Evening star., 1938-11-25
From the
Press Box
From the
Hot Hollywood Bettors
Pick Armstrong to Win
BY JOHN LARDNER,

ny JUN LAhDNEh,
Special Correspondent Of The Star.
NEW YORK, Nov. 25.-Henry
Armstrong having finally made ur
his mind to climb into the ring with
Ceferino Garcia. subject to change
without notice, to fight for the well
terweight championship of the
world, it is high time we refocused
our glasses and took fresh slant
at this promising quarrel.
Your correspondent advised the
taxpayers month ago to get
aboard Garcia on the short end of
those 8-to-5 odds, which seemed at
the moment to be slightly out OF
line Though I still like Garcia, a
couple of new developments have
raised their sinister noggins. chang
ing the complexion of the fight
from light to dark.
For one thing, there is the Cali
fornia hot spell. In the last few
weeks certain West Coast players
of hunch and form, including Mr..
Bing Crosby, the baritone, and Mr..
Patrick O'Brien, the dialectian,
have been running fever. What
ever they like is right, whatever they
slap their florins on comes home.
When you consider that these Holly
wood Johnny -Come-Latelys have
liked Henry Armstrong for quite a
while, in direct defiance of John w.
Drake, Col. Ed Bradley, Ace-Deuce
Lardner and other veteran killers,
1t makes you stop and think.
O'Brien Applies Midas Touch
When it Comes to Betting
In a recent Eastern raid, Mr..
OBrien was setting fire to every
thing he touched. Stick football
parlay card into his dimpled fist and
Mr.. OBrien would say. How do
these things work." Without wait
ing for an answer, the Coast Comet
would make six careless passes at
the card with a pencil and change
the subject to horses. Before you
could say "Hevre de Grace" the six
football winners would be safely
home and tucked in bed, and an
other starving bookmaker would
be drowning his kiddies to keep
body and soul together.
When he changed the subject to
horses, Mr.. O'Brien was just as
warm. These Californians came
East loaded for moose on the Sea-
biscuit-War Admiral match race.
They sang a straight Seabiscuit
ticket, while the flower and chivalry
of the Eastern turf smiled toler-
antly and doubled their bets. We
thought we had something in the
Admiral. Mr. O'Brien knew he had
something in the Biscuit.
That is the way it's going, and
Mr.. O'Brien's last words, as he
caught a cab for the station with
three deuces on its license plate,
were:
Armstrong is in. The Filipino
desn't live who can lick him."
7 tell you that so that you will
know that the voltage betting is on
little Henry.
Postponement Is Effected
With Vaudeville Trimmings
OF course, Little Henry has been
out there working for himself since
the date for which the fight origi-
nally was scheduled. The day before
that date his battered lip, containing
is stitches, still was leaking trifle
at the seams. The more Little Henry
thought about fighting the next day,
the less he liked the idea. It would
have been friendly of him to come
out and say what the trouble was,
but, instead, the Armstrong camp
arranged to postpone the fight with
q vaudeville show.
Though his training was finished,
Henry staged an extra couple Of
rounds of sparring for all to see
Halfway through he fell on his back,
and Manager Eddie Mead, beating
the cue by several seconds, rushed
to his side yelling TT looks as though
we will have to postpone the fight"
Promoter M. Strauss Jacobs
seemed somewhat stunned by this
swift bit of open-field running with
patter, but, when Mr.. Mead's punch
line had sunk in Uncle Michael
shuffled through the calendar and
allowed that he could find room for
the boys to fight at some reasonably
distant date, namely. November Is.
While doctors took candid snap
shots of Henry's backbone, and went
Into huddle over his sacro- lilac, Mr..
Mead agreed that this date was dis
tant enough. He seems to have been
right, for Henry's lip has returned
to normal. His back is fine, too.
The delay has done no good to
Mr.. Garcia, the puma faced bolo
puncher. Still, he is not what you
would call nervous type, and. if he
closes his ears to the power of sug-
gestion, he figures to be the winner.
He still will have his 12-pound weight
advantage and his edge in punching
power and that should be enough
against the man whom little Lou
Ambers bamboozled and cuffed
around In the last five rounds of
the Ambers- Armstrong fight.
Barring further injuries to the
champions lilac or a last-min-
ute siege Of dandruff, the battle will
m m crheI,,1aI e,,nL.%