The Washington herald., 1922-12-15
nSAYS DAM O N
kunyOn:: :
Despair, Race Horse.
Conan Doyle Wrote.
Would Stop .Homers.
Commonplace Hnting.;
BY DAMON RUNYON::

3. BY DAMON-- kUNfVN.
Ussyersst Service Staff Correspondent.
Copyright, 1872, by Universal Service
NEW YORK, Dec. 14.-De-
IN spair, appropriate name for
a>raee. horse, won at New OF
leans the other day.
The man who named. Despair
mustts be a cynic. Also he
knows hosse racing. If he had
other horses to- name be would
perhaps call them; Desperation,
Dependency, Sorrow, Poverty,
DEATH.
Despair, under other names,
some quite, pretty, runs in
every horse race. Generally
it does not win. It is the daily
entry of the horse players from
the hopeless stables, the. colors
black with skull and cross
bones.
-
Literary giants from HON.
er down have written on
pugilistic topics. There seems
to be some strange fascination
in the game for brilliant INTEL
lects.
George Bernard Shaw is
never more interesting, and
never more unsophisticated,
than when writing of his ia
vorite topic, Georges Carpen-
tier.
Shaw knows less of boxing
and can get more space in the
newspapers for his observa-
tions than any other living
man. That rs because he is
INTERESTING. He always
has an opinion, though his
opinion is generally wrong.
CONAN DOYLE in Rodney
~ Stone" wrote the greatest
prose story of a prize fight in
fiction.
Uncle Bill Naughton, Paul
Armstrong and Charles E. Van
Loan, all dead, wrote the best
newspaper stories of actual
fights of the past twenty-five
years.
Armstrong, remembered more
rs a playwright than a sport
wfiter, once spoke of Tom Shar-
key, the sailor heavyweight, as
coming on like the SURF" in one
of Sharkey's fights. That is a
great line.
1t was Armstrong who wrote
another story in which he de-
scribed, by seconds, exactly what
q fallen fighter was doing as the
referee counted him out.
Ban johnson, president of the
American League, wishes to
eliminate the home-run epidemic
of the past few years in base
ball.
He would establish a system
of zones in the ball parks, cut
ting down drives into these zones
from home runs to hits of lesser
value.
This is a GOOD idea.
Babe Ruth, a home-run hitter,
who was born, not made, created
a tremendous sensation with his
home runs. He became a big
drawing card, adding new inter-
est to the game.
Greedy, jealous magnates
thought they could manufacture
Babe Ruths everywhere by put
ting in a lively ball easy to drive
far with the bat. Presently
batsmen who could not ordinarily
hit the size of their hats, as
baseball slang picturesquely puts
it, were knocking home runs.
HREED invariably devours it.
u self. The fans soon saw
that these home runs were
largely synthetic. They began
losing interest.
A feat that everyone can ac-
eomplish is no longer a feat. A
few years ago the home run was
the big thrill of baseball. Now
it is commonplace. Now all
baseball is becoming common
place.
1t is extremely difficult to
impress baseball magnates with
a GOOD idea. They are. mainly
NON-THINKERS. They per-
mitted baseball to drift toward
the rocks of destruction, through
crookedness, for several years
before outsiders stepped in and
saved them. They should be inn
pressed by a GOOD idea from
Ban johnson, if only for the
reason that he is not a man