Newark post., 1922-05-17
ON THE SPORT FIELD
SPORTORIAL
A CHEATER.

mortals on the face of the earth, but
a cheat on the sport field is, in the
opinion of real red-blooded men, a
whole lot worse than the cheat in
any other walk of life.
There is no excuse to be found for
an athlete to cheat in any game in
which he takes part. But excuse or
no excuse cheating has creeped into
the American sporting circles and is
becoming so prevalent that already
many lines of sport has lost out with
the lover of real athletics.
In some walks of life, cheating
comes as natural course, although |
it is anything but honorable, it is
overlooked by the care-free people of |
the country, but not so on the ath-
letic field.
Boxing, wrestling, horse-racing,
football, basketball and baseball, all
major sports have felt the effect of
the cheat and many of them are now
barred in the majority of States of
the Union due to the fact that they
have proven unworthy of attendance
of real sport loving people. Prob
ably the most drastic step taken in
recent years to blot out the stain of
cheating was taken a couple of years
ago when the owners of the Chicago
American League baseball team re-
leased nearly every player of
Worlds Champion Club bcause they
had proven themselves cheaters. 1t
was blow to the owners of the White
Sox and meant the rebuilding of near
ly an entire team, but rather than see
the glory of the national game dragg-
ed in the dirt of scandal, the owners
let one of the best ball teams in the
country go.
Some people are so mean that they
will cheat when playing a game of
solitaire, when a man gets to the
stage where he will cheat himself,
Just figure what he will do to his
fellow player.
Everytime cheater cheats on the
sport field, he is hurting thousands
of others and bringing the time closer
to hand when sports will have passed
to decay. 1t is the duty of you, every
lover of sport, to get the cheater and
to get him quick and hard.
Sounds like the title for moving
picture but inasmuch as this column
) is devoted to the sport field this item
pertains to sports.
;. Big money today is causing more
! than one athlete, both amateur and
professional, to play below par.
This has been proven in baseball
:. football and basketball. Just after
y the last football season, like bolt OF
lightning from a clear sky, came
crash that caused several western col
e lege athletes to lose their places or
n the college football field because they
G had fallen for this ''lure of gold"
l. And this was not the first time tha'
college athletes of high standing ane
ability have fallen for few paltr!
n dollars. They play under an assumed
S name and hope to get away with i
but it has failed time after time.
The big problem is "Why do the!
fail?" for the majority of those VIII
" have taken flier into professionalism
: before the time was ripe have bee1
Il found to be fellows who could hav
}, gotten along just as well without tn
s" few dollars they received for thel
/ professional efforts as we'll as not
e But the lure is there and they fall.
Take in the major league. Their
have been several young stars brea
into both leagues and after they ma
! made good with bang, along come
some other team owner and offers
record-breaking price for the young
ster and nine times out of ten tn
youngster either cracks or talls
ot give his best to his original team. In
ed league magnates in the past fe
IS wears have been doing everything
~ their power to try and stop this pra
r tice and the colleges all over TT
en- country have also tried to stop pr
fessionalism from breaking into the
nc ranks.
When the lure of the gridiron, II
diamond and court becomes as stror
as the slure of gold" then athlete
~ will be on higher standard ar
~ s+.rs of the first water will be