Evening star., 1934-06-17


the boys for little harmless horse
shoe pitching. At least 100000
Americans are in organized clubs, and probably
1000 600 more lust pitch" without the for
mality of organization. The membership OF
both groups is increasing at an amazing rate.
In fact the time has about arrived when your
tilt-nosed neighbor, who used to affect golf
knickers and polo shirts can openly admit and
boast of the fact that he now pitches horse
shoes. 1t is new sport, originated only about
5000 years ago; shame on us for not having
popuarized it sooner.
At this writing I am the head man of horse
shoe pitching. I'm the world champ. My
pride in that fact is think, justiflable, because
I have worked hard for my position and be-
heve that I can relinquish it with good grace
when a better pitcher comes along. Several
fellows crowding me already.
And we are not hicks" The yokes who
formerly pitched shoes (of real equine feeD at
q buggy axle stuck in the ground, out back of
Sweeneys livery stable, are no longer repre-
sentative of the growing new army OF horseshoe
sportsmen-
Many of us who are in the upper brackets
of horseshoe pitching never set foot on a farm,
never shod horse, would not recognize
singletree if we saw one. am an exception to
that rule; was born on a Kansas farm and
grew up on one in California, but this fact Is
just coincidence.
I HORSESHOE pitching is longer a sport
] ] for the senile hayseeds to be regarded with
q sort of contemptuous grin. Strictly speaking,
it never was.
If you doubt that, come on out to the courts
with some time.
In 20 minutes will make fool of you I
will have your arm aching your back sore, your
head swimming, your inferiority complex doing
hySterical SomersaultS.
violent tennis spectacular
foot ball, my sport nevertheless approaches per-
fection. Any competent physician or physical
trainer will inform you that the ideal exercise
is one that combines long, leisurey outdoor
activity with a spirit of competitive play.
That's horseshoes.
have thrown Sc shoes, each weighing about
what a brckbat weighs, the 40 feet from stake
to stake and made ringer every time.
ringer is a perfect throw-the shoe cleanly
looped over or around the stake.
In 100 throws 1 have score Of 90 ringers.
One of my good friends and the one who seems
most likely to knock me off my championship
pedestal, has record of "a ringers IN 100
throws. He is Jimmy Lecky of Phoenix, Ariz,
boy of 21
Incidentally Jun has a crippled foot which
forces him to reverse all the normally correct
positions of throwing to ignore the theoretically
perfect stance. right handed pitcher, he
miraculously throws with his right foot forward,
instead of his left Try it just once and you'll
know what mean.
My world championship was won last Sum-
mer at the international tournament in Chi
cago where I was fortunate enough to take
the crown away from Blair Nunamaker OF
Cleveland Ohio, a pitcher whose shoe goes at
the stake like a bullet, and whose mouth
meanwhile does the most astonishing contor-
tions you could imagine!
have laughed many times at Blair's mouth.
But when 1 have to pitch against him he is not
funny He is a menace.
1t has taken me IL years to win the highest
prize.
started pitching when was 13. In school,
the teachers used to tell us that Rome was
not built in a day." that success came only
after years of concentration and purpoSeful en-
deavor, but that there is always plenty of room
at the top of the ladder. (You know what
/ mean, you remember all that old copybook
stuff as well as -
IA /EIL, the copybooks and the teachers were
wv wrong just point-there is not
always plenty of room at the top!
When got within sight, so to speak, of
the horseshoe championship the competition
was still keen. lot of other fellows evidently
had used the same copybooks or had the same
teachers back in the pre-war days. But no
matter; my point is that skill in horseshoe
pitching, just as in boxing or banking or sailing
or singing, comes only with patience and pains.
This new-old sport of horseshoes just re-
Verifies for the many -millionth time the fact
that we cannot have something for nothing.
Trite as that is, have profited from the
tremendous moral lesson in it. The good old