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Show Pfi J fCMVrZAVl I I SAT at the recent East-West A!!- kid game with my frhnd Joe McCarthy, Mc-Carthy, manager of th Yankees. Here we watched the picked teams from the East and West, represent- tag 28 cities and states, at 17 year or younger. And It was her that I saw thesoft spot of this sport Baseball is rated our national game. There are more kids who would rather play baseball than any other sport. Baseball is our greatest game. Certainly for our kids. And yl baseball has drawn less support from all concerned than ny other game. The big leagues, both presidents and til owners, Including Includ-ing my good friend ludge Landis, have ilmost completely Ignored the young ftall players from 13 to 17. The hlirh pi schools and colleges Grantland Rice have been even worse. Our young football players have the best of coaching In high school. They move to the best coaching in college play. They are finished products prod-ucts when they reach the pros. Our young golfers have the finest coaching and Instruction that anyone any-one could demand. All their faults are corrected on the way up. The same is true of our basketball players and our track men. The same is true of our swimmers. They have the best of the coaching and the best of breaks. Why? They bring money Into the box offices. Baseball doesn't. Any sport that brings In money ' gets prompt attention. Those that don't are Ignored. Football gets first recognition, from high schools on up through college, col-lege, on into pro ranks. Why? Many college football teams play to financial clean-ups that run from $500,000 to $1,000,000. Baseball can't even touch these figures. So why bother with baseball? base-ball? Back to the Kids Game Here is the pick of the country's kids playing baseball at the Polo Grounds. They were young, strong, fast and packed with spirit. But anyone could see the Instruction they had missed, which young football players, young golfers, young tennis players or young basketball players would have received. On more than one occasion Joe McCarthy, one of the smartest managers man-agers baseball has ever known, one of the game's closest students-would students-would point out various faults. It might be s catcher It might be an Inficlder it might be a hitter "I'd like to have that kid around Just a while," Joe would Bay, "I'd like to tell him Just a few things before his fault becomes a habit." Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Francis Ouimet, Chick Ev-ans, Ev-ans, these and many others, were great golfers before they were 21. Golf gave them their chance. Football has been piled up with stars who were 19 or 20. Baseball has known only a few who were big leaguers at this age. The answer is that only a few connected con-nected with baseball have made any effort to see that young ball players, play-ers, from 14 to 16, ever get the right Instruction. Wish Egan of Detroit is one of the few who has done a fine job along these lines. Egan has developed devel-oped more than a few young stars. George Weiss of the Yankees is another. an-other. There are Just a few more. But In the main baseball doesn't look after its own and its own are the kids who should be the stars of the future, who never get the chance or who drift into other games. Minor league managers tell me they get these kids, full of faults, and haven't the time to bother about it. The "naturals" can take care of themselves. So they come from the minors to the majors and are either sent back or hang around for two or three years, to be taught all over. If baseball drew the same type of instruction or coaching that football, basketball, golf and tennis get from the best in the business there would be a jump of at least 30 per cent in baseball efficiency between the ages of 19 and 21. But unfortunately in this country too often the dollar comes first. The answer I get is this "Let baseball start to pay its way and you'll see a big difference." It will get the same "overemphasis" from coaches and others that football does now. Pitching Prodigy One of the most outstanding possibilities pos-sibilities at the Kids Game was Frank Azzarello of New Orleans. He is just 17 a great prospect a left hander who fought 12 innings with $15,000 Dick Callahan last spring and fanned 18 batters. Frank lost his game 1 to 0 in the 12th. In addition to his brilliant pitch-ing pitch-ing Azzarello is also a star outfielder outfield-er with a Legion batting average of .431. Azzarello is Just one of the great kids who played in this game. There were at least a dozen others. |