| Show Maxies Maxie's Determination To Be Champ CaIne Early Jealousy of Mothers Mother's iother s Hopes for Younger Brother Principal Reason First Blow Incidental Editors Editor's Note This is the third of a a. series of oC articles on the l life re and career of oC Max Baer world heavyweight boxing champion B By PAUL GALLICO NEW V YORK June 22 I I suspect that the Incident of the first blow that Max Baer struck In self self- self defense and In anger and which is supposed to ta have turned his footsteps from the butchery of steers and hogs to the slaughter of oC the bulls and pi pigs s of the prize ring is I greatly exaggerated The episode h has been pretty badly garbled though I suspect the one I heard from Crom Max himself is closest to the truth But wh what t I have heard dropped here and there from Irons Jacob Baer Bacr his father Dora Baer his mother and md Budd Buddy his pound brother leads me to believe that even if there never had been any country dance any steeplejack with witha a flagon of or wine resting In the back backof of his Ford any youngsters to drink it up on him any violent and inflammatory matory Jack picking on Baer as the most likely for punishment any panicky panicky pan pan- icky right hand punch thrown by bythe bythe the frightened and still cowardly Max which forthwith expunged the angry steeplejack steeplejack had had there been none of ot these I think that M Max x would have turned to the prize ring Desperate Punch The punch with which he laid out the steeplejack steeplejack steeplejack-Baer's Baer's Baers back was to tc toa a wall and for tor once he couldn't run run run- may have been the impetus he needed need need- ed cd but it is obvious that the Baer Bae family was prizefight conscious Ion long before that particular piece of or business business business busi busi- busi- busi ness occurred Remember that tha Mamma Baers Baer's ambition for Buddy was vas that he become heavyweight champion of the world world and and this ma may have piqued the thc older bo boy to jea jeal and a similar ambition ambition ber her the incident of the night of oC the I when the Dempsey Dempsey-Carpentier fight right two boys sta staged ed their version of oC the battle in the Baer parlor and remember remember remember re re- re- re member too that Buddy had a sc set of or boxing gloves and md he and his brother used to scuffle with them However the now well celi known steeplejack Incident will ivill do for forthe forthe forthe the kickoff Baer Bacr himself says It U gave him confidence wiped away all the boyhood and fears and forever banished the physical cowardice that bad had bado so o beset him I suspect that what I had really been troubling young Max was a towering imagination When he lie finall finally was hit bit squarely on the car ear and found himself unhurt and still alive e there was nothing left for him to fear He lie tells me lie he has never been afraid since which is probably why the event looms so powerfully In his memory But ut the decision to become a prize fighter was made madelong madelong madelong long before It was ns pure mother- mother jea jealousy Jealous I 0 To this same mother mother favorite favorite younger brother complex may be laid I I suspect much of Baers Baer's tremendous feeling of inferiority which caused I him to strut pose boast and brag p and which drives him relentlessly Into the spotlights of the world Many of Maxs Max's other curious traits trait might be explained in the same man man- ner ncr The boy is a setup for a psycho- psycho I will leave him to them their I and tal take c him up at the point where he saved his money money lie he was then I I working in the automobile parts plant in Livermore Cal and and sent east for fox fora foxa a heavy punching bag and spat spar gloves and built himself a ring in I his cellar The reason he was working working working work work- ing in the factory was that by that thai time his restless championship spirit t thad had begun to assert itself He tired I of school and he tired of ot butchery He wan wanted ted a change There arc are stories too of battles bat ties with skeptical cowboys In Inthe inthe the lie cellar gymnasium and of knockouts delivered cred as all of DC which arc are nebulous and probably but vaguely founded on truth ruth But the truth is that users Baer's employer was as a wealthy manufacturer on the coast and signed up as the manager of the prize fighter I have no evidence that Mamma Baer approved of this step n Remember It was Buddy who was destined t to he heher heher heher her heavyweight champion of the wo world rI 1 Initial Fight Tight That w was s in 1929 1020 when Baer was wa waI goin Coin on 20 years of age 1 C. C Starling I a a fighter righter in California was not th the I complicated thing that it is Js here in ir inthe 1 the cast east where politicians and gangs gang s sand and grafters must be cut In J. J H H. Lorimer arranged a match between the novice Baer and an Indian gentleman gentle gentle- man b by the name of Chief ChiC Baers Baer's recollection of or this first opponent op is vivid He describes him asa asa as asa a tall sad looking redskin who wore worean worean worean an artists artist's tie box coat pants three laps too long at the bottom brown rown button shoes and a tobacco juice lapel Baer says he ho had a long neck wore a hard straw skimmer and carried a abig abig aig big ig suitcase e. e For that fight ht Mx r trained rained on soda pop and hotdog He knocked Lo the poor Indian n cov wn six times in two rounds before he he stayed staged down luckily for Max bc 1 LIt cause the future heavyweight champlon cham champion champion pion plon became violently ill and woul have fallen down himself the nex moment But the coming hero had been initiated j a |
