Show speaking of sports 1 coming year car r headache to 0 ring industry Y by ROBERT mcshane like world peace and the id abst LJ st louis browns is in a bad way as it pulls itself together and starts in a new year J it survived many a first class beat ing during 1939 but is merely holding its own at present recovery is a slow painful process skillfully hindered by many of the men who should be nursing it carefully duri ing the period of recuperation the truly alarming state of affairs is evidenced by tile the fact that tony galento calento the battling barkeep again was ranked no I 1 challenger for joe louis crown A glance at the list is discouraging bob pastor is ranked as no 2 followed by lou nova tommy farr and your old friend maxie baer not that these boys deserve their ranking they did the discouraging part is that no better fighters have appeared on the scene to replace them the old year limped out with a juicy ring scandal still unsettled a fitting farewell to a year which saw few favorable developments the harry thomas fixed fight case still remains on the books to haunt boxing commissioners and prizefight prize fight 1 1 am 1 TONY GALENTO officials it should have been settled immediately blame should have been fixed and punishment meted out while the story was hot then boxing fans would know that officials were doing their part to keep the game at a high plane memory linard 0 instead a dark brown memory lingers in the minds of those interested in the sport the investigation has been kicked around so long that its little more than a joke details of the scandal are largely forgotten but the subconscious memory of another rotten deal lives on boxing promoters have helped themselves into their present predicament they have arranged and built up matches which were merely second rate exhibitions it is true that these fights have been widely patronized but a starving man demand caviar tile the boxing enthusiast is interested in his bis sport lie ile wants to see good men pitted against each other not a ham and egger or a has been matched against a big name promoters should and sooner or later must realize that their customers know a great deal about the game even the less ring wise can recognize a poorly matched fight edward C foster national boxing association secretary is none too enthusiastic at the beginning of the new year however he is heartily endorsed in his statement that at least one beneficial step has been taken the two title and three title champions have been eliminated for good it will be remembered that ham merin henry armstrong during 1939 held three titles at one time lie he was featherweight lightweight and welterweight champion of of the luc world uc ile relinquished his fea featherweight ther title lost his lighta lightweight eight title to lou ambers and retains b bis is welterweight championship |