- Publish date:
19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
EQUAL TIME
Sirs:
Now that you have published William Barry Furlong's article, A Sad Day for Baseball (Sept. 21), perhaps you'll be kind enough to find an equally able writer to counter this with A Great Day for Baseball to show what surely must be the other side of the coin.
Let there be no doubt, it matters to only a minority of my acquaintances who owns the Yankees—or the Cardinals or the Pirates or the Orioles. The time has arrived when professional baseball (and professional football, too, for that matter) are to be recognized as profit-making organizations subject to the same demands of the market place as is any other service or product offered for sale. Whether or not they are subject to antitrust legislation is for the lawmakers to argue, but if granted a vote I'd be for removing the cloak of protection.
GEORGE DRESSLER
McKeesport, Pa.
Sirs:
NBC pays umpteen million dollars to televise the World Series. Who is in the World Series? The Yankees, right! Who owns the Yankees? CBS, of course. So NBC will be paying CBS to appear on NBC's own program. Now NBC will have to buy the L.A. Dodgers and control of the National League to get even.
GEORGE A. DOTY
Beaumont, Texas
DOYT & CO.
Sirs:
Your fine story about Doyt Perry, head football coach at Bowling Green University (He'll Never Leave Ohio, Sept. 28), is only fitting. The Mid-American Conference has long been a power in baseball nationally as evidenced by Western Michigan's presence in the Collegiate World Series so often. And now this power is seeping through to football and basketball. Don't be too surprised if within 10 years you see a national champion from the Mid-American Conference, with the Big Ten begging for home-and-home contests.
CHARLES L. SMITH
Kalamazoo, Mich.
Sirs:
The MAC does play better football than Xavier, Dayton and Cincinnati. In future years these schools will be left far behind by the MAC. Ohio University has immediate gridiron dates with Purdue (a rematch) and Maryland. In 1967 Ohio will meet Kansas, Penn State and William and Mary. By then, as Writer John Underwood said, a defeat by a MAC school will embarrass no one.
ROGER L. RABA
Athens, Ohio
Sirs:
With gentlemen like Doyt Perry at Bowling Green and the coaching corps produced at Miami (with an "O."), football in the Mid-American Conference can't lose, even if the Big Ten does win four of five meetings.
Thanks to John Underwood for an article that shows football as a lot more than a shortcut to a "paper" education.
JACK DEGANGE
Stamford, Conn.
Sirs:
Your listing of former Miami University football players who became famous coaches proves again that fame can be fleeting. You forgot one of the most famous of all: Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns.
JOSEPH M. GAMBATESE
Washington
WASN'T NO HARM INTENDED
Sirs:
I was shocked at a quote recently attributed by you to Coach Bob Giegengack of the U.S. Olympic team, viz., "I don't want none..." (To Tokyo by Inches, Sept 21). I've known him for more than 20 years and have never heard him use a double negative except in deliberate levity.
ARTHUR DALEY
New York City
•Yale's Giegengack, a magna cum laude graduate of Holy Cross, was indeed speaking with "deliberate levity" when he was quoted double-negatively.—ED.
PRIDE
Sirs:
We of McClymonds High School agree with your article (SCORECARD, Sept. 14) that "pride in athletic achievement" is the key to the fact that McClymonds is known as the School of Champions. And we are proud of the number of top professional and collegiate athletes such as Bill Russell, Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson who received their initial training here.
However, we deplore the statement that "until recently the school did little to encourage pride in academics." Pride in academic achievement, the result of intensive effort by McClymonds administrators and faculty, has motivated many McClymonds graduates who have completed or are now successfully completing further education at colleges and universities in California and through scholarships in collegiate institutions elsewhere in the U.S. Ever since California established accreditation to schools of higher learning, McClymonds has received the maximum accreditation allowed any high school by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
GRACE H. JOHNSTONE
Oakland, Calif.
EMPTY CUP
Sirs:
Thanks for the brilliant report and analysis of the America's Cup races by Carleton Mitchell (Less a Race than a Rout, Sept. 28). While not lacking in patriotic fervor, I still believe it would have been a good thing if the British had lifted the cup after all these years, so we could go back after it.
But in fixing the blame for Sovereign's bust performance, let's not be too harsh on Helmsman Peter Scott. He is a fine sailor and extremely able. He simply did not have enough boat under him.
Perhaps the British should refrain from issuing further challenges until they have developed the likes of an Olin Stephens for design, a Ted Hood for sails and a foredeck boss of the caliber of John Nichols. When they have done this Peter Scott can give us a contest.
ROBERT J. L. LEE
Athens, Ohio
Sirs:
As I recall it, America, originator of the America's Cup races, had to beat 17 yachts to get the cup 113 years ago.
Would it not be more sporting if the New York Yacht Club also accepted challenges from several foreign yacht clubs at the same time? Let's discontinue these two-yacht processions.
D. C. WHARTON SMITH
Baltimore
HEROES
Sirs:
Your article A Leg Up on a Good Heart (Sept. 21) was interesting and educational to the layman. However, I would suggest that you either acquire a better physical specimen than Dr. Thomas K. Cureton (Dr. Physical Fitness) or at least refrain from showing his picture. Dr. Cureton has done a great deal to motivate interest in physical fitness, but his walking, deep breathing, skipping, two-step kicks, etc. do not impress me half as much as the feats of marathon runners John Kelley and Mike O'Hara. Both of these gentlemen are more than 50 years of age and have probably run more miles in one year than Dr. Cureton has in his life-time. It would seem appropriate that the picture of a physiologically young, though chronologically old, person should have graced your article, instead of a 40-inch-waisted verbalizer.
M. THOMAS WOODALL
Brookings, S. Dak.
•Few 40-inch-waisted American men can run at all, let alone run like 63-year-old Dr. Cureton. To "cool off" from one of his hour-long, nonstop exercise marathons, Cureton runs three or more miles.—ED.
HOW HIGH THE KITE?
Sirs:
Regarding your article about the gentlemen who fly kites from the stern of the Puget Sound ferry (SCORECARD, Aug. 10), we of the destroyer U.S.S. Johnston dispute Mr. Stuyvesant B. Pell's claim to a world record of 1,000 feet of airborne string.
On Sunday, August 30, members of the crew, flying a kite for recreation, managed to send it into the skies for a distance of well over 3,000 yards (as verified by the ship's radar and a call from the Admiral). They used 37 balls of hand-held string (we are part of that splinter group of purists) and a blue-and-gold kite (Navy colors). Best of all, they had the sincerity that counts for so much in this sport.
As always, the Navy fields the best team, no matter what the sport.
ENSIGN TOM LAWRENCE, USNR
New York City
RUNNING COMMENTARY
Sirs:
Charlotte C. Marsh states that it is wrong for Coach Bob Timmons to "force" young Jim Ryun into competition (19TH HOLE, Sept. 28). If Ryun wanted to quit running, he could. Ryun is training to represent his country in the greatest of all sporting events, the Olympics. Which is better: a teen-ager training courageously to help his country's prestige or a teen-ager stealing hubcaps?
JOHN GARTLAND
Madison, Wis.
Sirs:
Sincere appreciation to you for your articles on Jim Ryun and Gerry Lindgren. They have brought much inspiration and renewed resolve to countless boys on high school and college tracks. Perhaps this contribution to our country's athletics surpasses even their accomplishments on the track.
Heartfelt gratitude to them and to their coaches for showing us what daily devotion, humility and high expectancy can accomplish.
JACK EYERLY
Kirkwood, Mo.
