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Show OT. PETERSBURG happens to be baseball's headquarters in Flor-da, Flor-da, with the Cardinals and Yankees surrounded by the Red Sox, Tigers, Reds and Senators, with the Braves and Athletics not too far ,away. Here at least are most of the pennant pen-nant contenders. But baseball isn't all they talk about. The athlete, relaxing under the soft moon, is likely to talk about anything after the day's work is jver. On this particular occasion we had a mixture of Yankees and Cardinals in one group and they were talking about the boxing game. They were talking about the mistakes mis-takes that Joe Louis could make if tie listened to Sol Strauss and Madison Madi-son Square Garden, rather than follow fol-low his own native instincts. Strauss is interested 98 per cent in the money side and 2 per ent in the sporting side which Is natural in his position. Jer-ley Jer-ley Joe Walcott, no whirlwind as a fighter, deserves a far better bet-ter break than he has been offered. of-fered. The ballplayers all knew this, rhey were somewhat amazed at the itand Louis had taken in regard to ;he June fight. They couldn't understand un-derstand how Louis had slipped so far, especially in connection with a lghter from his own race. Appar-;ntly Appar-;ntly they knew little about the inside in-side motives of the fight game and louldn't understand why any fight manager should get 10 per cent, much less 30 or 50 per cent. They plied their trade without any per :ent. You had to agree with them nere. I've never known a fight man-iger man-iger worth 15 per cent. Even 10 per cent is a high cut. A few can jualify beyond this mark. "At least we don't have to be mixed up with those punks," one star outfielder said. "We are on our own. How did fighters fight-ers ever get mixed up with managers, anyway?" There could only be one answer. Around 90 per cent of all fighters ire too dumb to know any of the inswers. They needed someone who jould add. One exception was Gene Rmney who happened to be consid-srably consid-srably smarter than any manager around. Jack Dempsey got smarter a little later on. Among the smart fighters today we can give you Gus Lesnevich. The odds are he is no 80 per cent sucker. The general opinion was that any fighter who ever paid a manager more than 10 per cent was too dumb to get anywhere in his own sport. This seems to be a reasonable assumption. as-sumption. Baseball's Hall of Fame That smothered growling you may or may not hear is coming from a cluster of old-time ballplayers and old-time sporting writers. It is tied up with baseball's Hall of Fame. The old-timers are complaining complain-ing that a flock of younger writers writ-ers are picking modern players and are packing the dust of for-getfulness for-getfulness on many famous stars of the past, The indictment indict-ment is worth looking over for it seems to be true. For example, among those miss- ing are Mordecai Brown and Johnny Kling, the famous Cub battery of 40 years ago that fought Mathewson and Bresnahan to a standstill. . . . Kid Nicholls, rated by Christy Mathewson as the best pitcher he ever faced. Nicholls starred in Boston. Bos-ton. . . . Eagle-eye Jake Beckley of the Reds. . . . Harry Heilmann . . . Jimniy Foxx . . . two great hitters. Brown and Kling plus Brown and Archer fed the Giants and other National Na-tional League teams enough poison to kill off a dozen zoos. As great a pitcher as Matty was, Brownie beat him in their last nine meetings. It is too late for Brownie now so far as any personal thrill is concerned, con-cerned, but many of his fans would appreciate the delayed and deserved honor. The longer these forgotten " old-timers are left off, the deeper deep-er they are shoved back into obscurity. Their chance of making mak-ing the upland country grows bleaker year after year. Baseball's Hall of Fame is tot great an institution to be overcrowded. overcrowd-ed. A galaxy that knows Ruth Cobb, Cy Young, Mathewson, Alex ander, Walter Johnson, Eddie ane Jimmy Collins among so man others should be more carefull It is a mistake to take in tot many at one sitting. It is better t have too few. Once they are in, the; are in forever. Certainly a grou of stars that doesn't carry thi names of Mordecai "Three-Finger1 Brown and Kid Nicholls can't bi called complete. The dungeon of oblivion is I tough citadel to break open. Fror riow on, the Hall of Fame should b more carefully watched and guard ed. It is certainly no frivolous o empty honor. At least it shouldn' be. Race Outlook Good New Jersey and other easter tracks are looking in the genen direction of the best racing seaso in many campaigns. This doesn' mean the largest crowds and th heaviest mutuel play. It means th best horses and the most Interestin season. I i |