The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-08-09
ACHILLES gets
TOO MANY PUFFs
Modern Athletes Compared
with Greek Hero Could
Have Beaten Him.
is NOT so VULNERABLE
Sport Writers Are Always Glad to
n - n a
is NOT so VULNERABLE
Sport Writers Are Always Glad to
Rate Great Americans with the
Standard Set by Greeisn.

II seems about time that some one
showed this Achilles fellow on his pedes-
tai and that everybody ceased making
him the standard by which all American
athletes are 10 be Judged.
AFTER looking over his record we have
that he wasn't such q much
after all. There's nothing In the Gre
clan baseball guides TO show that he
ever batted over 100, or that he ever
pushed out a home run with the bases
loaded In a world series combat He
never made a 90-yard touchdown run
around Yale or Harvard's end with the
score even and just tive minutes left to
play. Nor did he ever uncork a 25-foot
putt In an opening golf championship. or
club out q goal from mldheld. bringing
victory 20 the home team in the last
half OF the eighth ehukker.
His Claim to Fame.
OF course, Achilles has some justihable
claim to fame. Taking it from a number
of encyclopedias. and also from Mister
Homer's Illiad. this Achilles was consid-
cradle Of a scrapper back in the old days.
He had terrific punch. a practically in
vulnerable defense, was fearless and
merciless in battle, and held the heavy
weight championship for q much longer
time than did even John L. Sullivan.
But we can't see why these few stunts
that he did-and didn't do-should give
him first rank in the field Of athletics.
We can't see why II was that every time
Charlie Brickley, OF Harvard. tore the
opposition line TO shreds most persons in
stead of remarking that "Brickley ram
med and Jammed as no other man did
before" really said: "'Bricl<ley fought
almost with the fury Of an Achilles"
When Devoreau Nilburn. single-hand-
ed, outplayed three of the four English
poloIsts in the last half Of the last in
ternational combat, did he get credit for
being the original Heller in the polo bug
mess. No. Somebody trotted out Achilles
and made Milburn second to him.
Every 80 often Honus Wagner. of the
Pittsburgh Pirates, forgets that a human
being should show some sort Of mercy.
he busies himself in giving his
nine opponents a terrific beating. He
uses his mace with deadly effect on the
offence. and his huge paws just as
strongly on the defense. But historians
don't rise up on such occasions and credit
Wagner with being the greatest that ever
cavorted on the green. They declare that
Wagner ragged around the diamond,
fighting almost like the Achilles Of old"
Every darned time some of our fellows
do something amazing and remarkable
they aren't given credit for having set
the standard in their particular lines,
simply because a lot OF people, insist upon
TO this ancient Achilles party
and trotting him out as the superior OF
them all.
How About AIIburnS
Achilles was killed by being shot in the
heel Think OF II! The very same person
hat SO many people think was huskier
han Wagner, MIlburn. Bricl<ley. and all
1ur other Americans. gave way to an
arrow or a spear, or whatever II was.
connected with his heel.
Mlburn has busted nearly all the bones
n his frame-yet he's still In our midst
8rickley has been fractured In many.
many places. Wagner has been spiked |
lot only in one heel. but in 10th of them
in the calves, the knees. the hands, the |
rms, and the ribs. But his name figures |
very day among those present