19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

UNDERSTANDING
Sirs:
The Last Race of Count Crash (Sept. 18) is a great article. From the shock of the lead sentence to the closing, almost pathetic quote from Phil Hill, this is real understanding of the sport.
RICHARD L. KNUDSON
Mechanic Falls, Me.

GOOD SCOUTS
Sirs:
Your editorial gang did a superb job on the Football Issue (Sept. 18). Mervin Hyman's lead story, Brains, Agility and a Big Game, in particular, was one helluva good piece of writing.
DANNY HILL
New York City

Sirs:
Missouri did not win 11 games. They lost one to their oldest rivals, the Kansas Jayhawkers.
J. M. KAVANAUGH
Evanston, Ill.

•After beating Missouri on the field, Kansas was later forced to forfeit the victory when Halfback Bert Coan was declared ineligible.—ED.

Sirs:
In the scouting reports you say, "Without Coan the Jayhawkers lack true breakaway speed," with not a word about Halfback Curt McClinton.

Then in FOOTBALL'S WEEK you find McClinton "running as if he thinks he's Red Grange." Glad you looked again.
HAL EVANS
Larned, Kans.

Sirs:
You stated that Louisiana State University tied Mississippi with two field goals last season. If you will take the trouble to check you will see that LSU scored a touchdown and that it was Ole Miss who struggled back in the last few minutes of the game to tie it up with a field goal.
JOHN N. VINET
New Orleans

AND SMALL BEEFS
Sirs:
Thanks very much for explaining what a "small college" is. We are proud here in Ohio that Heidelberg and Muskingum were good enough in 1960 to be included in the 23 small colleges mentioned among 624 such schools extant.
MILES O. KING
Ashland, Ohio

Sirs:
You omitted Humboldt State College (Areata, Calif.) which last year had an unbeaten and untied record.
RAY FLYNN
Eureka, Calif.

Sirs:
Northern Michigan College defeated Hillsdale (rated) 29-6 and fought Lenoir-Rhyne (also rated) to a 20-20 tie in the NAIA playoff only to lose by yardage. Had you scouted Northern this year you would have found an even stronger team.
NORTHERN MICHIGAN A.C.
Marquette, Mich.

BACK TO FRANCOIS
Sirs:
Awk! Here we go again, but this time it's football (A Frenchman's View, Sept. 18). Back to France with you, André Fran√ßois!
JOHN R. WOOLSEY
Mount Vernon, Ill.

Sirs:
I was horrified.
BETTY MCLAUGHLIN
Los Angeles

Sirs:
I don't know much about art, but I know what I like—and I like André.

The paintings are wow.
KARL DRAGER
Worthington, Mass.

Sirs:
May I ask why you persist in lousing up a perfectly good sports magazine with those juvenile paint smears. My 5-year-old can do every bit as well.
ART MORAN
Cincinnati

•For 46-year-old Fran√ßois' reply to rival 5-year-old, see right.—ED.

THE BEST?
Sirs:
Even if you don't dare to name the eleven best elevens this year, I do.

The best: Penn State (10-0), Alabama (9-1), Texas (9-1), Kansas (9-1), UCLA (9-1), Louisiana State (9-1), Michigan (8-1), Syracuse (8-2), Iowa (8-1), Ohio State (8-1), and, yes, good old Notre Dame (8-2).
BARRY E. MILLER
State College, Pa.

TRACK WET
Sirs:
Concerning "A Dip in the Odds" (SCORECARD, Sept. 18), thank Nautigal and not Puss n Boots for the thousand and second way to lose a horse race. Racing as a 3-year-old filly in 1956 at Atlantic City, Nautigal held a two-length lead coming into the stretch. Suddenly she veered, plunged into the lake and drowned.
RUSS KERCHIS
Farmington, Conn.

BEST DESCRIPTION
Sirs:
After watching the U.S. amateurs play, I thought your article Aussies and Girls Are Best (Sept. 18) described them perfectly.
JIM WIEDER
Elkins Park, Pa.

DISORGANIZATION MAN
Sirs:
Apparently it is quite all right with you if Charles O. Finley owns the Kansas City Athletics as long as he doesn't act like he owns them. Your disparagement of Finley in your item "The Big O" (SCORECARD, Sept 4) for personally reacting to the attack made on him in The Kansas City Star by Sports Editor Ernest Mehl is a typical reaction of the corporation mentality that afflicts so many today. This type of thinking distrusts the individual owner of a business who takes a direct and active part in his business. In this day of corporation encroachment it is refreshing to have watched Charles O. Finley rise from poor factory worker to millionaire through individual initiative, imagination and hard work—an American success story that could only happen in America but which too few Americans appreciate.

For you to say that Finley has no respect for the sport is ridiculous. It is saying that he has no respect for the sweat and sacrifice that he poured into the making of the $5 million that he paid for the Athletics.
BURNETT C. BAUER
South Bend, Ind.

Sirs:
Earlier you published a long article calling Mr. Finley a "baseball revolutionary" (Charlie Finley and Bugs Bunny in K.C., June 5). Now you call him a zero.
JEFF JORDAN
Murfreesboro, Tenn.

NEW ERA
Sirs:
Herman Weiskopf's consideration of the importance of relief pitchers (BASEBALL'S WEEK, Sept. 11) notes that leaders in earned run average were Brosnan, Miller, Arroyo and Lown, all relievers. I have some observations on the significance of the ERA as the measure of effectiveness for pitchers who relieve in mid-inning.

With one or more out at the time he enters the inning, a reliever needs only to retire the remaining one or two men in order to "get out of the inning," and is therefore charged with a minimum of earned runs. A starter does not have this advantage. For example, let us say that Whitey Ford begins an inning and allows three runners to reach base (no errors) while he retires two men. Arroyo then relieves, allows three more batters to reach base before he gets the third out. Ford's ERA for his performance in this inning is 40.50, while Arroyo's, even though he has been less effective, is 0.00 if he leaves the bases loaded.

It may be argued, of course, that a relief pitcher may help the starter's ERA by leaving the original runners stranded. This is true, but the relief pitcher himself has the opportunity to be rescued from this sort of jam by a second reliever.

A statistic which corrects this inequality is a type of inverse batting average that compares the number of outs a pitcher gets, or should have got without errors, per number of batters he faces. I have arrived at a rough average by multiplying innings pitched by three to determine outs, then adding hits and walks to determine, roughly, the number of batters faced. Included are pitchers with 10 or more decisions including games of September 8 as listed by The New York Times, September 10:

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By contrast, ERAs at the same date were:

JOE COLPOYS
Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.

SOLID SELL
Sirs:
Gwilym S. Brown's article on Golfer-Insurance Salesman Deane Beman sadly states, "As long as his golf is good, other golfers will buy from him" ("It Solid Has to Click," Sept. 11). Such a situation further substantiates the fact that society operates in a mental vacuum and is truly on the intellectual level of a 12-year-old, as claimed by eminent sociologists.
FRANK B. CHRISTOPHER
Falls Church, Va.

SCAT BUN
Sirs:
Your feature on Jimmy Conzelman (How to Take a Biscuit Apart, Sept. 18) is one of the most heartwarming in years.

Jimmy is quoted as saying, "As far as I know, I have never heard anybody else sing the song, or even express a desire to do so."

Many southern Californians will fondly remember an agile Negro entertainer billed as "The Scat Man," who used to sing the same song on a weekly TV show emanating from Los Angeles in the early '50s. However, Scat Man sang it in a more rhythmic style: "I'm the only man alive can break a bun in half. And put it back together like it was."
JAMES T. PAUL
Sacramento

ILLUSTRATION

¬© ANDRÉ FRAN√áOIS