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Show pi L) J GfiMfTlAND I IT HAS nlwuyii been our contention ' lli.it it In jir;t us Impossible for u to sell Great I iri t.i in or uny other foreign country our (nines of baseball base-ball mid football on Zt .... ...xA It would Ij: to li;ive Gre.-.t liiiUiin sell uh cricket and rue-by. rue-by. It JiiKt can't be done and It's a wa.ste of time to try it. For example, my friend, Colonel Red O'Hare, a former West Point tackle, now abroad in the active zone, sends me a column writ- Granlland Rice ten by a well-known Welsh sporting writer on American football as it looked to him. Here are just a few brief selections: "I noticed that in the two hours timo to play the game the ball was In motion, only 14 minutes "The men taking part are to closely close-ly hunched together that a lot of obstruction Is Inevitable. Kicking is discouraged because it puts the other oth-er side In possession of the ball. It is the last resort. "The game did not appear to be nearly as fast as our own. No one taking part in it seemed to run very far, for narly always when we were getting set for excitement the runner was promptly downed or the referee blew his whistle. "Altogether it was a colorful adventure, ad-venture, but American Rugger must be an acquired taste." (Like olives or spinach?) ' "They tackled fiercely and there was a sigh of relief when it was shown the runner or ball carrier was still alive. The Welsh impression impres-sion Is that the numerous stoppages, the crowding together of friend and foe, do not lend themselves to speed, excitement and to constructive endeavor. en-deavor. It was the lack of continued speed, of unbroken motion, that left its most depressing effect." A Rather Fair Analysis Many American football followers will resent this slant. But as Bobby Burns once said: "Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us "To see ourselves as ithers see us." Over in England, Scotland and Wales they don't like American football foot-ball largely for the reason that after two hours the ball is in motion or the men are in motion only 14 minutes min-utes of the 120 minutes consumed. No one can dispute this flaw or weakness In our game, looking at the show from one angle. Rugby and soccer football have far more continued action, just as basketball and hockey do. But against this we can give you the game of cricket. This isn't what you would call the fastest or the speediest game ever invented, not even barring chess. I recall years ago talking with Red Donahue, who pitched for the Phillies and for Cleveland in the time of Nap Lajoie. Red also went out for cricket in Philadelphia, then the U. S. cricket hot spot. Red abandoned cricket shortly after aft-er taking up the game and doing quite well with it. "Why did you happen to give up cricket?" I asked Donahue one day. "I'll tell you, Grant," he said, "why I decided to abandon this very estimable competition. ' "We had been playing two days in this match against English invaders invad-ers and I asked how things stood. They told me we were now playing the second inning. I promptly retired. re-tired. I wasn't busy but I never had time to give a week to one game, including time out for tea." So you can see how it works both ways. In many ways we don't like the games they play, and they don't like the games we play. Both are either too fast or too slow, if not too young or too old. International Games There are still certain international internation-al games played around a somewhat battered and harassed planet. These games include golf, tennis, boxing and to a certain extent soccer football foot-ball and basketball. And of course track and field, the basis of all Olympic Olym-pic sport. 1 Track and field are the world-wide competitions where running and jumping and heaving missiles go back to the Cave Man era, requiring no extensive complications. For example, in golf Hagen and Sarazen, beyond the United States, have had some of their hottest matches in England, Scotland, France, Japan, Australia, India, South Africa and South America. Golf even outranges tennis in this respect, although Davis Cup matches almost circle the so-called globe. Boxing? For over 20 years there have been almost no good ring fighters fight-ers outside of the U. S., although Schmeling of Germany and Camera of Italy won two rather shady titles. For all that the U. S. of A. can still get along pretty well with its own version of football and baseball. base-ball. These are two of the games the many millions love and understand under-stand the games they will stick to until Grand Old Gehenna is packed with icebergs. . |