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Show 1 jffiSvomm HI jp- Grantand Rice. (Copyright, 1922. New York Tribune. Inc.) THE MISSOURI TOPIC "What do you think of the strikes we've had?" I asked in the smoking car. "Will the coming times be good or bad? Will Hoozb? Oil reach par" But the stranger stopped me with a trown To let these phrase? tall--"I come from old St Louis town. The home of Cardina' and Brown, Where Sisler wears the batting crown, Let's talk about baseball I let him rave on for a while, Then sprung a gag I'd heard, And yet I got no welcome sunle From this St Louis bud "In old Missouri ' he replied, I'll meet you in the fall, Where Rogers Hornsby beats a slide, Or Williams gives the im a ride' --1 --1 switched to Europe but he dried, "Let's talk about baseball." By chance some one happened to speak of a man we knew a good many years ago, when he hadn't pipe money "What's become of him?" we a-ked "N'othlng." camo the reply, re-ply, "except that today he's worth around $ 1 o.OoO.OOO." A few days later a certain millionaire buckled up with a headline crash, toppling from 2, 000. 000 to a clgareL Then wa saw whirs the two St. iouls clubs were in the pennant race. Also where the Boston and Philadelphia tubs were. And l.,s than 10 years ago Boston and Philadelphia were mopping up, where St. Louis, in a I'jjv-bull way, was among the national Jokes. The old tide takes most of them up and dowr., back and forth here and there. Gene Sarazen, a 21-yaar-OJd ex-caddlo, becomes open eham-, eham-, ion. In the same tournament Alex Si iith and Freddie McLeod, two of the grcatejt of the old Kiiard, fall to uuallfy by a. stroke Eght years ago .icLoughlln, still a youngster, stopped stop-ped Brookes and Wilding In succes-i succes-i ston. Today he Is but a niemorv a ghost of the past aad he Isn't 36. In these various whirls and turn Of sportive fortune th hatting genius of Ty Cobb remain- all the more pronounced. pro-nounced. Cobo entered the Big Tent 1R years ago. That was many seasons before McLoughlin came east. It was two years before Jerry Tracrs won huj first golf crown. Walter Hagen was then 11 years old and Jack Dempsey to but nine. At that time "Babe'' Ruth was hardly 10 and Benny Leonarl was. Hi ill younger. Chick Kvana had ne ver been heard of and Bill Tllden wasn't much taller than the net. That was a month or yo before Johnny Welsmuller wno orn and Bobby Jones was just tvo years old BACK WITH THE ANCIENTf;. Cobb was a major leaguer before he Cobs, ever won a pennant, while -gn,r and Lejoie and Mathewson were still short of their prime. He was in major league harness before MatheWSOn over plti bed a worla series se-ries game, befon W alter Johnson ever left Idaho. With i-orge Sisler struggling to make the second grade in an Ohio high school. Ho yas up there before Ed Walsh had ever come to fame und Three-Finf,. r hrov.p v.: . Just earning his first laurel The. forward pass In football was still unknown as thoy hammered the line In muss attacks. Yet Cobb today, carrying a heavy ! managerial burden, is George Sisler s i main rival 3 0 points above his own I grand average for is years.- Considering Consid-ering all the circumstances, duration of service, the doubb- Job. the fickleness fickle-ness of form, Cobb's present sumdin in the Iand of Base lilt is easily the most phenomenal athletic or competitive competi-tive achievement Of the age. There is, nothing to match It from the view- ' point of quality and quantity, brilliancy bril-liancy and dairatldn combined. Some one 'has said there is nothing; in baseball that equals Cobb's record. ! One can go further and say thoro Is nothing in all sport that touches It, Wagner and Lajol- were hitting mar-; Vbie. but in their eighteenth cam-1 paigns their batting figures were not' wltnin 7u points of Cobb's marii to-I day. No other spoit has ever known a man, wnere the wear and tear of contest con-test took Its toll, that was within tiO per cent of Cobb's 18-year contribution contribu-tion to the book. For he happens to be engaged In a profession whi re the endless outcry' Is for young blood and wheru after eight or tou active years only a few t lrvlve iu the cast.' When one considers also that fori thca- IS years he has always traveled at ids fastest clip, shirking nothing on j the tow paths wherever a despei slide WSS needed tor a base, tho Wonder Won-der of his present status la all the greater. His physical durability Is one thing Few human bodies could have stood that eternal drive But to have the same burning ambition to be first again alter ho has led the league so many years Is even more remarkable. If by any chance he should beat Sisler Sis-ler out and lead his league again he will leave a record that no one etso can see with a field glass And next 6prlng he will be just as keen to lead the six months parade again, with a spirit that apparently knows neither the wea Iness of advancing years nor the fulness of an ambition thut recognises rec-ognises no top peak. His slogan seems to be "After the Himalayas what mountains have you ?"' net . |