19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
DEATH SENTENCE
Sirs:
The line you guys employ never ceases to amaze me. You spin that moralizing nonsense about the beauty and truth of boxing (SCORECARD, Oct. 28), then you turn right around and itemize the terrible incidents leading up to the death of Ernie Knox.
Maybe, as you say, politicians and editorialists know nothing about boxing, but, God save the mark, they probably do know what it means when a man is provoked and inflamed by a leering mob of sadists into beating another man to death. Your headline, This Death Might Kill Boxing, is the one encouraging aspect of your coverage of the death of Fighter Ernie Knox, and I, for one, hope prizefighting and your untenable position that boxing is "good sport"' go down together.
BEN ANDERS
Norwalk, Conn.
Sirs:
Bringing the Government into boxing would not solve a thing. You advocate this, saying that unless boxing is given a strong federal commissioner and soon, its prospects of survival are dim.
ARDEN J. SCHOEP
Nevada, Iowa
MAX
Sirs:
You people do little enough for us cat-lovers. At least you can show us a picture of the redoubtable Maximillian (SCORECARD, Oct. 28).
WILHELMINA HALL
Brooklyn
Sirs:
No "pure alley cat" is neuter. He's probably a pampered, perfumed puss who's never stalked an alley.
MILLIE ADAMS
New York City
CALL FOR A CUTTHROAT
Sirs:
No need to invent any fishy associates like Pickerel Puss for Dick Tracy's latest villain, Smallmouth Bass (SCORECARD, Oct. 21). We have one here in New Mexico's official state fish: Cutthroat Trout.
ARCH NAPIER
Albuquerque
HOT STOVE
Sirs:
It was to be expected that the fans and press would have a field day with the World Series debacle. The cries of National League superiority have risen again because the Yankees lost in four straight games—to a hot pitching staff while in the throes of a month-old batting slump. They were not bombed or destroyed—just beaten in four well-played, tight ballgames. It is not proof that "the Yankees arc in danger of collapsing" (19TH HOLE, Reader Blazina, Oct. 21) or that the Yankees would be a second division club in the National League (19TH HOLE, Reader Moody, Oct. 21). May I point out that the Yankees have defeated their National League opposition in nine of their last 13 meetings since 1949.
It is frequently pointed out that the National League is so evenly balanced that it crowns a new champ every year. I propose that these teams don't repeat because they lack depth and are dependent upon maximum performance from a minimum of men. The team that wins is the one whose few stars have great years, while a couple of lesser players go over their heads for one season. The following year these men return to their normal output, no one takes up the slack and the team fails to repeat. The Yankees win consistently because they have a great bench—someone always takes up the slack when the usual leaders fail—and it is this depth, in pitching as well as the regulars, which would make the Yankees consistent winners in any league.
KALMAN HELLER
Amherst, Mass.
Sirs:
Now that National League fans everywhere have witnessed a Yankee defeat in four games, they are telling everyone within shouting distance that the Yankees would not even finish in the first division in the "balanced" National League. The senior circuit should be so good.
The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series with pitching—phenomenal pitching—phenomenal even for the Dodgers. They also had fabulous luck when they needed it most. Roger Maris got hurt before he ever faced Don Drysdale. They were fortunate enough to score all their runs early, so their weak bench went relatively untaxed. Dodger luck was also exemplified by Tommy Davis' freak ground ball which led to the only run in game three. And, finally, God saw fit to turn the play that, in the words of Sandy Koufax, would have been the turning point of the entire Series into the three-base error which scaled Yankee doom.
If those Dodgers had had that kind of pitching from day to day during the regular season, they would have won the pennant in a fashion which would have made the American League pennant chase seem close. I still firmly maintain that no National League team has sufficient talent to nail down as many as three positions in the Yankee lineup. I might add that the Yankee bench contains enough talent to start three men on any team in the National League.
Incidentally, it would probably be better for Dodger prestige if they would not repeat as National League champions, because the Yankees have a history of turning the tables on National League champions that succeeded in defeating them in a World Series.
R. BRUCE MANWILLER
Temple, Pa.
THE MEN BEHIND
Sirs:
I would like to commend you for your fine coverage of college football. However, there seems to be one figure in this area whom you have forgotten, and this is the student manager of a college team. The readers of your magazine are people who like to go behind the headlines, to read about the men who participate behind the scenes. Perhaps you could compile a list of present-day leaders who were student managers in their college days.
FRED J. RAUSCHER JR.
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, Mass.
•Some student managers who made good: Douglas MacArthur (West Point '03), Herbert Hoover (Stanford '95), C. Douglas Dillon (Harvard '31).—ED.
NO GHOST
Sirs:
I have been waiting several weeks to see if anyone would write in to drop a hint of praise on Ron Mix for the sensitive and fascinating job he did in the Boswellian reporting of behind-the-scenes life of a professional football team (I Swore I Would Quit Football, Sept. 16).
This comment is not meant to glorify Mix, but rather to reflect upon a prejudice of which many of us are guilty: the belief that a 250-pound 6-foot-4 all-league tackle could not possibly have creative sensitivity, and that positively nobody who excelled in another field could author anything without someone else doing the writing. Having been burned by the deception of publicists for so long, we have long since become the land of the disillusioned.
As one who has done a lot of ghostwriting, it dawned on me that, almost by reflex, I have the habit of dismissing such a byline as Mix's as nothing more than a signature. It has been refreshing and somewhat shocking to me to discover, accidentally, that Ron Mix really did write the piece. It became obvious during an interview on a local TV station. Mix talks just the way he writes; better still, he writes the way he talks. He is even writer enough to complain about a few deathless lines that ended up in your editorial wastebasket.
R. C. ATCHISON
San Diego
TWO-PLATOON MEDICINE
Sirs:
I enjoyed your article on the Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde football player in Rome, N.Y. {Is There a Dr. Tashiro on the Field?, Oct. 28), but what does the doctor do when one of his teammates gets injured? Run back for his little black bag?
LEE CARROLL
Schenectady
•No. He waits with the others while a team doctor treats the injury.—ED.
PHOTO
MAX PURRS AMID TROPHIES