The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1922-04-18
ALLIANCE OF THE Bic THREE |SA
CONSTRUCTIVE STEP FULLERTON

story has persisted ever since the al
legged sale OF the Havana race track by
Stoneham and MCGraw. sale" by the
way, which is in doubt. since Mr.. Stone
ham posed in pictures at Havana this
winter as one OF the owners. Judge
Landik never has stated that he made
such sequest or order-but the turf
writer seems TO take it for granted that
he did The writer then demands that
tho racing ut'iorities protect racing and
crpel from iSretracks the crooks of
baseball! declaring that baseball devel-
ops ard produces more crooks. pikers
and sure thing mon. than the racctracks.
He writes prcjud!cedly. OF course. and
cNagSerates. But. as baseball writer
and observer. who has watched the
gambling evil spread over the sport. I
must admit that there Is entirely too
much truth ,p his charges for the base
ball people t. relish. He speaks truly
when he says. that the baseball gamblers
are the cheapest sure-thing men. and
that the odds are worse than racing ever
would endure.
Average II High
There is bag misunderstanding
which seems general regarding the hon
csty oc horseracing. and of the people
around racctfacSs. have been on ana
around race;rNc on and on for thirty
years. The average honesty OF the per-
sons wha participate in and attend rae
!nG--no matter in what capacity-i5
tolerably high a class of thieves and
crooks naturally gathers a racetrack.
Yet will wager that the number "t
pockets picked or money stolen Is less
than in the average b,g baseball crowd
or the average traffic rush in any big
city. The "a mo gets its had reputation
from a small active minority. The idea
that horseracing Is crooked seems guile
general among tho uniformed. TheNc
arc. OF course, crooked races. New Or
leans N a lonS winter meeting became
noted. Yet tho critics o3ly claim shat
Of moro than $40 races run "f were
crooked. and say that II was the worst
meeting Of Years. The notorious final
Jamaica meeting At New York last fall
was branded a terrible and Yet only
six races during the meeting were men,
toned as suspicious.
Admitting that all tho races said 10
have been crooked were dishonesty run.
sill the honesty Of racing stands up
pretty wcll--COmpared with the charges
of the ignorant ones.
Warning to Clean Up.
While baseball has little 10 fear from
attacks by .racetrack people. the open
charges should serve a. warning 10
make greater efforts To clean up. IL
would be vastly better il those interest
cd in both SpOrts would cease throwing
mud at each other and work together
against tho crooks who prey upon both.
4 couple Hf generations ago. when re-
portcrs tried to help managers manage
their ball clubs instead Of telling the
public about ball games, | wrote an arl:
Gle one spring telling what I'd do II
owned the team. ! read II over the
other evening. and was surprised IN iind
some Sense in IT, The best suggestion
was that livery spring At the end OF the
training :eason the CLUB owners ana
managers should plan the next season =
spring trLinlnG. Tho theor! was that
each SprlS. the manager owners ana
PLAYERS return home telling Of he mis-
takes maGc in the training weeks and
that they go right ahead and max" the
same mistakes the next spring.
This spring | amused myself reading
the accounts Of the experts with the
Various teams who have summed up the
results OF six weeks OF training Any
manager or owner who read them all
should put them in A scrap book TO READ
next February before arranging 10 train
his team. He would save 4 lot or mis-
The ne result If the summing IN on
sixteen cubs WAS that Barncy DrcNfuSs
Was dea I'd right when he said that spring
training was mostly bunk.
lCOpyriglt. 1922. by the New ORR Eve
ming MaIi)