The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-03-01
TALKING
ITOvER
BY JOE WILLIAMS

GW 1Otth, Marcn LINE
IN baseball pages are beginning
10 boil with hot news from the
spring training camps. For example
Mr.. Shanty Hogan of the Giants
has been placed on a diet. 1t seems
that Mr.. Hogan has trouble keeping
his weight down, and that his
effectiveness behind the bat is
measured in direct ratio to his
poundage.
Because Mr.. Hogan is a big league
ball player it appears that the di-
mansions of his girth is a matter
Of national interest. A horde of re-
porters representing metropolitan
newspapers peer critically at Mr..
Hogan's waistline each day and tele-
graph their observations across the
continent.
If Mr.. Hogan we're a truck driver. q
piano mover or a bond salesman nobody
would care particularly how much or how
AttIe beef he was carrying. 1t is one of
INC penalties an important figure in pub
The veteran pitcher Jack quinn has
been steaming out in Hot Springs. Mr..
There is a legend that he helped lay out
the first diamond in America. At about
TINS time each year. Mr.. Quinn's pitching
wing, or soup bone, becomes a topic OF
IeYerish interest.
XXTHAT does Mr.. John j. Nc
w GraW think of the coming
season? The great man must al
ways be sounded out on the gen.
eral situation, his thoughts inter-
preted and duly promulgated. This
is n Of the set laws of the jour-
nalistic craft. I shudder TO think
what might happen if an effort
were made to launch a baseball sea-
son without first consulting the del
phic oracle of the game.
There must always be a certain amount
OF emotional, stun in the spring training
egamp news. too, The fading old timers
RiXev. MaranVille. Jameson. Faber cling
ing on with claw like fingers to the last
remnant of a glorious background against
the double ,onrush of time and eaEer-eyed
youth; When will you see their like
Some mention also must be made Of the
SEA plight OF the Boston teams; Is this
their sensational drama of 1914 when they
came from last place in July to win the
by beating the Athletics four straight in
the world ~series?. You never can tell. the
are. And who was It that said. the
game isn't over until the last man is out?'
Red Sox with a reference to their past
glorieS. when Speaker. Hooper and Lewis
Ruth dominated the box. Those were the
daysl .
MO, the news from the training
IN camps doesn't change much
from year to year. The general
pattern is about the same, the only
difference being that new young
sters come up and old oldsters go
out. I suppose it is true that this
sort of stuff is Of interest only to
the avid baseball flbert but since
there are millions of these flberts,
there can be no editorial question
of it's value.
They have been saying for years that
baseball interest is on the wane, and yet
the attendance figures constantly grow
higher. There is no doubt but that golf
has hurt baseball in the small cities. but
in the bigger cities the game has more
This is not easily explained. Proper
tionately, golf is as widely played in the
there is no reason why baseball shouldn't
continue to hold its popularity. Basically
and. the PROFESSIONAL oid-timer to the con
trary. it is better played today than it
ever was.
Another thing the club owners have
sanely kept the admission prices scaled to
a low and inviting level, Baseball re
reach of the sports shopper. True, the
cub owners have practically eliminated
the bleacher seats, which think is a mis-
take. but that has been the only evidence
Of greed on their part-and when you COM
pare this to the $50 ring side seats in
novatcd by Tex Rickard, it isn't i'm
portant.