19th HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

BRIDGE: DEAL THE CARDS, AND FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!
Sirs:
Your statesmanlike decision to include the fascinating game of bridge among the indoor sports and carry it regularly merits our most enthusiastic plaudits.

Furthermore, your choice of Charles Goren as Athletic Director and Head Coach shows an unsurpassed sagacity. We shall now look forward even more assiduously to the arrival of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED each week.
(REV.) EDMUND P. JOYCE, C.S.C.
Executive Vice President
University of Notre Dame
South Bend, Ind.

BRIDGE: EN FAMILLE
Sirs:
This letter is written to express my delight and pleasure at the addition of Mr. Charles Goren to your writing staff. My 14-year-old son is a recent new subscriber to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and he and his father frequently discuss articles therein. Now, with the articles on bridge, it truly is a family magazine and very much in demand by the three of us—as well as by neighbors and friends who want the latest bridge news by Charles Goren.

Congratulations also on the beauty of your magazine and the over-all coverage of news and articles in varied fields of sports.
MRS. JAMES W. SOUTHERLAND
Signal Mountain, Tenn.

BRIDGE: THE WORD
Sirs:
Now you come out with bridge and Mr. Goren and now our wives take the magazine to their bridge club and display it as if it were a tablet that had the 10 commandments written on it.

Gentlemen, we surrender. You are fabulous!
HERB FINK
PHIL MCCOWEN
Sarasota, Fla.

BRIDGE: BONNIE AND CHARLES
Sirs:
Your magazine is wonderful! Love the Bonnie Prudden exercises and am now fascinated with Goren on bridge! It has everything.
MRS. J.D. STETSON COLEMAN
The Plains, Va.

BRIDGE: TESTING, TESTING
Sirs:
Your bridge test (SI, Oct. 14) was most interesting. Despite a bad bid on problem 6, I rated 53 points. However, I scored 0 for a three-diamond bid on problem 8. My bid seems reasonable after the overcall. It shows a strong diamond suit and may induce partner to contract for six diamonds or six no trump. Please give me your rating for this bid.
W.E. CURRENT
Chatham, N.J.

•Zero is about right. Partner should have about 17 points, you have nine, which makes 26 points, or not quite enough to make game in diamonds. If you seduced partner into bidding a slam you could count on losing about 500 points.—ED.

Sirs:
One specific question about hand 3: What, if any, is the theoretical basis for Mr. Goren's rule of adding one point in evaluation of a hand containing all the aces? I realize there may be no such explanation and the rule may be based only on Mr. Goren's statistics or may be a correction for necessary crudities in evaluation.
JAMES L. FORD
Owensboro, Ky.

•Because any king in partner's hand becomes a surefire trick.—ED.

Sirs:
You tossed your admirers a foul ball on problem 8. You give no credit for a bid of three no trump, yet in the explanation say, "Even a bid of three no trump might be acceptable in view of the texture of the five-card suit." And yet you ignore this bid in the scores! My favorite hand in this group was hand 9 on which I got a complete zero. I thought it the only difficult hand, but Mr. Goren's choice is so simple and so very right.
MIMI LAWRENCE
Pittsburgh

•Miss Lawrence may give herself an additional three points.—ED.

SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR: NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN (CONT.)
Sirs:
I would like to nominate Sam Hanks as Sportsman of the Year for 1957. His colorful career includes everything from midgets to stocks and championship racing, and dates back to 1935 when he began winning a reputation in the midgets. Hanks has been National Midget Champion, National Big Car Champion, winner of the 1957 Indianapolis 500-mile race, and at present is in a position to win the 1957 stock car championship.

Sam was born in Columbus, Ohio on July 14, 1914. He stands a bit over 6 feet and weighs 160 pounds. He and his wife Alice now make their home in Pacific Palisades, California. He is a shrewd businessman as well as a smooth, hard driver. His smooth manner behind a wheel, and his ability to stay out of trouble have placed him in demand as a test driver for various automotive and accessory firms.

Sam chased the 500-mile rainbow for 12 years before finally catching up with the pot of gold. It seems fitting that in his twilight years of racing, after having won everything else in auto racing, Sam should close his career with the big one. All the years of experience, heartbreak and disappointment paid off in one brilliant ride in which Sam set a record average of 135-plus mph.
LEWIS E. WALBERG
Haverhill, Mass.

Sirs:
I'll bet
you're set
on Lew
Burdette,
nyet?
KEVIN T. MCNALLY
Albertson, N.Y.

SIRS:
SPIT BALL OR NO SPIT BALL YOU MUST CONSIDER BURDETTE AS SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR.
L. HERMAN
RCAF
Portage la Prairie, Man.

Sirs:
After being in a close race for the batting title all year, he separated the men from the boys during September with a tremendous finish: Ted Williams.
JOHN R. OWEN
St. Paul

•See Memo from the Publisher for seconding motion—ED.

Sirs:
Because of his team spirit, his fine record and being able to take hard knocks as well as give them out, plus the fact that he is an inspiration to the youth of America, I wish to nominate Mickey Mantle.
SUE GIBB
Wethersfield, Conn.

Sirs:
Since nominations are now open for Sportsman of the Year, or maybe it will be a woman, there shouldn't be any doubt in your minds about the qualifications of my nomination.

While he is the winningest football coach of recent years, this nomination is not being made with that entirely in mind.

Mr. Evashevski to the contrary, this man makes a better person of most people who come in contact with him, including his players. Understandably, Oklahoma would give him the world, but not for his yearly accomplishments alone. Basically, his soundness of ethics, humility and common ordinary decency would go well in any field.

And so, for not doing anything more outstanding this year than he has done any other year, Bud Wilkinson should be your Sportsman of the Year. This is being written, incidentally, by one who is not an Oklahoman.
G.S. GRAHAM
Toledo

Sirs:
I would like to nominate Stan Musial as the Sportsman of the Year 1957. Not only has this been another great year for the greatest baseball player of this decade, but it is generally known that Stan is one of the nicest men in the game. Because of his humility, unpretentiousness, sportsmanlike qualities both on and off the playing field and, of course, his incomparable all-round playing ability and devotion to baseball, Stan Musial gets my vote as SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's Sportsman of the Year 1957.
HAYES MIZELL
Anderson, S.C.

PRO FOOTBALL: MARK MY WORDS
Sirs:
I was shocked and amazed to see the brilliant predictions of Tex Maule (Run for the Money, Oct. 7). Anybody that picks the Los Angeles Rams for first place and the Baltimore Colts for last place cannot know too much about pro football. I agree the Rams may have improved, but certainly the Colts couldn't have gone backward enough to be picked for last place. They have, probably, the most underrated quarterback in football today in Johnny Unitas. I don't say that he is the best all-round quarterback, but you can't find a better passer in the league. The Colts have defeated both the Lions and the Bears and held them to a total of 50 yards rushing, while Unitas has thrown six touchdown passes. Mark my words, on Dec. 29, 1957 you will be witnessing the Colts and either the Giants or the Browns playing for the championship in Baltimore.
MICHAEL PINTZUK
Richmond

Sirs:
Being a pro football fan, I thought that your pro football scouting reports (SI, Oct. 7) were the best articles on sport I have ever read.

But I don't agree with Tex Maule's predictions at all. The Lions are bound to make a real fight of it. I also think that since the Steelers got Parker they're bound to be up there too. He is the greatest pro coach ever.
HENRY E. NEWMAN
Detroit

BRIDGE: 50 MILLION CAN'T BE WRONG
Sirs:
Congratulations on the splendid articles by our leading Life Master, Charlie Goren. Long may he write about our tournaments in your magazine.

Incidentally, we hope the nation's sports editors have read what he had to say about bridge belonging on the sport page. With 50 million players, bridge is surely the nation's leading participator sport.
ALFRED SHEINWOLD
New York City

FIELD HOCKEY: ONE FOR THE GIRLS
Sirs:
It was wonderful to see such a fine spread on girls' field hockey (SI, Oct. 7). It was perfect in every way, showing one of the best school girl teams from the area where hockey took its foothold in the United States. We were very pleased to see recognition given to a sport enjoyed by thousands of girls all over this country every fall.
BETTY SHELLENBERGER
United States Field
Hockey Association
Philadelphia

X-RAY: FINAL BOW
Sirs:
I would like to congratulate SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and its staff in putting out the superb and up-to-date BASEBALL X-RAY throughout the season. It was indeed a pleasure to read the leading batters, pitchers and teams of the week and also the season.
ROBERT ELKIN
Long Beach, N.Y.