Show speaking of sports champs are youngsters I 1 survey shows by GEORGE A BARCLAY YF IF YOU TOU want to be a champion A corn husker busker a star baseball player or an ace prize fighter you had better get around to it by or before the age of thirty otherwise you are in the he old man class and your chances for athletic eminence are practically nil at least that is the conclusion ol of professor harvey C lehman of ohio state university who has made a survey of age in relation to sports sporting championships belong to youth says professor ProfesS OT lehman and he proceeds to support his contention with impressive statistics old timers might contradict him by pointing out that bob fitzsimmons 0 s wa won n the she heavyweight champia championship fit bt the sae age of thirty five and t that t va N y W AR Z k P Y at JOHNNY VANDER MEER stanislaus zbyszko was heavyweight wrestling champion at sixty they might add that big bill tilden at the age of forty could beat any kid in tennis that cy young was pitch ingster ing star baseball in his forties and babe ruth was still cracking out home runs in his late thirties but the professor could answer that these were isolated exceptions and stand by his guns baseball players reach stardom in the upper twenties the lehman survey shows the best single year of the average baseball player be he pitcher infielder or outfielder is twenty eight some arrive earlier for instance bob feller amazed the baseball world a year or two ago with his bis pitching at the age of eighteen and johnny vander meer pitched two consecutive no hit norun games recently at the age of twenty three pugilistic prime prize fighters reach their peak a few years earlier than baseball players most of the championships in the various divisions being won w on regularly by boxers from twenty four to twenty seven according to professor lehman the possible ex caption is the heavyweight division where twenty nine seems to be the magic year joe louis reached the heights a good deal earlier than most champions the lehman figures show that the average age of boxing champions decreases steadily from twenty nine for heavyweights heavy weights to twenty eight for light heavyweights heavy weights twenty seven for middleweights twenty six for wel ter weights lightweights and feath er weights and twenty tour four for ban tam weights youngsters have their best chance in tennis the figures reveal most ot of the championships going to players between twenty two and twenty six helen wills moody won the U S championship at the age of eighteen but it if your sporting inclinations take different directions the age curve may rise slightly suppose you have ambitions to be a champion corn husker busker then the year in 0 U JOE LOUIS which the greatest chances of success offer themselves Is thirty professor lehmans figures show further that the best corn buskers range in age from twenty six to thirty season of upsets PUT UT the season of 1938 down in your notebook as one of upsets up sets in the baseball world heroes who have made the headlines steadily for years have failed to click this year new heroes have risen to stardom out of nowhere new teams have challenged or bested the leaders in both leagues other teams regarded as sure contenders have slumped badly an example of the changing baseball world is the failure of lou gehrig of the yankees to sparkle this year and the disappointing showing of joe di maggio so tar far joe hits his homers regularly and sti still 11 boasts a stout batting average but he the wonder boy he was a year ago moreover the yankees have f tailed to be a standout up to now the sporting world marveled a year ago at the feats of the boston bees graybeard rookies jim turner and lou fette neither has been a world beater in the 1938 season joe medwick ot of the cardinals has been hitting solidly this year but his batting average Is nowhere near the clip he enjoyed most of the 1937 season johnny mize a 2 sensation of the cards last year is something of a bust now carl car hubbell of the giants used to be a rock of gibraltar in time of trouble but SPURS CUBS g Z V A I 1 fcc gabby hartnett who succeeded charley grimm as manager of the chicago cubs Is spurring his players on in the hope of capturing another national league pennant A member of the cubs tor for 16 years and regarded as one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game hartnett Is one of the most colorful figures in baseball hes had more shaky moments on the pitching mound thus tar far than probably ever before in his great career the chicago white sox and the washington senators are bewildered over the inability of joe kuhel and zeke bonura the first basemen they swapped to get going this s year frank demaree and bill her herman man of the chicago cubs have developed a chronic batting slump on the bright side of course Is the advent of flashy newcomers into the baseball li headlines ad lines probably the most sensational is no hit johnny vander meer of the cincinnati reds among standouts stan douts this year including frank mccormick the rookie first baseman and ernie lombardi lombard and ival goodman who are enjoying their best years this season hostile hostak ALREADY crowded with more topnotch fighters than any other pugilistic class the middleweight dweight division now comes up with a new punching pun hing al hostak who won the championship from freddie steele recently hostak has never fought outside his native state of washington there is plenty rf classy opposition for the new king of the middleweights to meet when he gets around to it right out on an the coast he can fight fred apostoll apostoli who holds a decision over steele and X N X r V 5 Z LW AL HOSTAK has been called the uncrowned champion and young corbett half a dozen other standouts stan douts in the middleweight division could probably give hostak an argument they include solly krieger woods and the new sensation billy of penn state here and there A UNIQUE golf performance in ix england recently Is that of 0 leonard G crawley english ex champion and walker cup player who won two competitions in one day the st georges hill trophy at weybridge IVey Wey bridge and the gold medal at I 1 Sunning sunningdale dale this involved him in three rounds of 18 holes each and he be averaged even tours fours tommy loughran former light heavy weight boxing champion famous as a boxer rather than a slugger remarked recently in philadelphia many of these modern fighters know nothing about keeping a man off balance or feinting him into position for a blow what a snap it would be now sammy gray former american league pitcher is manal managing ring and doing relief duty for texar texarkana Tex arkana k an a in the east texas league there have been no shutouts shu touts in the allstar baseball series joe boley former shortstop for the athletics has been dropped as manager of the pocomoke Poco moke city team in the eastern shore league mose swaney former minor leaguer is fifty two years old but he plans to pitch 50 games tor for the house of david team this summer mel ott and carl hubbell are the only active members of the giants who were with the team in 1928 murray kamer a sparring partner in joe louis training camps is a former north carolina lineman who quit the philadelphia eagles after three thre days because he said pro foot football bal was too tough a western newspaper union |