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Show SPORTUGHT 1 Joe Louis Better-But How Much! By GRANTLAND RICE IT is only natural that a fighter who held the heavyweight championship cham-pionship for over 11 years should still keep his grip on national interest. in-terest. We are referring to a fellow known as Joe Louis. Although his recent bout with Lee Savold is several sev-eral days old, people still stop you to ask how the old-timer really looked. No one will actually get the answer an-swer until he hooks up again with a younger, faster fighter by the name of Ezzard Charles. As we somewhat dimly understand under-stand Einstein's "Theory of Rela-. Rela-. tivity" it amounts to this a train may be moving. a bit slowly, but it appears to be moving faster in passing pass-ing a stationary telephone pole. Just after Toe's recent victory, I ran across my old friend Walter "Goodtime Charlie" Friedman, just back from the West. Goodtime Bolstering the Dodgers There is one detail connected with the recent Cub-Dodger deal that can't be charged against the Cubs. As stupid and as one-sided as the deal was, it didn't slip the pennant pen-nant to Brooklyn. With seven members already set for any All-Star National League squad, Chuck Dressen had little to worry about winning a pennant. His N.L. All-Stars are Campanella, Roe, Newcombe, Hodges, Robinson, Reese and Snider. Against this array of talent, one of the best National League teams in history, Brooklyn faced a league with no particular consistent strength. For example, there was one first-class first-class ballplayer on the Cubs, above the average. His name was Andy Pafko. So he was traded. There were two good ballplayers on the Pittsburgh team Kiner and Wcstlake. Westlake was traded away, leaving Pittsburgh with but one good ballplayer. If Brooklyn doesn't win the N.L. pennant by 20 games it will be due to a long run of sleeping sickness, or because Dressen'a tender heart has a feeling for suffering souls. No wonder the Cubs are getting to Charlie, discoverer of Primo Camera, has just signed up 1 Max Baer for the wrestling circuit and taken over the management of a new colored heavyweight, heavy-weight, Bob Golden, still in the army. "No old man is inlni tn heat Gr.ntl.nd R,t. LU'' Frledma" said. "But a thing called youth is a different story quite a different story. Give Louis credit, full credit, for the way he looked against Savold. But please don't forget that Savold is no Charles. Savold has been rusting for. three years. Charles has been almost as busy as Joe has been. And Charles is still much younger and faster than either." "So you don't think this fight has proved anything?" I asked. "Yes, it has," Goodtime Charlie said. "It has proved that Louis has improved, no matter how bad Savold Sav-old looked. But just how much I wouldn't know." That seems to be the answer to the Louis Improvement how much? Weighing as much as be has recently, or even with a little poundage added, the Bomber looked thinner in the body. He seemed to move with more alertness, if not with greater speed. All of this could not be charged to Savold's lack of mobility. The main thing the Louis-Savold fight did was to more than double interest in the next Louis-Charles meeting, provided, of course, Charles gets safely by Walcott in Pittsburgh in their July show. be perennial last-place battlers. They either keep in their favorite home, the cellar, or they give someone else a sturdy battle for this eighth-place spot. Pafko was just about worth the rest of the Cub squad. In the old days, the National League always gave you the big pennant race. Now it's the American League that supplies sup-plies about 90 per cent of pennant interest and pennant action with the White Sox, Yankees, Red Sox, Indians Indi-ans and possibly the Tigers still in the gay and giddy grapple tor the so-called gonfalon. More About Eddie Arcaro "Your contributor's recent letter about Eddie Arcaro's record was entirely incorrect," writes Irving Phillips. "All you need do is look to the record. This record of the National Na-tional Jockey Handings from January Jan-uary one to June one, 1951, shows the following averages in order-percentage order-percentage of winners to total mounts. Arcaro, 23.48 per cent; Borgemenke, 21.7; Knowles, 21.10; Mares, 20.16. The same list shows Atkinson, 15.30; Shoemaker, 19.53. Reader Phillips has made a good point. There are no experts or statisticians statis-ticians who can argue effectively against figures. |