EVENTS & DISCOVERIES
RUSSIANS OVERCHICAGO
The best-lovedshort story in Chicago at the moment has to do with the sightseeing flight ofthe visiting Soviet housing experts over that city the other day.
As the planemoved up the Lake Michigan shoreline after a look at the giant planned suburbof Park Forest far to the south, the Russians gawked at the sailboats, cruisersand yachts tied up at Jackson Park Harbor, just to the southeast of theUniversity of Chicago.
"Ah,"exclaimed I. K. Kozuilia, Russia's minister of city and urban construction andleader of the visiting firemen, "the Chicago fishing fleet!"
"Nope,"said the Chicagoan at his elbow. "Yachts of the workers."
TWO IN THEBUSH
Jack Kramer, whosays Lewis Hoad and Ken Rosewall had signed an agreement to turn pro (pendingtheir lawyers' approval) when they left the United States, has now discoveredthat two birds in hand are better than two in the Australian bush.
For, once theyoung Davis Cup heroes reached home, Kramer was fighting a losing battle—and inthe end was routed by vastly superior forces.
The tide beganto turn the afternoon-Captain Harry Hopman and Hoad stepped off their bigConstellation at Sydney's Mascot Airport proudly bearing the Holy Grail ofAustralian tennis: the Davis Cup. Joined by teammates Rosewall and Rex Hartwig,who had arrived earlier, they were cheered by hundreds of their countrymen,paraded through the streets of Sydney for the adulation of 50,000 more andgiven a tumultuous reception presided over by the lord mayor. It was thenKramer might have received his first warning that all was not well with hisdreams of a $500,000 world tour. "I hope," a sentiment-choked Hoad toldthe assembled thousands, "that if we ever lose the Davis Cup again that Imight be a member of the team to go over and try to get it back."
This was thesignal for the Dunlop Co. (which pays Hoad about $4,500 a year) to begin totalk about job security and advancement; and for Slazengers Proprietary Limitedand the Carnation Co. (which will cosponsor Rosewall for nearly $6,000) tospeak of a future executive's job. There was also talk about sending the tennistwins on an all-expense-paid tour around the world—as amateurs. "Don't sellyourself cheap," the Australian press told Hoad and Rosewall. Turn down the$50,000 offered now—they were told—win a few more tournaments and then be in aposition to command the top price of almost $75,000 Tony Trabert got.
After it was allover, and both 20-year-olds had decided to remain—at least for another year—onthe side of amateurism, Australia and the Davis Cup, the Sydney Morning Heraldexplained: "They have merely been persuaded—in one case by weightycommercial argument—that the moment is not yet opportune for them toturn."
STILLCHAMPIONS
It took only amatter of moments last week to accomplish an entente cordiale between thosesovereign institutions, the New York Yankees and the Japanese Empire. Althoughthe Yanks arrived at Tokyo International Airport in a driving rainstorm theywere surrounded by throngs of photographers, flower girls, screechingyoungsters and cheering fans as soon as they stepped from the two DC-6s whichhad brought them from Honolulu. All 69—players, wives, coaches, owners andManager Casey Stengel—were paraded through the city in decorated jeeps and opencars, while great crowds showered them with confetti and ticker tape, calledfor autographs and tied up traffic for a full 40 minutes.
The Yanksreciprocated with a will. They appeared on the stage of a downtown theater and,while firecrackers popped and the audience cheered, lobbed dozens of softrubber baseballs into the crowd. The next day, while working out at Kawasakistadium between Tokyo and Yokohama, they hit balls into the stands and over thefences as mementos for scrambling crowds of fans. "I hope," saidManager Stengel to Japanese sportswriters (who still talk of Babe Ruth withawe), "some day to have a Japanese player on the Yankees. It would be goodfor baseball and Japan and the Yankees." The spectators at the Yanks' firstgame with the professional Tokyo Orions were delighted with Kazuhiro Yamauchiwho hit a home run off Tommy Byrne, but seemed even more set up by the factthat the Yanks won 10-2.
What did theJapanese think of the Brooklyn Dodgers? "The Yankees," stated onenewspaper firmly, "are still the champs to Japanese baseball fans."
THE SLEEPINGGIANT
The summersailing season is over. And it has ended, as in every year since 1937, withoutthe most thrilling spectacle in the yachting world—a defense of the America'sCup (see 19TH HOLE). Seventeen times from the first meeting in 1851 to HaroldVanderbilt's sweep in Ranger over Thomas Sop-with's Endeavor II in 1937,yachtsmen in England and America built the tallest, fastest and inevitably themost beautiful boats in the world and sent them against each other in offshoreraces. The fact that England never managed to win even one of her tries hardlyseemed to deter British challengers, nor did it deter Americans from spendingvast sums on the giant J-Boats to make sure that England never won. Harold K.Vanderbilt's bill for Ranger was $300,000. If anything, Ranger looked even moreexpensive. Her duraluminum mast towered 165 feet over the water, her 135-foothull tapered to 87 feet on the waterline, and her graceful underwater curvesswept down to a keel that held 110 tons of lead.
Unhappily, thelater cup defenders were simply too much boat for anything but cup defenses.When World War II began, Ranger and her surviving sisters in the U.S. werebroken up for their metal. In England, the Endeavor II suffered an even worsefate. An American yachtsman, in England last summer for Cowes Week, made aspecial pilgrimage to see what could be fairly called the finest yacht inEngland's history.
"She waslying on the mud flats at low tide near Southampton," he recalled a fewdays ago. "None of her sticks were on. There was a little shack on thedeck. A family washing hung out above decks. It was a sad sight."
Indeed it was.This same man, however, was dead against building more Rangers and Endeavors:"Some people are talking about a cup revival in terms of the J-Boat. Ithink they are crazy. When not racing, the J-Boat has no value at all. Besides,sailing is going in the opposite direction from the J-Boat idea" (i.e.,toward more practical, all-round boats).
"They mighttry it in International One-Designs and Six-Meters. I personally feel inclinedto start over again with a new cup rather than let the America's Cup be racedfor by Six-Meters."
Says RodStephens, a member of the yacht designing and brokerage firm of Sparkman &Stephens, Inc.: "The cup should be raced for only by the biggest boats.Maybe they could draw up plans for a new class to combine the ocean racer withthe J-Boat, so that a cup boat could be kept as a useful cruising vessel likeBaruna or Bolero."
Against the factthat the 73-foot, ocean-cruising Bolero is currently for sale because no onewants to bear the expense of racing her, Stephens had this to say: "If itwas announced that the cup would be run by ocean racers of Bolero's size, shewould be sold before sundown."
THE LONG, LONGCOUNT
The equal easewith which Jimmy Carter could win or lose the lightweight championship of theworld was one of boxing's great marvels until the other night in Cincinnatiwhen it was overshadowed by the longest count boxing has seen since Tunney beatDempsey at Chicago.
Carter lost adecision to Champion Wallace (Bud) Smith. Whether it was a unanimous decisionor split remains, however, in doubt. Two of the three Cincinnati judges scoredit for Smith, who thus retained his championship. What made the fight moreweird than Carter's in-and-out record (he had won and lost this samechampionship three times) was the dissenting opinion of Judge Joe Blink, astubborn, gray-haired man of perhaps limited clerical aptitude. Judge Blink,struggling with the task of totting up two columns of 15 numbers apiece, wasthe last to turn in his card. He handed it up to Referee Tony Warndorf, wholooked at it, snickered and handed it back. Judge Blink's arithmetic gave 94points to Carter, 90 to Smith. That would have seemed reasonable enough in a10-round bout but this was a championship, 15-round affair and, under the
10-points-per-round system, a higher total was indicated.
Judge Blinkhunched his shoulders over the task again, while a national TV audience waitedand wondered.
It took sixadditional minutes for Judge Blink to come up with a new addition, this oneannounced as 140-140, or draw. Television winked out hastily on the scene.Millions went to bed believing that two judges had voted for Smith, while thethird, Blink, had scored it a draw.
Smith wascheerfully accepting this split decision when Commissioner Paul D. Cain brokethe news that someone had thought to check Judge Blink's addition. Just to beabsolutely certain. And it came out, Cain said, that the figures actually addedup to 144 for Smith, 140 for Carter. Thus, he held, the decision was unanimousfor Smith. The card was checked again and it did add up to a unanimous victoryfor Smith but by a score of 143-139. Or thereabouts.
Joe Blink,apprised of this, snorted.
"I voted forCarter, 144 to 140," he said firmly, as befits a man expressing a clear-cutconviction.
CUSTER'S SECONDSTAND
Julius Helfand,an obstinate man, has resumed his continuing inquiry into boxing's ways and, aswhen he left off just before the Moore-Marciano fight, has yet to discover amember of the mysterious managerial clan—the International Boxing Guild and itssubservient subsidiary, the New York Boxing Guild—who knows anything aboutGuild operations or is willing to admit he does. Still and all, the less themanagers have chosen to reveal about their organizations, the more they havedisclosed. Thus:
Questioningthree suspended managers who previously had refused to testify, Helfand broughtout that the Guild, despite bylaws which exclude all but licensed managers, hasboth officers and members who are not licensed, as in the case of Max Wax-man,New York Guild president, and not managers, as in the case of Billy Brown, NewYork matchmaker for the International Boxing Club (James D. Norris, president).The boxing commission chairman developed further that managers customarily donot keep bank accounts but a chary preference for cash transactions, as in thecase of his three witnesses—Constantine (Custer) D'Amato, acting president ofthe New York Guild and manager of Floyd Patterson; Bobby Melnick, manager ofRalph (Tiger) Jones; and Bobby Nelson, manager of no one in particular at themoment.
D'Amato,nicknamed Cus, a white-haired man with a gift for smooth-sounding homily, gaveinsight into the managerial view of fighters during a discussion of thejust-resolved impasse between Vince Martinez, grounded welterweight, and HonestBill Daly, International Guild treasurer and recently resumed manager ofMartinez (SI, Oct. 17). When Daly's contract expired Martinez refused to renewfor a time and during that period could get no profitable fights. D'Amato sidedwith Daly on the issue.
"Isn't aboxer a free citizen?" Helfand asked.
"Yes,generally speaking, I think," D'Amato replied, with a judicious bob of hishead. Then he added mysteriously, "So far as he functions as afighter." As to Martinez: "I consider him a detriment to boxing."As to Daly: "I would rather not comment. I don't have to deal with Martinezevery day."
Melnick,following the pattern set by D'Amato, who did not know the name of the Guild'sbank though he signed some of its checks, also was signally ignorant of Guildaffairs. A member of the executive board, he could not remember whether Guildofficers were elected or achieved their status spontaneously.
Nelson, who fromtime to time has met with Frank Carbo over a cup of coffee at Jack Dempsey'srestaurant and has known the hoodlum gambler "for 20 years or so"without ever discussing fights with him, confirmed that Frank Ippolito, alightweight, had come under his managerial wing after opportune release fromcontractual obligations to a non-Guild manager. Soon thereafter Nelson waswalking along Eighth Avenue when who should pop up but Eddie Coco, anotoriously quick-triggered hoodlum now serving a life term for the wantonmurder of a Florida car washer. Coco, he said, dropped one chill hint: "Ifyou're going to be the manager I want you to know that this [Ippolito] is mynephew."
Helfand willcontinue his inquiry this week, he said, and also will soon take up the matterof Bill Daly's suspension, but as a separate entity.
THE DODGERS'DOME
A strangealliance has brought together Walter O'Malley, president of the BrooklynDodgers, a score of graduate students at Princeton's School of Architecture andR. Buckminster Fuller, a man who has purged himself of all worldly ambitionssave one: to remake the face of the earth. This project has lately beenexpanded to include a new ball park for the Dodgers.
Mr. Fuller, awhite-haired, crew-cut man of 60, built along the lines of a jar of yogurt,says that Mr. O'Malley is solely responsible for bringing the Dodgers into thepicture. Having followed Mr. Fuller's distinguished career as a designer ofigloolike geodesic structures, Mr. O'Malley one day leaned back in his chairand dictated a two-page, single-spaced letter in which he proposed that Mr.Fuller give thought to a domed stadium for Brooklyn. Mr. Fuller was alreadyconditioned to the idea of taking his theories into the field of baseball.Previously he had been approached by an owner of the Denver, Colo, ball cluband had given him some ideas about the kind of ball park Mr. O'Malley had inmind. "The Denver guy," said Mr. Fuller in a scientific tone, "didnot have that kind of dough to spend." Later, Mr. Fuller was consulted byplanners of a stadium for Minneapolis. For the latter, Mr. Fuller pulled outall stops on his imagination, and the Minneapolis crowd, at last report, wasstill reeling.
At the time ofMr. O'Malley's proposal, Mr. Fuller was preparing to deliver his annuallectures at Princeton's School of Architecture. He invited the 20-odd graduatestudents to assist him in constructing a model of the stadium (it could containa 30 story building) he envisioned for Brooklyn. The Princeton scholars weredelighted with the idea and pitched into the building of the model with zest.Two of them went a step further: they chose the Dodgers' Dome and its relatedproblems (traffic, parking, etc.) for their theses.
Over a luncheontable the other day, Mr. Fuller was called upon to explain what a domed,all-weather stadium would do to the old-fashioned concept of baseball—peanutsand cracker jack, fresh air and sunshine and that sort of thing.
Mr. Fullerpromptly took a sugar bowl, emptied it and turned it upside down and then,likening the action of air currents to a doughnut, explained that the domedstadium would be self-ventilating, cooler on hot days, warmer on cold days, thesunshine better than ever through the translucent plastic skin of the dome. Thegrass would grow greener and nature would be improved upon in every way. TheDodgers, he admitted, would be on their own.
The Princetonmodel has been completed. When Mr. O'Malley returns from a vacation and Mr.Fuller completes a lecture tour, they will put their domes—that is to say,heads—together and decide on the next step.
MORE VIOLATEHUSKINGS
Herewith, forreaders who started Professor Howard Chace's frammis-style fable of thefarmer's daughter last week, is what Chace calls Pot II—Moan-late anRoaches:
Violate worsejest wile aboard Hairy, hoe worse jester pore form bore firming adjourningform. Sum pimple set debt Hairy Parkings dint half gut since, butter hatter gutdispossession an hay worse medley an luff wet Violate. Infect, Hairy wanderedtoe merrier, butter worse toe skirt toe aster.
Wan gnat Hairyan Violate war setting honor Huskings' beck perch inner moan-late, holinghens.
"OHairy," crate Violate, "jest locket debt putty moan! Arsenaterheumatic?"
"Yap,"inserted Hairy, lurking adder moan.
"OHairy," contingent Violate, "jest snuff doze flagrant orders combingfirmer putty rat roaches inner floor guarding! Conjure small doze orders,Hairy? Conjure small debt delesseriaceous flagrancy?"
"Yap,"set Hairy, snuffing lacquer haunting dug haunting fur rapids.
"Lessen,Hairy," whiskered Violate, "arm...arm oil-moist shore yore gut sum singtoe asthma. Denture half sum sing impertinent toe asthma, Hairy?Denture?"
Pore Hairy,skirt oil-moist artifice wets, stuttered toe trample, butter poled ham-shelftoe-gadder an gargled:
"Ark...yap,Violate...are gas...are gas are got sumsing.... O shocks, Violate!"
"Gore earn,Hairy, gore earn!" encysted Violate, gadding impassioned. "Dun bay soreinhabited! Nor, den, watcher garner asthma?"
"Wail,Violate, arm jester pore form bore, an dun half mush moaning..."
"Hoe carsaboard moaning, Hairy? Pimple dun heifer bay retch toe gat merit, bought dayorder lack itch udder. Merit cobbles hoe lack itch udder gadder lung mushbatter den udder cobbles hoe dun lack itch udder. Merit pimple order baycongenital, an arm shore, Hairy, debt wail bay furry congenital an contended,an, fur debt raisin, way dun heifer half mush moaning."
Furry lung, lungterm disk harpy cobble set honor beck perch inner moan-late, holing hens ansnuffing flagrant orders firmer floors inner floor guarding. Finely Violateset:
"Boughtlessen, Hairy—inner moaning yore gutter asthma fodder."
Radar, conjuregas wart hopping? Hairy aster fodder, hoe exploited wet anchor an setter larderfurry bat warts. Infect, haze languish worse jest hobble. Yonder nor sorghumstenches wad disk stenchy oiled mouser lettuce dodder asepsis pore bore furryhorsebarn. Hairy, shagging wetter motion, toll Violate water fodder hatset.
"Dun baydisgorged," set Violate. "Wail jest waiter wile. Pimple hoe wander gatmerit gutter half passions."
(Necks weak: PotIII)
SUCCESS IN DUCKSHOOTING
This is theway,
So I have heard—
Toss lasso on neck,
Then lead the bird
—BARNEY HUTCHISON
CURRENT WEEK & WHAT'S AHEAD
Jack Kramer, disappointed but philosophical over hisfailure to sign Australia's Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall to $50,000 pro tenniscontracts, went about the business of deciding who would play opposite TonyTrabert on this year's world tour. The top candidates for the three vacantspots: Pancho Gonzales, Pancho Segura, Jack ("I may lack color but I canstill hit that ball") Kramer.
Doris Hart, who wasn't offered anything like $50,000,ended her amateur career which included two U.S. singles championships and atriple victory at Wimbledon in 1951, turned pro to teach at Miami Beach'sFlamingo Hotel.
Bert Bell, National Football League commissioner,denied again he was worried over Canadian player raids but took a big step toprotect the league's interest in this year's crop of college stars just thesame: for the first time in history the NFL player draft will be held inNovember.
Branch Rickey, 73 and unsuccessful at the end of hisfive-year plan to build the Pittsburgh Pirates into a winner, stepped down asgeneral manager but refused to admit defeat. "I am going to quit punching aclock," he said, "but by no means am I retiring. I'll continue to workfor the Pirates until they win a pennant—and that's coming sooner than a lotthink."
Career Boy, with a victory in the Garden State Trial,and Needles, who ripped off a sizzling workout the same day, moved up asfavorites for Saturday's $300,000 Garden State Stakes. Other strong contendersin the race expected to unscramble the 2-year-old picture: Comedian LouCostello's Bold Bazooka, which ran well but tired to finish fourth in thetrial, and Nail, winner of the Belmont Futurity.
TWO ILLUSTRATIONS
ILLUSTRATION
"I want that splinter, Doc—it's part of the Georgia Tech goal post."