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Show HEN this war 's over, and th expected boom in every form of sport comes along, there is cer. tain to be a big need for much stronger supervision than we havs today. This includes baseball, racing, rac-ing, football, boxing and basketball above most of the others. For these are the major spectator spec-tator and big money games. This Isn't a matter mat-ter of today or next week or next month. It Is a matter mat-ter of the big tangle and scramble that is coming after the war is nvftr nhpn there will be al- Grantland Rice most countless problems prob-lems to face and handle, including the return home of millions of servicemen, serv-icemen, many of these hoping and expecting to make a living out of professional sport. You can see what happened when three or four unknown basketball basket-ball players, in a New York college almost totally unknown in a na- tional way, almost wrecked basketball. basket-ball. You can figure what will happen hap-pen if the same thing occurs to baseball, boxing, racing and football on a bigger scale. Four Big Sports We can take them up in order; Baseball In my opinion, baseball base-ball needs a ruling commissioner who will be given full authority to act: who will be well known and respected around the country; who J can pick up where Judge Landis i left off. A commissioner with- ; out these qualifications, without : complete authority, would be useless. use-less. It will be too late in case some scandal breaks. Baseball can't look for any such supporting combination combina-tion as Judge Landis and Babe Ruth to restore public confidence. Racing Racing is a tougher problem to tackle, due to the jealousies of competing states and the tremendous taxes they gather in. Yet it is a well-known fact that even before racing was stopped, many chiselers, crooks and gangsters were edging their way into the richest financial fi-nancial harvest of all sport, where well over a billion dollars was bet through 1944. Where more than a few jockeys were not above suspicion suspi-cion and where general larceny was on the verge of breaking out at any moment. This applies to all racing states. Only a J. Edgar Hoover could help here, where an annual salary of $100,000 would be excellent insurance. insur-ance. It would take a direct order from Washington to bring this about. But it might be badly needed at any given time later on. Pro Football and Boxing Football It would be almost impossible im-possible to have any ruling commissioner commis-sioner for college football, as so many sections have their own commissioners com-missioners who have different and conflicting ideals and opinions. But pro football faces as many problems as any sport. For one thing, there is the probability of at least one rival league. Beyond Be-yond that is the problem of many returning stars, who still have a year or two years of college play left. Any number of these will decide de-cide to play pro football and leave their college careers to the bosky dell. This can not only bring about open warfare between pro leagues, but also a civil football war between the colleges and the pros. It can also lead to any number of scandals. Boxing Here is one of sport's greatest needs. Boxing, like racing, has been largely a matter of state regulation. As it is, we have no real boxing control. Champions In one state may be thrown out in another. Boxing and racing are the easiest ontests to throw, with more money Involved in the throwing. Especially In the general direction of the gamblers gam-blers - and I mean the crooked gamblers. Boxing neeas missioner or a supervisor more than any other single sport. And it may need more very badly later on much more than it needs one at the moment. I have only mentioned four of the major public sports-baseball, racing rac-ing football and boxing. In each Instance they all need a commissioner commis-sioner who is nationally known, who has the respect of the country at laree. who has both honesty and proved ability, and who will also be given possession of "the iron hand," when the iron hand is needed. Any form of figurehead or h useless under- front mau taking. Bob Feller Returns Now that he is back in the states Bob Feller will be allowed to pitch for his Great Lakes team after two ;r more years service in the South Pacific Feller deserves his break at Great Lakes, after a fine war record He has had little chanceao et any active pitching since he ;0n 25 games for Cleveland in 1941 striking out 2S0 hitters A lot of - ,st can develop in that time, but he will have the chance now to iron j out a few kinks. |