The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-03-23
This Sporting World
Friday Fish And Chips
By JOHN A. CLUNEY


 Dial-twisters really got an earful last night with the Town Hall program featuring It. Col. Larry McPhail, the World War l Kaiser Kidnaper. Stan (NY PosD Frank, Ted Husing, the "aooray-for Har- yard" specialist who was barred for life from the Boston Back Bay dis trict for using the word PUTRID in connection with Harvard football, one season in the Cambridge press box, "it smells ON ICE; and John nv Tunis, sports-book author. Frank and Tunis used word-rap1ers against McPhail and Husing on the subject of the value to public morale of sports in wartime. Frank was so frank with Husing that he sarcastic ally addressed him as Uncle Theo- dore" while McPhail hasn't bristied so much since Dan Parker first gave him a typewriter going-over on the Brooklyn Dodger TICKET S1TUA- TON that he will remember to his dying day. Chase Country Club golfers who knew the lad, will hope fully offer up silent prayer for the well-baing of It. Billy Gray. bomber pilot. who has been MISSING IN ACTION OVER AUSTRIA since early March. A brother of OSsle Gray, well-knoWn Hitchcock Lake golfer, young Bill earned his WINGS in short order. He was one ot the most popular golfers ever to grace the old Mattatuck and present Chase course. All we can do now IS wish him Godspeed and SAFE RETURN. After all, Michigans Tommy Harmon made it TWICE. Clark Downey, Dan Parker and Bill Downey, resident manager of the Hotel Abbey in NYC were mainly re- sponsible for the city champion Ieavenworth High school basketball boys getting in on one of the Ma tional Invitation basketball double headers at MISC. Clark, a member of LIS faculty, and Bill, are broth CTS, while Dan dug up 18 tickets de- spite his almost daily FRYING oi MISC president Nad Irish. who was a nice enough guy before he became wealthy and tried to control the col lege basketball world. |. Sports writers, as a rule, get along fairly well, but do not always see eye to eve" on controversial subjects and most of them say no in capital let ters: which, of course, makes inter- esting reading for the guys Who grab the sports pages, especially II they have an opinion on the subject written aboutAwhich they have most of the time (and Lord help you' if YOU disagree). What l am lsad- ing up to is Bill (Hartford CouranO Lees current comment on the Tues day WING ruling effecting baseball players, which allows the 4-Fs tC |ieave war jobs for the baseball dla- mond. which is nice work if you can get it. What I liked so much about Lees comment was this Tits lar better break than the SELFISH ana SOPHISTICATED club owners de- serve, but the ruling was made ln the interests of millions of fans aI ome and on the FlGHIlN0 FRONTS rather than for the owners and stockholders ot l6 ma)or league clubs and their minor league affil- iateS.'
 Brother Bill then winds up With this literary left-hook to the assort- ed double-chins of the owners:
 This corner has given his sharp elbow to the club owners so often o1 late that some read1rs must think I have a grudge against the moguls Well. have, and it involves this phony pretense of great sacrifice on their part when, as matter Of fact they have done almost nothing Ill the interests of the game in its re- lation to the war
 Bravo, Bill-and I know where there's a BASEBALL BAT that you can use to HIT FEM OVER THE HEAD. If the late Judge K. M. Lan- dis didn't release those farm players by PUNCHES and make them free agents, because of the AVARICE of th> club owners, the players concerned would be working for pay that would turn up the nose | 0ONITL1