Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-08-15
, WIN, LOSE OR
|DRAW !, FRANCE, .rAup
Kiss of Death

CHICAGO, AUG 15.-In the plush Venetian Room Of
midtown hotel, Abe SaperSten Of Harlem Globe
trotters fame throwing his annual lunch for the
Football Writers of America This has been going for
number Of years. testimony to Saperstens bank status
but this day the free-loaders neither talking
basketball nor the All-Star football game.
Word had just been passed that Birdie Tebbetts had
resigned manager at Cincinnati and the writing tribe
shaking heads first in disbelief and then in small
impromptu mouthngs all adding up to "Why?"
True, Cincinnati has just hit bottom in the Ma
onal League But wasn't just matter of hours before
that General Manager Gabe Paul had uttered vote of
confidence in Manager Tebbetts?
THE kiss of DEATH" guy from Dayton said You
get that vote Of confidence and that means better
hustle and look around for a new job"
JERRY LIsKA OF THE Associated Press, out of
Chicago, posed this one:
Two guys get fired in the National League within
short time Mayo Smith Of the Philles and now Birdie
Why does it always happen to the real nice guys?"
Jim Gallagher who covered the White Sox and Cubs
a long time ago-and whose criticism of the Cubs led him,
a dare to do better general manager-looked up
from his plate.
Mayo Smith is one of the finest fellows I've ever met"
said Jim now troube-shoo for the Phies Il don't
know =. the fans in Philly kind of got on him"
But TebbettsP"
THE fans in Cincinnati riding him pretty good
too" reported the from Dayton Personally think
he's damn good manager"
Amen" somebody intoned.
What do you suppose really happened 10 that pan
cub? man asked Whose idea was 1t TO scrap all mat
power in favor of pitching? And for pitching didn't
Cincinnati get junk in exchangeP
GALLAGHER PUT DOWN his fork. mo, it wasn't
quite that bad" he said quietly. "Purkey few
others did all right for Cincinnati. What happened
as see it, is that instead Of getting licked by 1913 the
Reds began to lose by 81
as that Tebbetts' fault?" asked Isn't that
front-offce policy?"
- a. rsaid in1ao wa
a decision made with BRIDES okay. You see, all that
power the Reds gave up wasn't much They traded us
Wally Post. They traded off Ted Kluszewski to the
Pirates.
THE guys who hurt Tebbetts the he banked
on Frank Robinson hasn't been hitting for instance
GUS Bell hasn't been having good year. Then there's
that infield."
ONE WHO WAS BREAKING bread at the table said:
Jim, that's about good an infield as I've seen In
long time. You mean. ?"
well I've been scouting the Reds recently" Gallagher
said land maybe don't know what I'm talking about or
the lights are deceiving The impression I've got is
that Cncinnatis middle nfed hasn't been able to do the
Job . . a step in this direction, one in another"
Are YOU suggesting that Roy Mcmillan and Johnny
Temple over the hill9"
I'm not suggesting anything" Jim answered I'm
simply talking about that good doubeplaythe one the
Yankees always to get Cincinnati used to get
'em-now they don't"
LEFT WITH THIS THOUGHT football was mentioned
Tonight, you may know. the College AStars play
ing the Detroit Lions and the socaed coegians not
being rated very highly.
Around town today the pro champions
than to l. But people getting the idea that
Otto Graham making his formal debut coach might
have something up his sleeve.
Mike Sommer Of George Washington. for instance
isn't listed Grahams two starting squads Sommer
may be his secret weapon If he isn't. George Preston
Marshall is almost to be heard from.