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Show V J fCfiMTLAND I TTi Pacific coast baseball league was recently turned down in a major league bid. It is quite possible that the West coast stretch isn't entirely major territory as far as all its cities or teams are concerned. con-cerned. This also applies to both the American and National league, which in many places carry a strong minor league touch, as everyone connected with baseball knows. But the main point is that in a general sporting way the Pacific coast in many spots 'f'JgMg jgg m0re 0f S jig J league touch than i the East, Midwest ', or the South. And the argument isn't , A even close. The . ,"-.iir-".1 only way to prove v 0 ,-' i! this point is through facts and figures, Yy J not by words that ,J V - t j are always unim-& unim-& i ,iiJ portant Grantland Rice For 8 few ex" amples after a bad football year where both Southern South-ern California and UCLA were beaten beat-en two or three times, they outdrew Army and Navy. The western record rec-ord count was 103,000 and this isn't the first time 100,000 has been beaten beat-en on the West coast. Under the same conditions Southern California and UCLA in the East, Midwest or South would have drawn from 30,000 to 40,000 at the limit. Now we come to racing, which interests in-terests more millions than most people know more than almost any other sport or business or whatever you care to call it. Richest Purses in West Those who follow racing know the purses offered in New York, Chicago, Chi-cago, Maryland, Florida, New Orleans Or-leans and Kentucky, all among the leading racing states, rarely top $50,000. Here are some of the purses to be offered at Santa Anita, Calif.: One hundred thousand dollar Santa Anita handicap March 9, Richest all-age race. One hundred thousand dollar Santa Anita Derby February 23. Tops for the three-year-olds. Fifty thousand dollars for the Sajita Catalina, San Pasqual, Santa Margarita, San Antonio and San Juan Capistrano. Five in all eight $25,000 stakes. A stake total of $650,000 for the all-time average of $43,333 per stake. No purse is under $3,000. Can the East, South or Midwest approach these figures? You know what the answer is. No. Setv Baseball Territory All this is further proof that the two lopsided big leagues, which need unlimited night baseball for many teams to keep going, can no longer overlook a new country in the way of population and general sporting interest. Los Angeles and San Francisco Fran-cisco are far ahead of most of the big league cities in the matter of population and enthusiasm for .sports. It is generally realized by those who know their sport that St. Louis, Boston and Philadelphia are one major - league - club towns. Cincinnati, Cin-cinnati, Washington and a few others don't belong in the same class with Los Angeles and San Francisco on the sporting side. The fact is that California and Florida are our two best climate states, unless you happen to like colder weather. It is all a question of facts, fig-tires fig-tires and fair play, California merely happens to be the best football foot-ball state, the best racing state, the best track-and-field state In the country. Neither New York nor Chicago Chi-cago could even approach the Olympic Olym-pic games of 1932 which Los Angeles An-geles held. Both cities know this. x One trouble Is that too many peo- ply shy away from facts and truth. Especially those Interested only on ih? side of the dollar, one example, New York has rl!?the football nor racing facilities facili-ties to be ranked in the same class with Los Angeles, unless you enjoy looking at football games back of a thick pillar or being trampled underfoot under-foot at a race track. In the course of too many years, your correspondent correspond-ent has worked in the border states, the deep South, the East, the Midwest, Mid-west, the Far West and the Southwest South-west Pride of section is a good thing, but the United States is much more important. There was a time when the Atlantic At-lantic and Pacific coasts were many days apart. Now they are only a few hours apart. This also goes for the South and the North. The Gulf and the Great Lakes are now only a hop, step and Jump away. But up to date the Far West has taken all the worst of it from big league baseball and big league pro football. The South's major problem has been spectator capacity where only the New Orleans stadium can handle 70.000 people. And no Southern South-ern city has a population around the million mark. This, in time, will be taken care of. Certainly the South's contribution to every form of sport has been enormous, whether tills be baseball, football, golf or other sports. The South, plus California, ' has the jump in those games, with , cractically 12 months of play. j |