OCR Text |
Show AN INDIGNANT non-combatant writes in criticizing our off-side guess that for a combination, basketball bas-ketball probably has the greatest number of players and spectators. His selection was Softball. whare. as he says "with proper facilities there would be over 30.000,000 soft-ball soft-ball players." I doubt this very much, knowing also how many people play softbalL Bowling can claim n close to 20,000,000. But when you dig underneath the surface sur-face there are just four major sports that from the reading read-ing and the general interest angle have the greatest appeal. These four are football, baseball, boxing and racing. From the writing GrantlandRlce r(,adinjf an. gle, above the playing angle, these are the four tops. Hockey, a fast moving game, Is nnlv known to a small section of the country with no national following. Basketball Is almost strictly local In Its appeal, even if thousands play it and millions watch it. It is almost al-most an impossible game about which one can write with any national na-tional or general interest. Track and field has only a limited reading or spectator interest. Bowling Is more of a home and family game, a magnificent sport that is largely unreadable. The two basic reading and writing games of the country are baseball and football or football and baseball. base-ball. And just back of these we find boxing and racing. One Answer In the last few months it has been a privilege to talk before many groups of servicemen who come from every part oi tne country including in-cluding those who have never left the country, those who have seen action those who have been wounded. wound-ed. Most of the sports writers have given what they had to give for this service. The usual manner of procedure comes through questions from the army or navy audience you face. In keeping an official box score, I would say that over 90 per cent of the queries thrown your way concern con-cern football, baseball, boxing and racing. No one has yet asked me to an- swer any question about basketball, hockey, track and field or bowling. There have been a few scattered queries about golf and tennis. This doesn't mean that there are not millions interested in basketball, bowling, track and field together. There are just as many interested in hunting and fishing. Probably more. But the point Is that most of the arguments are built around baseball, base-ball, football and boxing, with racing getting a smaller share. What do they want to know about? What team will win the National league pennant The American league pennant the World Series? What about the Dodgers, always sure fire? What about the Yankees? Could Dempsey have whipped Joe Louis? How good is Beau Jack? Was this 1943 Notre Dame team better than Rockne's best? These are the types of questions they fire at you from those who have come along from the East and West, the Nortb and South. The 'Argument' Sports Baseball, football and boxing are the main argument sports, especially especial-ly the first two. For example, the two majoi leagues represent a long parade of smaller hamlets and country towns from which most of the stars come. Baseball and football belong to all 48 states. They are writing games and reading games and on the reading read-ing side they appeal to many more millions than all other sports lumped together. They have an appeal for the kids, the veterans, the men and the women. wom-en. They have such names to give as Ruth, Cobb, Johnson, Mathewson, Dickey, Alexander, Thorpe, Grange Speaker, Nagurskl, Baugh, Hutson! Luckman, DiMaggio, Feller, Ted Williams, Gehrig, Sisler, McAfee, Berteili-or such teams to follow as the Yankees, Dodgers, Cardinals, Notre Dame, Minnesota, Michigan, Southern California, Tennessee, Alabama, Ala-bama, Duke, Texas-and we are barely warming up. Out in front on the reading side this is a football and a baseball country-with boxing and racing next in line. Mel Ott's Foot Action There has always been consider-able consider-able comment on Mel Otfs ability to hit so many home runs, swinging from one foot. The main answer here ,, that Mel never swings from one foot. "When I start my swing," Mel told me lately. "I Hft my right foot to be the left. But if they watch closely enough, you'll see that my lifted right Hp Vs, " lue 8rUnd in before the bat reaches the ball. This gives me my right leg to hit against " |