Verhovayak Lapja, 1940. július-december (23. évfolyam, 27-52. szám)

1940-07-11 / 28. szám

July 11, 1940 Verhovay ak Lapja Page • Sports By JOHN “DRIK” FULOP THE BASEBALL FAN— A SATIRE That species of the mam­malian family commonly known as the baseball fan is, collectively, singularly, or in groups, the élite of fickleness. But without their patronage a baseball team can not pay expenses, and can not live with them. If the team is winning its share of games, the fan will i demand a free chance on a i set of dishes or an auto with every ticket of admission. If the team ie not winning) very regularly, then woe be j to it; the fan will demand anything (and everything) from a change in line-up1 and batting order to a new! manager. The amazing thing about this is that they usually get what they want. Our philosophy concern­ing the fan is this; Once a fan always a sucker. He’s the funnybone of baseball and I don’t know how we would do without him. He is | to baseball what the wife is! to her husband. They both want everything that's hard to get, and a lot of it. Recently (among many j other times) my home team,' the Bucs, were in a losing j streak. At this time I asked the mouth in the bleachers; what he thought about the 1 Pirates, his reply was and j I quote: “That team should be drawn and quartered— drawn by a bum artist and the quarter by a bad counter­feiter.” The next day the Corsairs won one (I swear it), and that same bleacher­­ite was moaning because the Bucs had to use four pitch­ers to win the game. Many ether cases could be cited proving the fickleness of Joe Fan, but why waste space. It’s the business men’s j fault for adopting the slogan that the ‘customer is always right,’ even if the umpire can’t change his decision. THRILLS Except for the time I donned a wig and hit a home-run in a Girl's soft­­ball game, one of the biggest thrills I got out of sports was listening to the World’s Series game of 1932; the Yankees were playing the Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago. George Herman Ruth, an inconspicuous Yan­kee right fielder, was not faring so well at the plate, and the fans—those men again—were chanting the song of the Bronx solely for his benefit- When he came to the plate to bat, the fans started all over again. When the umpire called two strikes on George, the fans chanted even loud­er. This aroused the iras­cibleness of George Herman. Stepping out of the batters’ box, he pointed towards center-field, meaning , no doubt, that he intended to transfer the ball over the fence in that general direc­tion. The next pitch came up, bounced off his bat, soared over the center-field fence, out of the ball-park and “ad infinitum.” Those same fans who had a mo­ment before given him the old razzberry stood up to a man and cheered. In the first place they had no more reason to boo him than there is need to get a munitions license to pop corn. Another incident I’ll never forget happened during the All-Star game of 1934. Hub­­bell was pitching and with two men on and nobody out in the first inning, King Carl struck out Ruth, Geh­rig, and Foxx in a row; then the following inning he struck out Simmons, Cronin, and Gomez. At that time the first five mentioned were the five most powerful hitters of the American League. I am sorry to say that the Amer­ican Leaguers won that game 9-7. NATIONAL VERHOVAY DAY SPORTS Dan Cupid and the god­dess of Terpsichore ran ram­pant at the National Ver­­hovay Day celebration held in Youngstown. A good time was had by all, if you’ll pardon the hackneyed ex­pression. Athletically, too, the celebration was a suc­cess. I watched the second game between Youngstown and Homestead, and both teams looked good. They were pretty evenly matched, as evidenced by the fact that they split a double-header I liked the easy delivery of the Youngstown Moundsman and the agility, aggressive­ness, and argumentative spirit of the .Homestead catcher. I’d like to see these teams play again, but I my­self am on a team, which makes it impossible. I play ‘in the stinks’ for a fast grammar school nine. You should see my size 20 blue and gold jersey with P. S. No. 43 written across the front of it. A certain amount of credit for the success of the day goes to three young ladies of Homestead who pro­vided the starving softballers with twenty-five native fugi­tives from a dog-house, warmed and placed in buns. They shall, no doubt, re­ceive just rewards for their noble sacrifice. THE PRIZE RING Despite the fact that the experts favored Galento to win over Bear (the odds were 8-5), I predicted that Baer would win, basing my prediction on the fact that at one time Baer was con­sidered the best puncher since Dempsey. And speaking of Dempsey. It seems he also is cheating Old Father Time. At 45 years of age he returns to the ring to box a wrestler. He knock­ed him out in the second round but seemed to be pretty winded. If I were Dempsey and I couldn’t be half the man he is, I would quit the idea of coming back and try to enjoy some of the money I had made. But I guess if it’s in your blood you can’t do anything about it-Well, the battling blimp of Jersey has been deflated and the larruping Livermore Lothario is king, which makes Slapsie Maxie Rosen­bloom very mad because he Blinks he is fistiania’s big­gest funster. With Joe Louis monopolizing all the credit­able records in the heavy­weight bracket, I don’t blame these men for striving after such titles . . . anything for publicity. My first prediction, having been right, I will stick my neck out again by predicting that The National League pennant will fly from the Cincinatti Red's flag pole; the Indians of Cleveland (according to me) will cop the American League rag, with Detroit a close second. Someone just asked me about the Yankees and I asked him who they were, then I remembered that somewhere in the dim dark past there was a big league team by that name which won a couple of World’s Series... four, I think, kn a row. To JACOBS CREEK FIRST HALF WINNERS IN BASEBALL LEAGUE Schedule Revised and Other Matters Tended to in Meeting of Managers at Home Office Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. June 29, 1940 The managers of the baseball league teams attended a meeting called bv f h? 1 rguo Business Manager, William C. Kohut, at the Home Office on Saturday evening, June 29. Despite the fact that the schedule for the first half had not been completed, it was decided with the consent of the managers that Jacobs Creek should be declared the winner by virtue of their four wins and no losses. Those managers not present were contacted by tele­phone. The second half starts with less teams than there were in the first half. The schedule for July and half of August is as follows: July 7, Sunday. Pittsburgh at Martins Ferry July 13, Saturday. Martins Ferry at Pittsburgh July 13, Saturday. Walkertown at Jacobs Creek July 20, Saturday. Jacobs Creek at Pittsburgh July 21, Sunday. Walkertown at Martins Ferry July 28, Sunday. Pittsburgh at Jacobs Creek August 4, Sunday. Martins Ferry at Walkertown August 10, Saturday. Walkertown at Pittsburgh August li, Sunday Jacobs Creek at Martins Ferry tell you the truth, DiMaggio, Dickey, and Gomez will have to improve quite a lot be­fore the White Bombers can get back in the race. IN CONCLUSION Europe might have its war but look what’s happening here—anything can happen. Baer expects to fight Louis again . . ■ disaster No. 2; Old Man Dempsey expects to start fighting again—No. 3; and I expect to write a short story disaster—No. 4. The only happy outlook we have is that this column is ended.--------------------O-------------------­VERHOVAY BASEBALL LEAGUE In another section of the Sport Page you will find the schedule for the Second Half. Regarding the time of game, please contact mana­ger and have this estab­lished; also on instructions to the site of game. I am listing the names and the addresses of all the baseball managers, thus en­abling them to contact one another: Peter Mészáros, Manager Hazelwood Verhovays, 347 Johnston Avenue, Pitts­burgh, Pennsylvania. Stephen Szabó, Manager Jacobs Creek Verhovays, Jacobs Creek, Pa. Val Konyha, Manager Martins Ferry Verhovays, 745 Burlington Road, Mar­tins Ferry, Ohio. Raymond Lindquist, Man­ager Walkertown Verhovays, Daisytown, Pa. All these managers can be contacted by telephone. Managers of the teams should have sole jurisdiction over the purchasing of base­ball equipment and uni­forms. A reminder: All gcvies are to be played in the true spirit of Verhovay fraternal­ism. Managers of the teams playing at home should bend every effort towards notifying the home town Verhovays of the game, time of game and place. Local newspapers will carry this sports information, as ivill the Verhovay Journal. Please make use of these two ad­vertising mediums. Upon the completion of each game, a complete re­port on the game is to for­warded to me by the mana­ger of the home town team; this report to contain names of all players (first and last names, please), score, hits, runs, etc. Inasmuch as the games will be played on Saturdays and Sundays, a report should be sent me no later than Monday evening. If any of the managers find it difficult to make the schedule, please make other arrangements to play out the schedule. In case of rain, wet grounds, notify the man-

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