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Show tJtLJu; i The Real Check Back CINCE the final day of the last World Series you could hear them asking what had happened to the Yankees and to Joe McCarthy. Here is proof again how short man's memory is in the whirl -of busy events. They had overlooked the fact that Joe McCarthy and his Yankees had the greatest World Series record of all time above John McGraw and his Giants, Gi-ants, above Frank Chance and his Cubs, above Connie Mack and his famous fa-mous Athletics. All Joe McCarthy and his Yankees had done was to make it six out of seven in the World Series GrantIandRice count 25 victories against eight defeats. How much more can they ask of a manager and a team? What other manager or what other oth-er team has turned in such a job? They forget the check back. About Connie Mack It was something more than a pleasure to have a visit with 80-year-old Connie Mack during this last series. We turned the clock back 40 years and I found Connie as keen and alert as ever, looking forward to whatever next year might bring. During the last series game I turned the clock back even further. I ran into Arlie Latham, now working work-ing at the Yankee Stadium. Arlie was one of the star ball players of an era that goes back some 55 or 60 years. He was the crack third baseman of Chris Von der Ahe's old St. Louis Browns. "I remember Connie Mack around 1885," Arlie said. "He was then catching for Pittsburgh as I remember remem-ber it. What kind of a catcher was Connie? He was something on the Bill Dickey type. He knew how to handle pitchers. He saw everything that was going on. He was never in a hurry. Connie couldn't hit with Dickey, but as I remember it he was a great bat tipper. He knew how to bother you at the plate. He was smart even then. Things were different in those days. Anything you could get by with was legal and okay. But what a great fellow that Connie Mack has been for 60 years. You've got to have something extra to be better than good for 60 years." Another 80-Year Old This brought to mind another active ac-tive sporting star who goes back 60 years. His name is Amos Alonzo Stagg, now coaching the College of the Pacific. Lonnie Stagg was a member of Walter Camp's first All-America team, picked in 1889. Lonnie was no kid then. After all, that was only 53 years ago. "You ought to see this kid Stagg," a friend writes me from California. "He is up early in the morning for a set of tennis. And don't think he coaches this team from the bench. He leads the squad in the field at a gallop. He works as hard as any man on the squad. He is out there showing them how to block and tackle. He is all over the place. Not so bad for a young fellow of 80." Stagg is the only coach I've heard about who has been active on the field of play for 53 years. He went to Chicago university around 1891, and was coach and player. The Iron Horse Much has been said and written about Whirlaway's famous long tail, his speed and his stout heart. But his most remarkable assets are iron legs and an iron constitution. Where most thoroughbreds are about as brittle as a pretzel, here is a horse which has been ready to run fast, far and often for the greater great-er part of three years. And in all . that time he always has been ready to run his race. He gets beaten, bnt in spite of all the racing he handles, he never runs a bad race and inevitably he is in there driving at the finish. "He's never seen the day when he wasn't ready to run," Trainer Ben Jones says. "They say I overwork over-work him. I don't. He likes to run. He has never shown any sign of staleness, which is the main answer. an-swer. And I don't care how hard the race is, he is always fresh on his way back to the barn." "Once the rider lets him start running he is hard to hold back. I suppose that's one reason they don't want to turn him loose too soon." Horse Ages Tony, the 40-year-old Tom Mix horse, was scheduled for execution recently. Several readers want to know the oldest horse on record. Tony must have been close. I asked a few veteran vet-eran trainers and found none who knew of any other horse that had passed 38. The two greatest, Man O' War and Exterminator, are still shy of 30. Exterminator is as frisky as a coll these nippy autumn days. Few horses, however, pass 25. |