is- sim-irlv sim-irlv another case of having to go away ; from home to get a reputation, j Bennv Leonard, the New York lightweight light-weight star, has hen sotting a rne nf 'late that should make Tchie Mitchell I s:.t iiu and take notice. Bennv has been j showing his best form against the light-i light-i weights of that rart of thrt enuntrv and last week he topped it of! by stopping Packer Horn nicy in nine rounds, a lad who was considered one of the toughest 133-pounders in the country and who had never taken the count before. There is no doubt about Leonard having hav-ing the power behind his blows, providing pro-viding he can land them on the right spot, but he is not so scientific as the Milwaukee lad and may find it much more difficult to put over one of his sledge hammer blows on " the speedy Mitchell. And while Benny has all the j confidence in the world in his own ability abili-ty to land the money-maker, he must not overlook the fact that Richie, too, carries car-ries a wallop that is liable to spell defeat de-feat at any time. Jog Eirers and Joe Welling, two very good lightweights, can attest to this assertion. Preparing for Leonard. But for his injured hand Mitchell would have had several more contests during the present season, but he preferred pre-ferred to take no chances with such an important match as the Leonard event. Kichie has. been preparing for this match in a careful manner, doing light work on the road the past three weeks and only light shadow boxing in the gymnasium, so as to get all the benefits bene-fits from that style of training and not overlooking the important part of measuring mea-suring his distance. In order to do this properly Richie uses his brother as a snarrincr nart.npr wlipn shadow hoxin? and can thus, judge his distance to a nicety. Billy Kramer, a Milwaukee welterweight, wel-terweight, who has been boxing in the east most of this season, has watched both boys work often and thinks, that . Mitchell will have the shade over Leonard Leon-ard when they meet, stating that Benny will not be able to use liis powerful right cross on a fast lad like Mitchell. Interest in the match is at fever heat, one order for 100 ring side seats being received from friends of Leonard's in New York. The advance sale already amounts' to over $13,000, so it is almost certain that the house will eclipse the record-breaker when Ad Wolgast and Willie Ritchie fought at the same place over two years ago. Dillon Going Back. Has Jack Dillon shot his bolt as a high-class performer in the ring? His former manager, Sam Murbarger, says 1 that Jack is "all in," while the Hoosier bearcat says he is just as good as ever and that he still has three years of good fighting in his system. There is no doubt that Dillon has not taken the beat care of himself during the past year or two and some of his poor fights are attributed to this fact alone, it is too bad that Jack should negject himself him-self at a timo when he should be conserving con-serving his strength. He has been one of the greatest fighters we have had for some, years. He has battled against middleweights, light heavyweights and heavyweights, and like some of the old-timers old-timers never made a howl about a few pounds in weight. Dillon has usually gone into battle against men weighing anywhere from ten to thirty pounds heavier than himself and that is why he was called the "giant killer." Jack , is ouly 26 years of age and should be ; at his best now. His recent battle of i twenty rounds against Gunboat Smith j in the south demonstrated that he can still go the-distance, so that his stamina must be pretty fair, and if it is, there is no reason why he should not be able to go through many more bouts of ten rounds each if he trains properly and takes care of himself. Probably the "great white way" in New .York did not help him any, but he is not the first fighter to find that out. Dillon's ambition ambi-tion has been to fight Lester Darcy of Australia. It is not generally known, but Jack had signed a contract with Snowy Baker of Australia to go to that country this month and meet Darcy on Easter Monday, which is a big boxing dav there, and he was to have received $15,000 for his end, with another $15,-000 $15,-000 for two other matches. When Darcy left the Antipodes and came to America he spoiled all of Jack's well arranged plans for the trip to the country of the southern cross. Now Jack is anxious to try conclusions with the Australian champion in the states, either over the ten or twenty-round route.' |