19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
GLORIOUS FOURTH
Sirs:
Three cheers, a loud hurray and nine Roman candles for Dolly Connelly's An Old-fashioned Fourth (July 3)!
If Dolly got "drunk" just writing and thinking about the homemade vanilla ice cream, I had a real orgy just reading about past Americana.
Mrs. CHARLES WOOD
Atlanta
BALK
Sirs:
It seems to me that Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers is pitching illegally (The Young Pitchers Take Command, June 26). In the picture his left foot has left the rubber, but his hand has not yet released the ball. It was my impression that a pitcher must release the ball before his foot leaves the pitcher's rubber.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
ARTHUR WILSON JR.
Columbus, Ohio
Sirs:
No umpire who is worth his salt, which I consider myself to be, could possibly miss it.
We find Sandy Koufax in the act of firing toward home plate, with the ball still clutched in his hand and his foot off the rubber.
Tell him to watch it. All umpires aren't asleep.
CHARLES (RED) HOFFMAN
Lynn, Mass.
•Not even those who are awake, like Shag Crawford, who was watching the plate that day, can hope to be always as quick as a camera's lens.—ED.
IN THE ROUGH
Sirs:
Your suggestion that the International Golf Sponsors' Association take a little money out of the fists of American tournament sponsors and allow some of the top stars to compete abroad (SCORECARD, June 26) was not only badly slanted but obviously badly researched.
You apparently are not aware even of the fact that top stars do compete in established international tournaments without running afoul of rules of the IGSA or the Professional Golfers' Association.
The only thing the sponsors—or the PGA—opposed was the setting up of special tournaments by individuals who designate them as blue ribbon events and expect everyone else to cancel anything they have scheduled to make them a success.
DIMITRY MORVANT
New Orleans
Sirs:
Your writer fails to mention that the tournament players are well aware of the contracts between the PGA and the sponsors. Without this contract, which provides some assurance of a good field to the sponsors in their various tournaments across the country, there would be no $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 and $50.000 tournaments. These are the tournaments that helped Arnold Palmer and the better players develop their games and keep their names in the sports pages.
Most tournament sponsors are civic groups who put in thousands of hours toward making their tournament a success, none receiving any remuneration.
It is true that some tournaments show a profit. This profit goes to charity, to promote golf and other civic enterprises, and not into the sponsors' pockets.
HENRY THOMAS
President, IGSA
New Orleans
•SPORTS ILLUSTRATED sliced badly, ended in an unplayable lie in the rough.—ED.
NOT WORST
Sirs:
The 7½-length defeat of the Yale crew by Harvard this year was not "the worst ever suffered by either crew in the 109-year history of the race" (California Does it Again, June 26).
Harvard beat Yale by 11 lengths in 1891.
HENRY W. KEYES
North Haverhill, N.H.
Sirs:
The greatest margin since the start of the four-mile series was in 1879 when Harvard was the winner by one minute 43 seconds.
BOYD P. BROWN JR.
Assistant Manager, Yale Crew
New Haven, Conn.
COURTESY
Sirs:
Negroes are now enrolled in every college of the University of Virginia, including the College of Arts and Sciences. These students are accorded the same privileges on the grounds as any other student. They have rooms in the dorms, eat at the cafeteria and even play tennis (SCORECARD, July 3).
Of course, they can neither eat in a restaurant, stay in a hotel nor attend a movie with their fellow students in Charlottesville. When the town extends such "courtesy" to Negro university students, can more be expected toward Negro tennis players who are visiting Charlottesville from the "outside"?
ROBERT L. HIRTTE JR.
Charlottesville, Va.
HOT CORNER
Sirs:
If Leo Durocher is right ("nice guys finish last"), then the Pirates will win in 1961. How can they miss with a blaspheming, brawling third sacker (Gung-ho Marine at the Hot Corner, July 3)? Any more articles with language like that, and I'll have to censor SPORTS ILLUSTRATED before leaving it around for my family.
FRANK A. LAWRENCE
Indiana, Pa.
Sirs:
A fine story about a fine ballplayer.
BRUCE A. BENNETT
Kearny, N.J.
Sirs:
What's going on in that magazine of yours? Last year you guys wrote an article about Dick Groat. You told us that he was the leader of the Pirates. Now you say Don Hoak is the leader of the club. Who's who on that team, anyway?
DAVID WILLETT
Bayside, Va.
•Hoak's on third.—ED.
TWIN HEADS
Sirs:
Why did Manager Cookie Lavagetto's head roll in Minnesota? In SCORECARD (July 3) you state that Twin Owner Calvin Griffith, in lieu of supplying his team with better ballplayers, fires his managers.
Then in the same SCORECARD column Twin Scout Joe Cambria is quoted as saying he refuses to join the bonus race and offers the boys "opportunity, nothing more."
If all the Twin scouts feel the same way, heads will be rolling in Minnesota for years to come.
TED ALLEN
Kilgore, Texas
FAINT PRAISE
Sirs:
After your article Biggest Man on Campus (July 3) I have begun to wonder about the bias of your writers. It hardly seems plausible to me that you can devote almost two columns to discussing the ineptness of the "well-coached" Houston golfers who managed to finish in a tie for 11th place—and then damn with faint praise Purdue's fine team victory in this NCAA event. It seems to me that the very least you could have done would have been to put in a line or two about the Purdue players and their respective scores.
JAMES R. GIBSON
Milwaukee
PHOTO
CAMERA CATCHES SANDY'S BALKY PITCH
