- Publish date:
19th HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
ARCARO: DISTINCTION
Sirs:
I salute you on your series The Art of Race Riding (SI, June 17 et seq.).
Your superb treatment of this little-known subject distinguishes the race rider from the rest of the athletic world in intelligence and sensitivity.
Congratulations also to Robert Riger for his splendid, most informative drawings.
EDWARD SWEENY
Los Angeles
BASEBALL: FAIR REPRESENTATION
Sirs:
Congratulations to Representative Kenneth Keating for presenting such a clear and comprehensive analysis of the problems facing professional sports and for introducing a sound approach to solving these problems (A Square Deal for Sports, SI, June 17).
I certainly hope SPORTS ILLUSTRATED will give the Congressman an opportunity to sum things up for its readers when the hearings are finally completed.
CLIFFTON E. BLOOM
Tucson, Ariz.
BASEBALL: TEAM PLAY
Sirs:
Photographer John Zimmerman and Writer Robert Creamer did a superb job of analyzing the technique of hitting in Skills of the Hitter (SI, June 17). To me this represented the finest melding of action pictures and interpretative text you have had on baseball. I had been waiting for something like this for a long time.
ROBERT G. H. TRENTER
Indianapolis
BASEBALL: EYE OPENER
Sirs:
Les Woodcock's article Phenomenal Philadelphia (SI, June 24) crystallized for me the reason that SPORTS ILLUSTRATED has continued to be the most absorbing magazine I read. I had the Phillies tabbed for seventh place, and Les's fine story explained why I am in Bobby Bragan's class when it comes to prognostication.
JACK SCHULZE
Atlanta
BASEBALL: SAY IT WITH SIGNALS
Sirs:
In reply to G. B. Hayes of Los Angeles who wants his baseball speeded up:
Just where is G. B. H. rushing to from his TV set? During the winter I'm a Boston Bruins hockey fan—which certainly is a whiz sport—but, comes the good old summertime, take me out to the ball game, and I mean out to the ball park in person, not slumped in a chair in a darkened room with a hot TV set, and I mean for batting practice, too. The world, people, things, etc., are rushing all the time, but why in heaven's name put baseball in the same squirrel cage? I'm crowded right now.
P.A. MACPHERSON
Cambridge, Mass.
•Mr. Macpherson's signal, cut out from Yachting Heraldry (SI, July 1), spells "You should go ahead easy."—ED.
ROWING: NAUSEA AT CONROE, TEXAS
Sirs:
Who is Christopher Fisher?
What connection has he with the world of sport on which you allegedly are commissioned to comment? And yet there he is on page 18 of your June 24 issue (SPECTACLE: "Henley Forever"), in hearty, glowing color, elegantly clad "in pink blazer and cap of Westminster School," bent forward in that weird, uncomfortable seated position which most snobs consider fashionable, his dainty paw extended at just the correct angle to grab his cup of tea, his noble brow contorted into that haughty grandeur for which his breed is noted, pink tie flapping demurely in the breeze, conservative black shoes shined, but not over-shined, to just the right lustre, his free arm hanging forlornly but properly at his side.
Nauseating.
BRADFORD GUTHRIE
Conroe, Texas
•Christopher Fisher is a 17-year-old English schoolboy (Westminster School) who this fall hopes to go to college (Cambridge) but who right now is hitchhiking and working his way through Spain.—ED.
BOXING: CONROE'S PARFIT KNIGHT
Sirs:
Let me say thanks for the way you handled the reporting of Roy Harris' victory over Willie Pastrano (E&D, June 24). All the out-of-state reporters have pictured Roy as a hick L'il Abner with all brawn and no brains who has never left the sticks, when actually he is as smart as a whip, a second lieutenant in the Army, an excellent schoolteacher who doesn't smoke, drink, curse or run around but does feel humble, compassionate and religious.
KENNETH WALKER
Conroe, Texas
GOLF: MEETING AT THE SUMMIT
Sirs:
The articles by Messrs. Hogan and Wind on the U.S. Open (SI, June 24) achieved the rare feat of being in perfect symmetry with each other.
Hogan's article was excellent, telling us what was needed to win the Open and who had the best ability to do so. Then, for the climax, Mr. Wind gave a beautiful description of the actual playing. Congratulations on attaining this glorious height again.
SHERIDAN BELL
Harrisburg, Pa.
FITNESS: PROGRESS IN EDINBURG:
Sirs:
Mr. Harold De Groat's physical fitness program at Newtown (SI, May 27) is certainly an interesting one.
I am happy to report that all schools at Edinburg, Texas make an effort to have a well-rounded program of physical education, grades one through 12.
Three years ago when 5,000 pupils in the Edinburg schools were given the Kraus-Weber tests, about 20% of the pupils failed. This year out of 150 boys tested in the high school physical education classes there were no failures.
THOMAS ESPARZA
Edinburg, Texas
FITNESS: NO BOASTING, PLEASE
Sirs:
I should like to impress upon your readers the fact that the Kraus-Weber test is for minimum muscular fitness.
It would be more discreet not to boast unless one can say one has no Kraus-Weber failure and excellent scores on physical fitness tests for optimum fitness.
So little effort is necessary to bring students up to minimum fitness that the layman would be startled to see the poor specimens of humanity who are able to pass Kraus-Weber after a few weeks of adequate physical education classes.
In an extensive research of Kraus-Weber failures I am doing, I find the most important factors influencing results are teacher and program, not facilities and time allotment, although these are, naturally, extremely important.
Mrs. E. CLARK SHAFFER
Johnstown, Pa.
FOOTLOOSE: SHORT HISTORY OF CANADA
Sirs:
In The Footloose Sportsman in Toronto (SI, June 10) Horace Sutton has contrived to add one more proof to the Canadian contention that statesiders are abysmally ignorant of Canadian history: "Still abuilding is the Hotel Lord Simcoe, named—there should be no hard feelings—for the head of the British expeditionary forces in the War of 1812." No doubt General John Graves Simcoe, born in 1752, quite dead by 1806, managed to come back for another go at the States in the spirit, if not in the flesh. One can see how surrendering at Yorktown with General Lord Charles Cornwallis, first Marquess of Cornwallis, could prey on any man's amour-propre, making him fitful in his grave.
One thing should be conceded to Mr. Sutton, however. By writing an "American" error concerning Simcoe cheek by jowl with a Toronto one, i.e., "Lord" Simcoe Hotel (General Simcoe might well have made the peerage had he only lived long enough to fulfill his appointment as commander-in-chief in India), Mr. Sutton has unwittingly made a fine contribution to border solidarity. He has proved that Canada is beginning to share with us in fuzziness about Maple Leaf history.
CAROLYN ROSS BABSON
Batavia, Ill.
•Mrs. Babson is right on all counts. "Lord" Simcoe's peerage was conferred on him by the hotel's management, presumably in recognition of his future services to tourism.—ED.
TWO ILLUSTRATIONS
