The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1930-01-14
INJURY RISK
TO0GREAT
IN RING
BY DAVIS J. WALSH

I ny DAVAS d. WAASh
NEW YORK, Jan. 14.-Startine
With the off season Of 1930-31,
Art ShireS, the great big adenoids
man OF the White SoX, and other
ball players who fancy themselves
as pugilists, probably will do all
Of their fighting at home over
the breakfast table, President
John A. Heydler. of the National
League, informed the writer in
an exclusive statement today.
Baseball, he said, was sure to bar
the boxer-ball player, not only as
. protection for its investment in
the player, but to protect the
player himself.
Good" he said, when told that
William WrigIey, jr., had warned
Hack Wilson he might be traded
elsewhere il he persisted in meet
3ng Shires IN the ring. That's
fine. Mr.. Wrigley merely Is act
ing within mis- legal rights, as all
contracts expressly state that the
player can't indulge in outside
sports without the owners con-
sent. / doubt If that consent has
been forthcoming In any instance
% far. We could break this thing
up right now. if we didn't feel
that the thing was Just a phase
and had about run its course.
Anyhow, it had better do
all Of its running now, for 1
predict it won't get the
chance hereafter"
The National League president
claimed to be speaking neither
Tor baseball in general nor for
his own organization. He said
ne was speaking only for com
mon sense"
''The clause forbidding this
activity is in the contract and
al we have to do Is insist upon
1t being obeyed," he added. After
what has happened this year.
Z can't conceive of any owner
who won't be very insistent on
this point"
He thereupon listed the follow
ing as common-sense objections
to ball players pretending to be
fighters or vice versa, as the case
may be:
That so called bad hands"
are both the hallmark of the
man who doesn't know how to
fight and the end of the ball
players career; that blindness,
partial or actual, is not unknown
to the ring and that the player
50 affected would become, per-
force, useless to baseball: that,
II not otherwise injured, the
boxer-baH player jeopardized his
health by assimilating body
punches that might slow him up
on the field Of play; and, finally,
that his exhibitions were absurd
ties and, therefore, reacted un-
favorably upon the profession he
was supposed to ornament.
1--WE don't want to inter
fere with the off season
activities of our men any
more than we can help" said
he, "but when these activities
threaten our Investment in
the man and the man him.
self, It is time to call a halt.
''It took the Boston club some
time and money, for example, to
develop young Spohrer. Why
should its interest in this man be
placed in a compromising position
by his thoughtleSsness? It is sur
priSing to me the players them
selves don't think of this. It has
taken them so long to get where
they are and yet they want to
jeopardize this position for a few
dollars.
"They would do we'll to seek
the advice of Frank Frisch, who
played basketball one winter and
found that the pounding on the
hard floors had begun to tell on
him by the middle of the follow
ing season. Thereafter, he wisely
,refrained from indulging in an
activity that threatened his real
livelihood.
'"This is common. everyday
horse sense but, if our players re-
fuse to think in these terms,
they leave us no alternative but
to set to and do their thinking,