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Show WHAT single mistake, error or so-called faux pas in the rickety rick-ety history of sport cost the largest amount of money? There have been more than a few such sli many of them normal mishaps, that ran the bill from $100,-000 $100,-000 to $500,000. That's a fair chunk of loose change for one skidding act. This argument came up in the -wake of Billy Conn's misguided left hook which happened to land on his pa-in-law's head in place of his pain-law's chin, nose or abdomen. Conn, one of the sharpest of the snipers labelled another Jim Cor-bett Cor-bett by Bill Brady cost himself, Joe Louis, Mike Jacobs and the Army Relief fund from $500,000 to ($700,000 by being off the beam many inches. This certainly ranks around the top of all-time financial upheav-j upheav-j als in the wake of erring judgment V or erring physical skill. !A Few Others There was the time Fred Snod-grass Snod-grass of the New York Giants dropped a fly ball in Boston in the Red Sox-Giant World Series of 1912 with Christy Mathewson pitching. ' This happened in the stretch of the " eighth game and it cost the Giants around $100,000 in the money split. This mishap came from complete , overconfidence on an easy fly descending de-scending into Fred's waiting hands. There was the time when jockey I Johnny Pollard, riding Seabiscuit in I the Biscuit's first Santa Anita Handicap, Handi-cap, failed to hear the $100,000 thun- der of Roscmont's approaching hoof-bcats. hoof-bcats. If he had, Wlurlaway wouldn't be even close today for the Biscuit's Bis-cuit's all-time cleanup. There was the Hugh Casey-Mickey ( Owen twister m the Yankees-Dodg- -ers battle last fall that lifted over f $200,000 from the two ball clubs and sent it back to the ticket huid-- -ers in the wiped out sixth contest. Casey had more stifff on the ball I than Owen could handle. He had . more than $200,000 worth of stuff. So you can't blame Owen. '. Pastor-Lewis Fight? Bob Pastor will make up a good part of the Conn loss if a summer heavyviight fight is arranged. I Which means, of course, that the army must be willing to grant Joe Louis a leave. . M But a Louis-Pastor battle would T not draw as well as the cancelled BILLY CONN or postponed Conn entertainment for several reasons. One is that this i would be Tastor's third parking spot in front of the two Louis fists, meaning mean-ing right and left. Also, Conn came closer than any oilier challenger to removing the heavyweight crown from the old homestead. For n'l that, Pastor has earned his plfice as the next in line. He was at least smart enough not to throw a left hook into a concrete waU. Jl -'hat's the Source? The amount of money sent through mutuel windows so far tins spring has astonished even the racing optimists. opti-mists. This has been especially true of New York and Maryland tracks . where both the crowds and the cash have set up a flow of new records. New York will hit and pass the $00,000,000 mark at Belmont. The line at,. :e $10 windows is the longest long-est racing has ever seen. This money, mon-ey, or a big part of it. comes from new players who haven't yet discov- iered there is a slight element of chance in this racing game. With extra billions scattered around and fewer things to buy. including in-cluding sugar and gasoline, they storm the impregnable fortress of thoroughbred chance. No small part of this money comes from war work for the government govern-ment and that is one of the reasons rea-sons that at least a part of it should go back to government war work. Just how long, or how much longer, this golden flow will pour through the mutuel windows is another guess. More than one big Belmont day will pass the 52,000,000 mark. It isn't such a wrecking matter to beat a race or even to beat a day's card. But anyone who thinks he can beat 12 per cent through a week or a season has an imagination too f extended to be measured by either j time or space. As the late Mr. Coleridge put it, he is strolling 1 "where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man." |