Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-05
BASEBALL RACING

big event was prefaced by some ex-
citing bouts.
I'm the best priced seats were many
men prominent in Welsh commercial
and professional circles. Jem Corbett
the ex-world's champion, was not pres
enut, he having made an engagement
at a Dublin music-hall. Jimmy Britt
who beat Johnny Summers a few
months ago at Wonderland-a much
canvassed verdict-and lost to him at
the National afterwards, was there TO
challenge the winner. If anything,
Britt looks less like a fighting man
than Welsh or Josephs. Few women
graced the proceedings. Miss Thonas'
Welsh's sister, and Mrs. Harry Marks
were we'll placed near the ringside, ana
at the press table was London lady
Journalist There was very little visible
sign of betting, and now and again
when a fugitive voice forgot that the
occasion was not a racecourse there
were no acceptors of odds of to l on
Welsh
Behold another guesser in the Ketchei-
Johnson matter: ANY time helclel ;
name is now mentioned in the same
breath with Johnson's. the formers ue-
tractors raise their hands in holy nor
ror and spit upon the ground and smlte
themselves upon the chest and eXclaim
in a. loud tone: 'Preposterous; why
Johnson is nearly thirty pounds the
heavier. If Ketchel couldn't knock out
a middleweight like Papke, what cnance
would he have with a heavyweight
II is an old axiom the one about
good big man whipping little man, but
II Is so easy to prove it's fallacy that
one wonders and shudders to think that
It has stood the avid test of time for
10, these many years. good big man
can't whip a good little man, always;
especially If the little man has real
class. 1t is doubtful if the big man
will win even so often as the little
man. 1t can be shown that many of the
best fighters have given away large
chunlJs of weight; sometimes winning
and sometimes losing. The result de-
pended upon the relative merits of the
men as individuals rather than upon
the set principle that superior weight
spelled victory.
at would have been a hard task for
Bob Fitzsmmons to weight above mid
dleweight-154 in the earlier days and
15S in the later. Still, he gave away
approximately thirty pounds and
beating to Sharkey, Maher and Corbett.
To Rubin he wave away forty and
trimmed him up in six rounds. Joe
Walcott made 1873 pounds for Lavigne
and could make 1876 any time he cared
to train hard. He gave twenty pounds
to Dick Moore, Jim Ryan, Dan Creedon,
Mick Dunn and Jim Watts: from twen-
ty-f1ve to thirty pounds to Dick O'Brien,
Joe Choynskl; Bill Hanrahan, Jack
Banner and George Gardner, and he
whipped them all. He gave fifty
pounds to Sandy Ferguson and held
him even in ten rounds. Tommy Ryan
never saw the day he couldn't do 145
pounds, the acknowledged welterweight
limit of a few years ago. He gave
twenty to forty pounds to Dave Barry,
Jack BeauschOlte, John Wills. Kid Car
ter. Dutch Neal. Frank Craig, Dick
O'Brien, Dick Moore and Billy Stiff.
Ryan whipped every mothers son Of
them. Charley Mitchell, a legitimate
1861 pound man, fought and beat Cara
doff. the 225-pound Belgian giant; Pad
dy Slavin and Jack Knifton. the eighty
one tonner He also gave away from
twenty to forty pounds to John L. Sui
livan. Jake Kilrain and Patsy Cardik,
fighting each n draw. Joe Choynski
was a 165-pound man. but he gave away
from twenty to forty pounds to Joe
McAuliffe, Ed Dunkhorst and Peter
Maher and defeated them. He gave
away fully a $ much weight to Jeffries. |
Rubin and Goddard and earned draws
with them.
"There is no way of telling which
would win, but at the same time. re-
member that Fitzsimmons and Walcott
and Ryan and Choynski and a dozen
other classy men gave away chunks of
weight and brought home the groceries.
And when you look over the above list
you will note all were hitters.
Hitting moro than size counts in a
battle. and Ketchel can hit as hard as
anv man who ever lived, even if he
didn't put Papke away the last time"