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Show urKjf TV New York Post WNU Service. Life Is What You Make It, Even in Sport TT IS a rule of mine that letters must be answered promptly and yet the one postmarked from a small West Virginia town has been here for almost a wek. That is because . . . But enough of such stalling. Dear Mr. : It was nice of you to pick me out from the midst of all those other sports writers whose stories you read while trying to find some one from whom to obtain support. Yet, at the start, I may as well tell you that I am going to fail you. Perhaps you are right In saying that your son lias had too good an education to waste himself upon professional baseball. That would depend largely upon whether he has the ability to reach the major leagues quickly and to stay there for at least five years. If he can make that grade then I think that you are wrong In believing believ-ing that he will spend the rest of his life regretting lost business opportunities. op-portunities. Let us see. The oldest living former National league player resides in Boston. He Is past eighty and It has been more than 40 years since he ended his active ac-tive days as one of the greatest of all stars. Has George Wright spent all those seasons thinking of the past and regretting opportunities that were lost by playing baseball? Not a bit of it. Like A. G. Spalding, Spald-ing, another great player of another day, his real fortune was achieved away from the diamond and yet because be-cause of It. What he might have become without baseball I do not know, but I do know that lessons learned In front of wildly excited crowds in those old wooden stands were invaluable to both men later while they built up businesses that yielded them fortunes. You say that you would not care for him to travel around with a sporting crowd. Honestly, Mr. , I should not worry about that. There are all kinds of definitions of sporting and so let us look at another an-other side of it. Ball Players fw and the Church There was a day, which happily no longer exists, when baseball and ... .v.... .. the church were I f"$vj supposed to have ",5 very little in com- jT mon, when there Is $ was much feeling I' that young men who , ' . Y t) participated In the "1 sPor' or money 1 were doomed to no .' " ' eooA end. That was xaJ a day which pro- L duced a great out- " fielder who became Sunday. a greater evangelist. His name is Billy Sunday. You think that if he became a star his later days would be unhappy unhap-py because he would always be pining pin-ing for that thrill which comes an'd goes with the limelight? Perhaps. Most of the old Orioles are gone now but memory lingers on so persistently per-sistently that they s.till must be re called as one of the greatest of all teams. So the man who had been their manager might well look back wistfully upon those glories that have gone. Let u.-; see again. Years after the team had been scattered the citizens of Baltimore were planning some new parks. They called upon an elderly gentleman gen-tleman who was busily engaged In building up a worthwhile business. Now far more residents of Baltimore think more often and more gratefully grate-fully of the Edward Hanlon who did so ably as president of the park board than of the same younger Ned Hanlon who led the Orioles. Let us try once more. To succeed suc-ceed upon the diamond you must recognize opportunity when it comes along. Disregard those bits of fiction fic-tion which dot the magazines. The real truth is that few players have become stars through some combination combi-nation of sheer strength and awkwardness. awk-wardness. The game is one in which you must strive to think faster and more clearly than your opponent or combination of opponents. When you develop such qualities before an audience that is quick to applaud or to condemn haven't you built up something in you that is going to serve well whatever you may tackle later? Think it over, Mr. . Or better bet-ter still, let your son think it over. The opportunity is there and, after all, it is up to him what he makes of It SO MANY things are being blamed upon the weather nowadays that it Is a relief to consider Brooklyn's Dodgers. Since those athletes prob-' ably would continue to drop decisions deci-sions even If they were performing within the shadow of the south pole, today's collection of logic is dedicated dedi-cated to those persistent customer who annually must be beset by chills while the heat is being turned on elsewhere. Plainly what Is wrong with the Dodgers as well as with such better favored clnbs as the Red Sox and the Indians Is that even worse teamwork team-work is displayed by the bosses than by the hired help. Until the front offices can be made to understand the necessity of co-operation as well as of sustained and intelligent planning. plan-ning. World Series must continue to be played at the Polo grounds, at Yankee stadium, in St. Louis and Detroit By this I mean that there are too many straw bosses floating around in the Cleveland, fl v 1 Boston and Brook- is -v v a f -i-'-w.i iy offices- Tnere ,s I I such an overabund- 3 ance of managers, 23 ,! both of the business -t N i and the field vari- ' s ety, that there is ' I no reaI "ntral au" v y J thority. Instead of Kfy being Bill Terrys, j f Branch Rickeys or " Connie Macks, too crry" many of the gentle, men have become Jack Homers. Too many of them are too eager to poke In their thumbs, pull out the plums, echo the what a great boy I am refrain and then duck out the back door when some one discovers that a mess has been made of the pie. "Too Many Bosses" T Is Basehall Nemesis Such confusion of purpose Is nothing noth-ing new In this combination of sport and business that is baseball. For Instance, there are the White Sox. When Charles Comiskey was in his prime the team made money and won pennants. As he bcame older he slipped Into a mingling of uncertainty un-certainty and stubbornness that caused him to lean too heavily upon poorly equipped volunteer advisers. For years then, and after his death, the White Sox neither made money nor won pennants. Now a happy understanding between field and office of-fice Is bringing success again. There also are the Giants. For years McGraw was the supreme authority au-thority and the club was one of baseball's grandest successes. Then some of the players discovered that it was perhaps not impossible to go over the "Old Man's" head. The next pennant was won when Bill Terry, who would not accept the job until granted full and undivided con. trol, had become manager. In mentioning this I have no desire de-sire to be unkind to the various gentlemen gen-tlemen who have devoted their years (albeit at salaries considerably more handsome than the results) to the executive end of the game. I merely am stating facts that are very well known to any one who ever has poked an Inquisitive nose Into a major league dugout. Probably no club has been in such a pitiful plight this season as the Braves. The principal ownership of this club Is invested in two men and a bank. The season was started with a manager and with the game's most glamorous figure in the lineup as vice president and manager apparent ap-parent The result was inevitable. There Is a manager who has been bitterly assailed by newspaper men. The business manager, who talks an excellent game and who takes bows whenever there Is the slightest slight-est excuse for them, Is a pal of the press. This does not necessarily mean that Walter Johnson and Billy Evans do not function In perfect accord. ac-cord. The Yankees ruled by Ed Barrow Bar-row and the Tigers directed by Mickey Cochrane are, though, somewhat some-what out in front of the pre-season favorites. Bucky Harris, who was the manager man-ager of two pennant-winning teams while under the overlordship of L 4 - ' Clarke Griffith In f - H Washington, was , not a success in Bos. fr s ton. Marty Mc- V Manus, for many I 1 . reasons exceedingly K I popular with the f fans, was separated I from the Red Sox managerial duties k t ahead of Harris. I do not suggest that Harris. Eddie Collins, the business manager, sat In the stands and signaled to the outfielders where to shift for certain batters. I merely mention that. In the midst of such rumors of clashing authority, the $250,000 expended by Tom Yawkey for Joe Cronin may have been a bargain. I know of a major league ball club where a manager Is not permitted per-mitted to fine or otherwise discipline disci-pline any of the players and, indeed, Is not even given information as to' how much money the athletes receive. re-ceive. The club, because of poor deals or the lack of any deals Is going nowhere this season or next Still this piece started out with the Brooklyn club, it may as well end with it After all, the weather is bad enough without getting Into a sweat about so many other things. And it Is true that somebody has to lose the pennants. |