OCR Text |
Show i? J fGAMTLAND 1 TT IS my belief that after 1946, Army and Navy will fade out of the football picture, as far as winners win-ners are concerned. Sure, they hnd all the best of it in 1944 and 1945. But 194b will be different, as Navy already has found t "smr 1 out and Army is yj finding out. ss It must be admit- L ted that Army and L tj Navy had the v. 1 breaks in the two t war years of 1944 t , and 1945. But when fr j the war ended, it rs t J was a new story. " v After 1946 every I s. "is one knows Army Grantland Rice j any Navy won't have a chance against the inducements induce-ments offered all over the map. Army and Navy can't match these lures. By inducements I mean something some-thing more than scholarships. I mean direct pay, which may range from $5,000 to $10,000 a season, more or less. This is important to the poorer kids who seem to make the better football players. Star football players no longer are going to schools where there is strict discipline and no financial help. They are an integral part of the United States the cash comes first. This applies to both coaches and players. Unfortunately, the world-wrecking world-wrecking war also tore a heavy gash into sportsmanship, the old idea of a "fair field and no favor, may the best man win." Sportsmanship is now a word you find in the dictionary. Football's Top Target When you've piled up a long string of consecutive victories over a period peri-od of two and a half seasons, you know what you are in football. You are the top target of the year, the one they all want to knock over, especially the one who will get tfiere first with the blackjack or the club. Week after week, they were all j after Army. First it was Villa-i Villa-i nova, then Oklahoma, Cornell and Michigan. Then came Columbia, , Duke, West Virginia and the cra-. cra-. cial test with Notre Dame. Penn-. Penn-. sylvania and the Navy clash will end the fray. Most of the others run two, three and four deep. Army runs less than two deep. Notre Dame runs deeper deep-er than all the others, three and four deep. But they still can play only 11 men at a time. This is something of a fallacy in this modern game, where they wear out quicker than they ever did in the old days. May-I May-I be the pace is faster. Maybe they are not as rugged as they used to be. Who knows? Army's Red Blaik, a fine coach and an old friend from many years, never thought he could go through this 1946 schedule unbeaten. The Way of the Mob (To Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Eddie Arcaro) All you who get the cheering And the plaudits from the mob, Who shrink because they bawl you Out upon some off-day job. Who scowl because they call you names That no one likes to hear, Who keep the welkin ringing from The hoarse hoot to the cheer, Who build you up and knock yoa down, From here to kingdom come, Remember as the game goes on They never boo a bum. I've heard them hiss Hans Wagner And I've heard them snarl at Cobb, I've heard them holler "Take him out," With Matty on the job. I've heard them curse when Ruth struck out Or Speaker missed a play. For 40 years I've heard them rWe The heroes of their day. I've heard their roaring welccme Switch to something worse than hum, But Eddie, Ted and Joe, get this They never boo a bum. i Ted Williams could never hit his earlier stride after Labor Day. A good point was made in suggesting sug-gesting that Ted was letting too many near strikes balls an inch or so away from the plate slide by through his unerring judgment of balls and strikes. This could be true since it is difficult dif-ficult to get your swing moving in the split fraction of a second needed in following a pitch that far. Tctl is a Rreat swinger, but even the grcatfst need a little more time to pet the bat under way with full power back of the motion. A pitch two inches ofT the plate is just as easy to hit as one over the corner. But any way you look at it, Williams Wil-liams dropped a bundle of prestige since the slump overtook him back in eitrly September. It carried right on to the end of the season, and the world series. The boos sounded sound-ed particularly bitter in his cars, it is reported. Well, that's M;c way in sports and in life. |