Newark post., 1922-08-09
ss SPORTITORIAL -
Pennant Buying
Past VS.. Present

Money-that is a big item in anybody's
life. But it looks as though, if some
thing is not done very soon in the
major baseball leagues, it is going to
spoil Americas national game.
1t goes without saying that the two
New York clubs are richest of the
leagues and these clubs are out to buy
pennants year after year.
This stunt has happened for the
past several years and there has been
complaints against it, but as yet no
thing definite has been done to curb
the practice, but this year there seems
to be very good chances that a rem
edy for the condition will be forth
coming.
Right at the present time the Giants
and Yankees, New York's league rep
resentative are in the thick of the
pennant fights. Both these clubs
were picked by the dopesters to have
an edge on the other teams before the
season started, but here it is August
and much to the surprise of many
the teams in both leagues are pretty
well matched, and at the time of the
writing of this article less than 100
points separates the first five teams
of each league.
The races in both the American and
National League are closer than for
several seasons past and the bets are
pretty even on any of the first five
clubs to stage a winning streak and
coming on out top for a chance to land
in the Worlds Series.
The New York clubs, as soon as
they saw that the opposition was too
strong for them to combat with the
line-ups with which they started the
race, dug down in the Golfers and
fished out enough "iron men" to in
terest the owners of both the Boston
clubs and purchased from those teams
several of their star players. In this
manner the Giants and Yankees have
bolstered their line-ups for the final
drive, but from the brand of ball they
are playing at the present time it
looks as though both the clubs have
cracked and it may be that some of
the other teams, especially the two
St. Louis teams, might not have to
buy star players to win the pennants.
The average fan, and many of them
right in Gotham, is hoping that some
other clubs besides the Giants and
Yankees land on the top of the heaps
this year.
The writer would certainly have
liked to have lived in years when John
L. Sullivan, Muggsy McGraw, Joe
Cans, and the other old-timers of the
sport world were in their prime. If
such had been the case he could make
comparison with the present day
athletes.
But as it stands he can only listen
to the old-timers claiming that the
fighters, ball players and other ath-
letes of yesteryears had the edge on
the present generation and the people
of today hold the latter as superior to
those of the past.
1t may be that neither had any
thing on the other, but on Saturday,
in Philadelphia, their was sculling
match between two men over seventy
years of age, who rowed against one
another years ago. This seems to the
writer proof that the old-time athlete
must have taken much better care of
himself than the present day repre-
sentatives on the sport fields. Now
when a man is thirty-five or thirty
six years old he is considered as too
old to make good in the athletic world
of course there are few exceptions,
but the general rule is that they have
burned themselves out. Why? High
salaries, white lights and the like are
given as the reason by the old-timers.
That may or may not be, but it
would be pretty good bet that there
isn't an athlete in his prime today
who, when he passes the three score
and ten mark, will be able to come
hack and perform like Reilly and