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Show Gene Tunney Lets Down Admirers by Playing Softball : '. By BOX CORUM International New Sports Writer Mr. Jamea Joseph Tunney, Stamford, Conn. My Dear Mr. Tunney: Soma time ago it was reported to this bureau that you had been caught red-handed in the act of participating partici-pating in a Softball baseball gam somewhere in Connecticut. "Oh, no." I aid to my informant. inform-ant. "Somebody's trying to kid you. George. That's not Gene. It might possibly be his little boy, though I'd be Inclined to doubt even that. But Gene? Never! Don't forget that Gen Tunney ia a retired undefeated heavyweight champion of the world. That before be-fore he became champion h was a marine 'the fighting marine.' Tunney come of good Irish stock. Gen Tunney playing aoftball! That' the best I've heard yet." Now, alas! it seems that the 1 story was too true. My own managing man-aging editor tells me he saw it "with Btnwn Incredulous eyes no longer ago than last Sunday. That you were doing it brazenly out in the open, flaunting your shame so that passersby on the highway could see. Charging an admission fee for It, in fact, to tell the whole sordid, unbelievable truth. Say it ain't so. Gene. Say It ain't so. Why, my managing editor Insists In-sists some of your more shameless shame-less confederates had girls to run bases for them, so that in case a slide was necessary, their outstanding out-standing characteristics would not be bruised. Nor their finer sensibilities. sensi-bilities. What is the name of your team. Champ? The Bloomer Girl of New Canaan? ' I understand this thing has got so far out of hand that a well known official of the national government gov-ernment i involved. So thai' how the man who sends out those hard-boiled hard-boiled tax collectors get warmed up to his job playing aoftball? Hoover must have been right. Rumor has it that the financial success of this burlesqu of brawny manhood has so roused the cupidity of the promoter that they are talking about bringing It into the Polo Grounds. Right her in New York City. Right her in the town in which you were born, Gene. Well, pity the dirty faced kids in the street, a Jimmy Walker, Mr. Seabury's battery mate, used to say. May I ugget that if Lowell Thomas and George Bly have no more regard for the youth of America than to perpetrate euch . A ' a "ball gam" on th long suffering, suffer-ing, heat stricken populace of New York City, that th gam be .fUv.A.t night And th. light. turned out. Surely you hav not stopped to think of th consequences of this, Tunney. That because of you th United Statea marine will march into Shanghai with ahuffling tread, their head down, their eyes averted, all because of having read in the papers from home the headline: head-line: "Devil Dog Strikes Out Three With Soft Ball." Think what John L. Sullivan would aay if he heard of an ax-heavyweight ax-heavyweight champion playing ball with a big mush bag half th sis of a pumpkin. And I hear om of th clown can't even hit that Maybe you should use sofa cushions. Yes, think what Sullivan Sulli-van would aay, but don't repeat it In public. And try to picture th xprs- aion on th face of "Gentleman Jim" Corbett, who could rlly play basebn,TT" shoald"com" bsxk to see a fighting man devoting devot-ing hia energies to a Softball match. I suppo you do call 'cm matches, don't you? Why not try cricket? Why not try a square gam? Why don't th whole gang of you turn wrestler? wres-tler? I know th present champion, Jo Louis, has been guilty of Indulging In-dulging in this bean-bag business that vcn th girl used to blush for playing at my school But Joe at least has th excuse of protecting hi hands, and you should hav heard hi apology when this bureau exposed hi sham. "Mistah Bill," he protested, "that there is th onliest kinda , baseball they'll let m play, and you know I sure do Ilk to play baseball." Hair on the chest fighters! "SoftbairerarPhooeyr That certain newspaper men should hav brought disgrace on th finest profession In th world by permitting themselve to ba seen cavorting their skinny shanks around after that overstuffed over-stuffed soccer ball ia no excuse. Their alibi probably ia that they were protecting their typewriter finger so that th world might continue to be enlightened and not drift back to barbarism. Ex-sports Ex-sports writers they war, at that. It just show what a man can com to. Wall, Gene, don't forget your catcher mitt, and breast protector, and shin guards when you go out to play next time. And don't get your feet damp. (Signed) DISILLUSIONED. |
