Newspaper Page Text
4
TOW '
EDITED 9 FARNgWOKTH _____ — ———
THE SPIRIT OF SPORT e e Copyright 1912, National News Association By Hal Coffman
•
Things To W««vA BouT I
<w.? jghC. ’ ■ /(jx (~£s) ■jib (JbssJ ,
MCs I ■ 1 / '- iu_. \ / » ’ t £W ■ •
.J H w » 'x ~ "x ■ WWfewwx Jbrah
®W L.‘v* » —— — ■
—- ’ ~ ’” ’"” ' Illi IBBIL 4.. /aIRFDT yJILt *foV \ / IMPOSSIBLE <?' -7Z ')
NO use TALK'HO \ >'s2a ICAWTI’ THIS CTW«- ] I T(R6t> OUtJ>
I'VG. <SoT To TfIKE. I ,7,T-Sfegv °“’ ON ~ rF,e ' z-i '~' T rZ ~"/’* U 'X s' — T ( <~\
soKie axeßcise. I $SC§?7', porch wo*. / \ r’g-ltrP^... \ -S’
/»N0 REDUCE AAY I *7 ' \
-ZTK X ’ ' V222-J 'Sifl Is-S/ xflfiEw- ■
j -- - «S*U iriSa fScrV iteMte’’ /
\ I —. . / M! •sg£ J gij. I
\k/ ' ~ t Jl
M — ~—■ —-• '^-a.’.-,.T- z IF 'Y»I / Xw>Mrtd»—• •
Pennant Race Is Getting Better Every Minute
•■•••!• •M-5- •!•••?
Pelicans Look Dangerous, and So Do the Crackers
]>y Percy H. Whiting.
rpHE pennAnt race in the South-
I ern league is getting better
and better every minute. If
it gets much better right away, it
will be so good we can't comfort
ably stand it. At sunset Friday
night the difference between the
leaders and the tail-enders had
been cut down to 199 points. Or,
to reduce it to terms of ‘‘games
won and lost," if Birmingham
should lose 12 games while Nash
ville was winning 13 the now tail
end Vols would pass by one point
the now leading Barons.
A lead of 12 1-2 games looks im
pressive, but it isn’t when you con
sider that the league has yet to
play 632 (or 56 per cent) of its
scheduled 1.120 games.
With the teams bunched in a
heap like this, anything Is liable
to happen any old time. Just at
present the Cracker team, which
stands second in the second divi
sion. is still slightly less than 9 full
games behind the leaders. If the
Crackers can put in a solid week
of real winning, they will be up in
the chase.
• • •
<tttATCH New Orleans! That's go-
W i n g to be the cry in the
Southern before long. It was only
a few weeks back that the Pelicans
were wallowing in the depths.
Now the) are second, less than five
full games behind the leaders.
Slowly, but with awfyl certainty,
that Dutchman has been strength
ening his team. He has added a
player here, peeled one off there
and taught a third how to play ball
until now he has a grand organi
zation. of course, the Pelicans
are no team of marvels. As a mat
ter of fact, the Southern league
clubs this year are not especially
strong, any of them. But that’s
what makes the race interesting.
It is possible for any club in the
bum n, With a little real strength
ening, to get into the chase.
• • •
IMIAT Erskine Mayer will be "wel
come to our city” Is too obvi
ous to need comment. The famous
"Sefssns” has never been accorded
am too thorough a trial with the
C-.tclur club. This y< ir and last
h< looked like the best man who
was turned loose. Mayer won 12
g nes and lost 2 this year, has
p . ''.<•<> ~ i ,>-hit game and has gone
•g’. at g'liis. If he ian lA»ep any
thing like that stride in the South- •
W’.. it will be all off with the oppo
sition.
The only weakn. ss of the Crack
er club now se. ms to be in the
p thing staff. If the box men can
-
|| It’s the very last word
I • m as regards really
| aay bay it Good
Ginger Ale
j CflllCVVlK DI •
t.. fl toarost 1 Iftl F| Ye., we make that good
A * *■* *** LEMO-LIME you get at 1/
H ■ I jfc*’ the ball park and all stands
perform as well as the rest of the
team, the Crackers are going to
the top. But somehow the box men
don’t seem to be pitching well.
Dessau wasn’t any too good yester
day; Brady seems a very uncertain
performer; Atkins is unlucky or
something. Sitton is probably the
steadiest of the lot.
• • •
COME local enthusiasts have a
scheme for giving a cash prize
to the Atlanta player who does the
most for his team this season. It
isn’t a bad scheme, either. Possi
bly it runs foul of the salary limit,
but,we think not. There would per
haps be some hard feeling among
the players as to which man was
really entitled to the credit and the
coin, but usually one man stands
out on a team above all others and
fs, therefore, entitled to the emolu
ments.
Here is the proposition as sub
mitted :
Gentlemen: Being fans of the
“dyed-in-the-wool” variety and
particularly so when it concerns
the Atlanta baseball team, we be
lieve we have decided on a plan
that will make errors a novelty
and home runs, two baggers, hair
raising fielding stunts and the like
commonplace and consequently
give us a pennant contending
team. We believe the fans of At
lanta will give their hearty co
operation to the raising of a bonus
by popular subscription to be do
nated to the player on the Atlanta
team (excepting the manager)
who. in the opinion of three judges
to be selected, is the most useful
man to the team.
Our idea Is to select a commit
tee of three baseball statisticians
and experts, one from each of the
local papers, to act as the above
mentioned judges, who shall de
cide, beginning with the next
games at home and continuing
through the remainder of the sea
son. which player shall receive the
bonus, said judges to take into
consideration every phase and fea
ture of such player's work and
conduct on the field.
Now, you gentlemen may know
of a still better plan, or at least
have some improvements to sug
gest In this one, but we confidently
believe that any plan similar to
this will be popular with the local
fans, and must Inevitably arouse
a good bit of enthusiasm and ri
valry among the members of the
team. How does the proposition
appeal to you? If you think well
of it and care to give it the sup
port of your column, we would
like to make the following sub
scriptions:
W. H. H ", K OO
T. B D 1.00
G, F. C..... 1.00
• • •
THE Crackers are lucky in being
' able to land Agler. From what
everybody says, this man is a hum-
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. SATL’KD AY, JUIN E Z 2, luiz.
mer. He is at least a Class AA
player and ought to shine in this
company. If Harbison continues
his great hitting and fielding and
Agler lives up to his advance no
tices, the Cracker team ought to
be a wonder. The infield and the
outfield, as they will stand when
Agler joins, should equal the best
in the league.
[boxing - I
Late News and Views
L
George Brown, the Chicago Greek, more
commonly known as K. O. Brown, and
Jack Dillon put up such a good fight in
Winnipeg, Canada, the other night that
Floyd Fitzsimmons, the Benton Harbor
promoter, is trying to book them for
July 4.
« * •
The winner of the Bob Moha-Eddie Mc-
Goorty match, scheduled to take place
July 4, will be matched with the winner
of the Brown-Dillon fight should It be
staged In this way the real contender
for the middleweight title could be lo
cated.
• • •
Monday is the date when George Car
pentier and Frank Klaus are scheduled to
go 20 rounds in Paris. Much interest is
centered on this tight, as it will throw
some light on the middleweight champion
ship title left vacant by Stanley Ketchel
at his death.
• • *
Ernie Zanders has graduated from the
ranks of the welters ami hereafter will
swap punches with the boys who make
158 pounds ringside. Zanders' first tight
as a middleweight will probably be against
Young Mahoney, the Racine battler.
• • •
Frankie Russell, the New Orleans pug.
Is mighty well managed or mismanaged.
In fact, the French market lad doesn't
know who his manager is. One of Rus
sell's so-called managers has signed up
for him to fight Willie Gibbs in New Or
leans June 28, while another has secured
him a match with Joe Coster for July 4
The winner of the Luther McCarthy-
Jim Stewart tight, scheduled for New
York July 19. will be matched with the
winner of the Al I’alzer-Bombardier Wells
tight, which takes place in Gotham July 4.
Jack Johnson is so confident he will
win from Jim Flynn that he lias sent
Tommy Walsh. JIO.OOO for him to place
at odds of 1 to 3 on himself to defeat
Flynn; also. Jack sent a bunch of coin to
place at 7 to 10 that Ad Wolgast will de
feat Joe Rivers in their July bout.
♦ * *
'Jimmie Johnson is trying to secure a
match for Harry Thomas with Abe Attell,
to be staged in Los Angeles, July 20.
Thomas Is the lad who put up such a
good tight against Jack White when he
was substituted for Owen Moran.
• • »
Jack Goodman and Young Brown will
be the main attraction at the Garden A.
C., in Gotham, Monday night.
* • «
Al Palzer has started training at New
Dorp, S. I . for his ten-round tight with
Bombardier Wells
• • •
Whether Ab? Attell can travel with as
much success in the lightweight division
as he did for many years in the feather
class will be decided when he faces Har
ley Tommy Murphy on the Fourth.
• • •
If anv hitch occurs in the scheduled
match between Attell and Murphy as to
DOUBLE-HEADER
TOM! WILL BL I
VICIOUS BITTLE
CHATTANOOGA, TENN., June 22
With the score in games still standing
one and one for the series, thanks to a
tie game yesterday, the Crackers and
the Lookouts hook up in a contest to
day that will rival in violence the Tro
jan war or a Republican convention,
particularly the latter..
The thing is a double-header, and as
both managers, Smith and Hemphill,
believe that the get soptething on each
other by playing the full nine innings,
the affair will last from lunch time to
sundown.
Vedder Sitton, the Cracker star at
present, and Luckless Tommy Atkins
are slated to hurl for the locals. For
Rill Smith. More and Coveleskie will
probably mount the hurling rostum, so
to speak.
Yesterday’s encoOnter at Lookout
ville made the Taft-Roosevelt unpleas
antness look like a peace pact. From
early afternoon till black dark they
argued, wrestled, struggled, "cussed
and fit.” And when it was all over the
score stood 7 to 7. And the whole aft
ernoon was wasted, so far as the stand
ing of the clubs was concerned. Neither
team advanced any farther In the time
they played than the Republican con
vention, with the committee on creden
tials out.
There was excitement, though, and
plenty of it. And the fans who turned
out—and there were several of them —
had the time of their cold, gray lives.
It was nip and tuck, not to mention
neck and neck, up to the ninth. The
Crackers then had a lead of 6 to 4. At
that point Dessau’s foot slipped, as it
were, and some husky big-sticking
brought home two Lookouts and tied it
up. Nothing daunted, the Crackers
made one in the ninth. And so did the
Lookouts. The Crackers goose-egged
in the eleventh, and so did the Look
outs.
Then the umpires took a hand and
> Chairman O’Toole banged with his
gavel and declared the doings off for
the day.
weight. Ray Temple will be substituted in
i place of the Hebrew, as he says he will
■ tight the New Yorker at any weight.
* ♦ *
Jimmy Walsh is scheduled to box Kid
1 Andrews in Buffalo Mondaj' night.
• • •
Stanley Ketchel won at least JIOO.OOO
during his last five years as a prlze
< tighter. When he died his estate would
i hardly more than pay his burial ex
pensey, however.
? Three other bouts in Buffalo Monday
> will be: Gus Wilson vs. Young Goldberg,
r Jean Moriarity vs. Joe Stein, and Bobby
I’ittsley vs. Harry Baker.
• • •
Kid Julian received a fractured arm in
1 his bout with Patsy Kline the other night
j and will he out of the ring for some time.
Johnson Refuses to Box Flynn in 17-Foot Ring
Challenger Says He Would Fight in a. Barrel
By Ed. W. Smith. '
(The Georgian's fight expert, who '
has been selected to referee the (
Johnson-Flynn battle.) i
EAST LAS VEGAS, N. M., June <
22.—They'll have to rebuild '
their arena out on Eighth
street before Jack Johnson will
consent to do battle in it with Jim
Flynn two weeks hence.
The ring is altogether too small
to suit the champion of the world.
He looked over the measurements
of the ring I submitted to him and
then shook his head sadly. “I
wouldn’t think of it at all,” he said,
as he handed back the slip. "It
looks to me as If they built that
' ring, or intended to have it to suit
Flynn’s style of boxing, or fighting
I or whatever you may call it.
“From the looks of things you’re
the only one that gave me a
thought In the matter, for I wasn’t
consulted at all."
( Taking a trip out to the new
arena yesterday morning I ran a
I tape line over the unfinlshed # rlng
, and discovered that it was exactly
' nineteen feet from post to post in
side. It looked horribly small to
r me. I asked the foreman in charge
, of the work what he figured would
' be the size of the fighting space
when the ring was completed.
"It will be seventeen feet six
j inches from rope to rope,” he re
-1 plied. Knowing this might start
an argument and figuring that it
would be better to have all of the
i row of this sort settled right now,
e I submitted the measurements to
t both men.
t If the ring is to be enlarged it
g must be enlarged now before fur
t ther work on the seating arrange
s ments is done.
e In another three days the place
d will be so far completed that aYiy
changes will be out of the ques
tion.
d Flynn Wants Three-Foot Ring,
s We saw Flynn first, as he works
r earlier in the day than Johnson.
"How big would you like to have
the ring for this scrap?” Jim was
n asked. "About three feet, if I had
11 my way," was the confident re-
ply of the fireman. "As a matter
d of fact It doesn’t matter a rap to
me how big the ring is,” he con
-10 tlnued. "I'd just as soon fight him
” in a barrel as not, or they can
make it regulation twenty-four
foot if they please. Any old thing
j. for me.” Merely another Indica
r. tion of the superlatively confident
5 spirit being displayed by the Pueblo
man.
" With Johnson it was a different
». story—vastly different. When he
••••••••••••••••••••••••••
: JOHNSON INSPECTS RING;:
: SAYS IT’S TOO SMALL; HE:
: SEES PLOT TO “GET” HIM:
• LAS VEGAS, N. M., June 22. •
• The fight is °n again, off again •
• and on again. Although no offi- •
• cial promise has been made to the •
• promoters, it is now generally •
• believed that Governor McDonald •
• will not interfere. Both fighters •
• continue training. Johnson has •
• protested because the ring is much •
• smaller than is contemplated by •
• Marquis of Queensberry. •
• Johnson harbors the suspicion •
• that some one in the Flynn camp •
• is responsible for the small ring, •
• which, he figures, would increase •
• Flynn’s chances of winning. Flynn •
• prefers rough, rushing tactics, and •
• Johnson, after a wary inspection, •
• rejected the first set of plans pro- •
• duced for the ring. The matter •
• will be settled today. •
••••••••••••••••••••••••••
sized up the measurements of the
ring he became positively mournful
over them. "It won't do," he said.
"They should have consulted me
about it in the first place. Now,
as a matter of fact, I’d just as soon
fight Flynn or -any other man in
the world on an electric wire as far
as fighting is concerned. It matters
little to my style of battling,
whether the ring is big or little. If
I can win in a big ring I can win
in a small one or vice versa, but
it hurts me to think that they may
be trying to ‘put one over on me’
in this matter.
Johnson Is Cautious.
“No, sir, I must insist that the
ring be at least twenty feet inside
• of the inner ropes. Y'ou under
stand what. I mean. I want twen
ty feet of boxing space and a good
ledge on the ring so that a man
will not step out of the ring or
over the edge of it and hurt him
self.”
The upshot of the whole thing
was that Watson Burns, Johnson's
chief trainer, will go out to the
arena today with some of the news
paper men and inspect the place
thoroughly. His Judgment will be
accepted as final by the champion,
but from what Burns said last
night It looks certain that they
never will accept the ring In its
present shape.
Burns is something of a sticker
for the regulation in all things.
The rules, he says, call for a ring
of twenty-four feet or as near that
as it is possible to have it. He
wants a twenty-foot ring, the same
as the champion himself and in
tends to carry his point, judging
from the snap of his jaws while
he was talking about it.
It is supposed that a small ring
would favor Flynn to a consider
able extent. He is the rushing type
of fighter, constantly crowding his
opponent and trying his best to
keep on top of him at all times.
The smaller the space in which the
fighting is done the better for him,
for a small ring gives an opponent
a slimmer chance of getting away
from the bulldog-like rushes of the
Pueblo man.
Johnson, on the other hand, being
a defensive fighter and cautious to
a degree, is supposed to be favored "
by the larger space in which he
has to work with an opponent and
by the same argument his chances 5,
of making a good fight would be
lessened by the smaller ring.
At least that is the most logical f
way of figuring it out.
The articles of agreement, signed
in Chicago, do not mention the size
of the ring. They simply state that
the contest is to be decided under
Queensberry rules, which in turn
state the regulation ring to be
twenty-four feet “or as near that
size as practicable.” The Johnson
party naturally believes that, as
there is nothing but space where
the arena is built, the ring can
be made regulation size just as well
as not.
Governor Still Silent.
Governor McDonald again disap
pointed the local business men who
ar? interested in the big doings of
July 4. He didn't appear at all, as
expected, and no word was received
as to when he will be here. But it
is certain that he is to pay Las f
Vegas a call within a week’s time.
Instead of the governor came
Fred Fornoff, chief of the mounted
police of the new state of New
Mexico and real Westerner, one
would expect to see holding a posi
tion of this kind. The chief is a
man weighing 250 pounds and with
an eye that looks right through
one.
The chief said he was here for a
twelve-hour stay only, but found
time during the afternoon to visit
both camps. Flynn was the only
one of the principals that he saw,
however, as Johnson was not in
when he called. The official was
well pleased with Flynn’s appear
ance and after watching him at his
work for a full hour decided that
he must be in the best of shape to
stand the gruelling that he lays out
for himself every afternoon. He
saw Flynn in several of his scraps
in Los Angeles and thought Jim
looked better now than at any time
he saw him on the coast. )