The Question: Which do you like better—football or baseball? (Asked of women)

MRS. PETER LAWFORD
Santa Monica, Calif.
Football. Because I know more about the game. My brothers—Joe, Teddy, Robert and Senator John Kennedy all played some football with Harvard, good reasons why Harvard didn't win many games. But watching them play and listening to their postmortems made me a rabid football fan.

MRS. DAN TOPPING
Southampton, N.Y.
Baseball. My husband is co-owner of the N.Y. Yankees. Since I live baseball, you'd think I'd get fed up with the game. But I never do. When interest lets down a bit, a crucial game comes along that may decide the pennant or the World Series, and I get the fever all over again.

BARONESS HELENE DE GRANDCOURT
Princeton and Palm Beach
Football. The college football season is the most wonderful time of the year. The spirit of sportsmanship shows Americans at their best. There is no sports spectacle that has the tradition, color and appeal of a Harvard-Yale, Army-Notre Dame, Yale-Princeton or Rose Bowl game.

MRS. MAHLON EDMONSON
Cedarhurst, N.Y.
Baseball. I've grown up and lost the rah-rah spirit. Baseball, with all its rhubarbs, is much more interesting. The day after Don Newcombe punched a man in the stomach during the Series, the fans began yelling: "Look out, Newk; that guy and his friends are waiting for you in the parking lot."

FRAN CARLON
Chicago and New York
Baseball. It's easier for me to understand. And I don't have to wear any woollies at a game. Furthermore, being a mother, football worries me. I know about the permanent injuries that players get. I'm not bringing up my boy to be a slaphappy football player minus his front teeth.

MRS. GRANT M. MacNEUR
San Francisco
Football. I learned the game from my pop. He played pro football, first with Red Grange and later with the Chicago Bears. Every minute of football is exciting, while most of a baseball game is boring. The only thing I know about baseball is that the Yankees always win the pennant.

DENISE DARCEL
Paris, France
Football. Those players with the big shoulders—la-la! The crowds are gay and the women are beautiful. In Paris, the American Army Engineers asked me what was a touchdown. "The touchdown was when the man hit the ball over the fence," I said. So they made me their football mascot.

NAN GARCIA
White Plains, N.Y.
Football. You don't have to know a lot of rules to enjoy the game. One look and you know what the players are trying to do—maim each other over a little football. My father, Antonio, violently disagrees with me. He loves baseball and knows every record back to 1902.

ELSIE MARSHALL
London, England
Baseball bores me stiff, and the only thing I like about your football is the hot dogs. Cricket is much better than either. You sit in a deck easy chair with pleasant surroundings, have your cup of tea and close your eyes in slumber. An hour later, when you wake, the contest is still raging.

MAJA DORÉE
Berlin, Germany
I first saw football and baseball in Germany. I like football much more. Your service teams have a league for the football championship of Europe. There is as much excitement and pageantry as there is in the Army-Navy game. To me, baseball is full of inaction and dull by comparison.

MRS. DONALD L. BAIRD
Philadelphia
Baseball. I'd much rather see a World Series game than a college or professional football game. I understand the spectacular plays in baseball, while most of football is Greek to me. If Penn ever gets another good team, football may become more interesting, because I do like the college crowd.

NANCY EBERLE
West Palm Beach
Football. I graduated from the University of North Carolina. My school days were wonderful, and football was a big part of social life. I love the game even though I know very little about the rules. Baseball? There's too much soda pop and hot dogs and too little excitement.

COUNTESS ELSA FILIPPONI
Southampton and New York
Football. It has everything—color, happy crowds, enthusiasm, excitement and the best in sportsmanship. In baseball, Larsen's perfect game was exciting to baseball fans, but it was dull for me. No action. Just a man throwing the ball to the catcher and the other players watching.

FOURTEEN PHOTOS

NEXT WEEK: Should team scores be kept in the Olympics?
(Asked of big shots)