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Show "yOU brought out an important 1 point in connection with Carl Hubbell," writes Old Timer, "that I don't think you stressed enough. This was about Hubbell after 20 years of pitching, 15 years as a big leaguer, still trying to learn something some-thing new or something better. "I always knew that Carl Hubbell was one of the smartest pitchers in baseball. This p" 57 proves that he is K 1 ever smarter than I thought he was. jj . 'S! For tne great ma-J ma-J jority, especially those who are above x x the average in skill, . i think they knov I most of it. They Jl are no lnger inter- Ik v 0 ested in learning .VSaifc something new and Carl Hubbell something better. "This is a great human weakness. Too many think they know enough when no one knows much. Especially in these days no one knows nearly enough. "What a fine thing it would be to have many more people adopting Carl Hubbell's method of still trying to learn after so many years at the top." The Meager Minority This happens to be 100 per cent true. We'll take the argument back to sport. Those who happen to lack certain cer-tain qualifications in the way of skill or knack, get discouraged too easily eas-ily and give up. They either lack the determination determina-tion to keep trying or they fail to understand how much they might learn from others that would carry them out of the rut. Many of those who happen to be rigged out with speed or skill or the winning knack take it for granted grant-ed they are approaching the superman super-man class and so need no further instruction or improvement. There never was a human being who knew it all, or anything even approaching the ultimate. You'll find that Cobb and Tilden were still experimenting, studying, working on new angles after more than twenty years of championship competition. We could also name a number of others who stopped learning quickly and showed no particular improvement improve-ment in later years. They had nothing to learn from coaches or trainers. Old timers were jokes. They already al-ready had the answers. Sarazen Speaks "One of the big thrills I've gotten out of golf," Gene Sarazen says, "is this I've learned something every year I've played. "I've found out that things I thought were important 20 years ago are not so important after all. I've found other things I payed little attention at-tention to meant a lot. "Hagen was always a great guy in this respect. He was always trying to learn something that might improve " his game. After he v ' J had been Open champion, I saw - him one day taking "( ? a lesson, or at least 5 ? friendly advice, $( ss . from Harry Vardon j on how to play a P certain type of shot. J'jr j Walter never ft ( thought he knew it L - j all, or any big part Walter Hagen of it. "I've tried to learn something that would help my play for the last ten or fifteen years. I thought as a kid I knew most of it. "It was only when I began to find out how little I really knew that I started winning again after a lapse. You get a lot of foolish and useless advice. But here and there you can pick up something that will help a lot." Walter Camp and Pudge Years ago Walter Camp told me an interesting experience he had had with Pudge Heffelfinger, a football foot-ball star who lasted over 30 years. "Pudge was so good," Camp said, "that I was afraid he would be another an-other know-lt-all. In place of that he kept coming to me for more advice ad-vice on guard play. I showed him three new variations. Later on he came back and told me he had learned four new angles. One of these was the possibility of the running run-ning guard. How many people know that Pudge Heffelfinger had worked out and developed the correct method meth-od of the running guard around 188!) or 18D0?" All I know is that as late as 1921 or 1922 HeiTclfinger, then 53 years old, kept telling Bo McMillin, then 22, to speed up his start and give him a chance to lead that interference. interfer-ence. Ask Bo. "The more you know, the easier any game is," an old-time trainer aid recently. "You can save yourself your-self so much and last so much longer. long-er. You can often handle superior physical power and even greater natural skill by knowing more than your rival does. But this can only come from trying to learn everything every-thing you can as you ' go along. |