Evening star., 1941-05-21
Lost ListIess Battle
After Watching Joe
WaIIop Brother
Prior to 1885 Tragedy
He, Not Present Champ,
Was Being Hailed
BY JOHN LARDNER,

NEW YORK, May 81 CN.A. N. AZ.
Its funny to think saw Buddy
Baer in action couple Of months
before I ever heard Of Joe Louis,
now the worlds most famous fighter,
who undoubtedly will grind Buddy
to powder in the Washington ball
park Friday evening.
Louis turned professional on July
4, 1884. Buddy had his first pro
fight two months later. But Louis,
in those early battles of his, was un-
lowers of A. A. u. competition
while Buddy was the kid brother
of the champion of the world,
watched and followed from the
moment he first pulled on a pair
of gloves.
The kid brother ran up a string
of quick knockouts in the fall of
1884. We heard he was bigger than
Max and could punch with his right
hand. That was all 1t didn't mean
much. When a young fighter with
possibilities breaks in with a big
stable, you are apt to find him
rolling up those quick knockouts
The fight game is full of unwilling
stooges, and willing ones, too.
Picture Rosy in 1884.
In December, 1884, King Levinsky
and Art Lasky fought a main bout
~ Chicago. Levinsky and Lasky
were good names at the time, espe-
cially in Chicago, but the promoters
did their card no harm by adding
Buddy Baer in a preliminary. 1t
was Buddy's first shot on big card,
in big town. and people wanted to
see what the younger Baer looked
like and what he could do.
The whole Baer caravan rolled
into town before the fight-Ancil
Hoffman and the Baer boys, Max
and Buddy. They've been rolling
into town together ever since-this
town and that. in fair weather and
foul, but it seemed to mean more
that first time in Chicago. 1t had
a significance: Max, the world
champion, was considered a great
fighter then, and Buddy was young
and fresh and coming along with
fanfare.
At the hotel before the fight, Max
gave a spacious Grafton on Buddy.
His feet are bigger than Car
neras,' said the champ proudly.
Half size bigger"
Can he lick you?"
"One of these days he'll murder
me. This kid is great, terrific. He'll
be better than me on the best day
I ever saw. Right now, of course"
said Max modestly, Il can handle
him. He got a little fresh with me
one day when we we're working
together. I saw he had an idea he
could lick me, so I had to leave
him have it on the button. But he'll
be the next champ"
BY this, of course, Mr.. Baer meant
that Buddy would succeed Mr.. Baer.
There was no thought of Joe Louis,
then totally unknown, or of James
j. Braddock, then Washed-up
stevedore on the Jersey docks.
That night Buddy fought hand
tailored stooge whose name, think,
was Frank Ketter. Max roared like
a sea lion from the ringside, and
when Buddy stopped his man with
q right to the whiskers, Max leaped
into the ring and saluted the winner
with a brotherly kiss on the ear. He
then took few bows and subsidized.
Brings Change in Buddy.
You could see that Buddy's right
hand carried a certain amount of
conviction. But the fight meant
nothing in itself. He had a few
more just like it. always walloping
hard with the right, never tested or
even seriously opposed, until a night
OF tragedy overlook the Baers-the
night in September, 1885, when Max
met Joe Louis.
In the 10 months after I'd first
seen Buddy in Chicago, a wind had
risen and turned a page of boxing
history. Max Baer no longer was
champion. Braddock held the title.
and Louis, year out of the
amateurs, was the most sensational
figure in the business.
Standing below MaX's corner
Buddy Baer watched the Brown
Bomber smash his brother and raze
him to the ground in four rounds.
A little later Buddy fought listlessly
with a cowboy who meant business,
Ford Smith, and lost.
He has lost other fights since then
mot many, but enough to show he
never was the grim destroyer he
seemed to be when 1 first saw him
seven years ago.
Buddy can turn another page of
history by whipping Louis this week.
But I don't think he will. Louis
still Is sitting On tie hook