The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-22
A MORAL VICTORY

 l wag red pound on hay
 burning hound,
 And the ticket read twenty-to-
 one.
 And what did he do but come
 galloping through,
 That three legged son-of-a
 guni
 So l to the bookie anC cackled.
 "Oh, lookien'
 For once in season you lose. Then I grieve to remark, he tore
 out of the park.
 Saying, Customer, so do
 yousew
 When he comes to the end of a long, long day, and sits all alone in his thought, the railbird thinks of the game that they play, and the fun that the day has brought.
 And so it is with the Birming- ham fan, as the first weeks chase goes by. After the rag, that blood thirsty gang, bumps it's team and the fur does fly.
 This one can't hit. and that one can't field, the whole alarmed works on the bum. They surely should quit, their fate has been sealed, for the whole blamed bunch is dumb.
 It's yet too early to knock, there is no time at all to com plain. It's the midseason flop, that really goes against the grain.
 Joe Dunn is the boss, his team, is far from the worst. And his is the loss, when the club lands out of the first.
 The Lookouts may win, the Vols may come out tn the top, To lose isn't a sin, time is left to harvest the crop.
 There are a lot of good things to be said of the club, many choice bits on which fandom may feed. They may not can hit, may play like a dub, but always is left their speed.
 It's speed that they have, mo- body can doubt, .-s speed that they have to spare! Yes, speed they will have and nevN go out when cows can fly in the air.
 The end of the first week
 finds the BarOns not very
 much farther than when they
 started, but fandom must
 realize that Dunn has n team
 that is likely to finish 100
 per cent stronger than it
 starts. There arc some vet
 ernns on that team, and early
 spring weather never gets
 the best out of a man. When
 the summer sun beams down in fierce intensity, when the
 damp, damp sweat of labor
 md heat Iubricates the points
 of those veterans, then the
 BarOns must he watched. So
 much for the team. Later
 developments will show the
 real strength of Joe Dunn's
 outfit of 1923.
 Little Claude Wilson, Birming. hams bantamweight champion. ship bid, seems born under an unlucky star, that is, so far as winning national recognition is concerned f
 Westbrook Pegler, noted sym dicate scribe, writing out of New York. compliments Al Pettingill on his great work in Dixie rings. and comments on "Pettingills victory over Claude Wilson of Birmingham, for the southern title" That seems to throw a suggestion of truth on ugly stories that have been going the rounds of false publicity wired out of Birmingham when Wilson and Pettingill met at the B. A. c. a couple of weeks ago.
 All Birmingham knows how decisively Wilson defeated Pet, tingill, but it has been rumored a a o crossed and that false accounts of the fight were wired out to New York. New Orleans and other boxing centers. Nothing definite, of course. but just enough rumors went the rounds : to cause quite a bit of comment in curbstone circles.
 And now. the syndicate arti- cles out of New York, comment ing on that victory" of Pettin- gills, in a way seem to bear out the rumors.
 Tommy Tompkins. manager of Wilson. should certainly inves- tigate those. reports, and, if he has grounds to believe them cor rect. carry the case before every boxing commission in the coun- try. Pettingill never did defeat Wilson at Birmingham, and it is the opinion of many that he never will. at any time or any place.
 Meanwhile, Jimmy Proto. his face never losing its eternal smile, so typical of sunny Italy, carries on at Birmingham, and hopes that the future may deal kindly with him. It has been quite a while since Jimmy has had bout at the B. A. C., and fighter must fight to live.' B. A. C. officials assert that