The Washington times., 1931-01-17
.T|MEKEEPERS
BLAMED FOR
CONFUSION
BY JAMES L. KILGALLEN

OOUI OOIOU
BY JAMES L. KILGALLEN
NEW YORK, Jan. 17.-"Five
six, seven, eight"
Jack Dempsey, referee, count
ing. And then a dramatic pause
a nerve-tingling moment or two
of excitement and utmost con
fusion, and
You're Out!"
The winner: Max Baer, of Cali
fornia. The loser, Honest Tom
Heeney, Of New Zealand, up from
the floor and ready to continue
the fight-hiS. rugged countenance
creased with the lines of bewil
derment.
Thus, under the blazing lights
in the ring at Madison Square
Garden last night, dramatically
ended the Baer-Heeney fiasco in
the third round of what was
scheduled as a 10-round bout
Eight Count"
AS Heeney expressed it today:
"In Chicago they give you a
long count; in New York they
give you short count"
Heeney insists he was counted
cut at eight"
Dempsey felt pretty bad about
1t himself this morning. but he
insisted he did the right thing
under the circumstances. And
practically all the experts at the
ringSide agree with him. It Just
happened that once again in a
Madison Square ring Dempsey
was put in a tough spot.
The trouble was the time
keepers got their signals crossed
One timekeeper was two seconds
behind the other. Dempsey was
counting in unison with the time
keeper who was behind-the only
tlmekeeper who was making an
audible count.
Once before Dempsey was in
there as referee in Garden
ring. It was his tough luck on
that occasion to have fainting
Phil Scott go down claiming foul
as a result of slap on the thigh
from Otto Won Porat. That time
Dempsey became a little flustered
but last night when the time
keepers blew up on him Dempsey
held his head.
Big FavOrite
Heeney entered the ring last
night a decided underdog. The
betting was to l, and in some
instances 3 to /, that Baer would
win. 1t was figured that Heeney
had been softened up as result
of the beating Gene Tunney gave
him on the night of July 26,
1928, in Tunney's last fight. Tom
hasn't been much good since.
But Heeney surprised every
body. He rushed across the
ring at the opening bell and
administered a severe body
beating to Baer in the latter's
own corner, winning the round
by a big margin. He won the
second round, too, being the
aggreSSOr throughout.
Baer came back strong in the
third, however. He nailed Heeney
with several husky clouts to the
head. Then, with the round
hardly a minute old, he suddenly
caught Tom flush on the chin
with a long right that sent
Heeney backward through the
ropes into the laps of two news
paper men. 1t wasn't a Snappy
punch. It was sort of a half
shove.
Immediately the scribes pushed
Tom back in there.
Arthur Donovan, knOckdOWn
timekeeper, promptly started q
"cOunt" on Heeney. While
Heeney was out of the ring he
reached the count of "twO."
George Bannon, the official
timekeeper, with a stop watch in
his hand, counted along with
Donovan.
But-and here's where the rub
came in-when Heeney was
pushed back into the ring, Dono-
van started to count all over
again. Bannon, however, con-
tinued on three, four, five" ct
cetera.
Picks Up Count
Bannon was at three when
Donovan was at one on the re-
count. ..oo1
Baer to a neutral corner, picked
11n Donovan's count at three;
Donovan was making the audible
count, and, of course, was the
only timekeeper Dempsey could
hear.
Heeney, meanwhile, was rest
ing on one knee, none the worse
for wear and obviously intend
ing to take a count of nine"
And Dempsey went on IN uni
son with Donovan:
-Four, five, six, seven, eight
Dempsey got no further. Ban,
non began waving and shouting