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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunsran Maybe Rip Newborn Was Right Baseball Writers Really Jealous? Common Sense From Alex Gordon Labor Problems for Trainers NEW YORK, N. Y„ April 18. Recently a sports writer named Rip Newborn wrote a story for Esquire Magazine defending the "scapegoat of sports, which. of course, is horse racing. From many parts of the country we received letters and telegrams calling our attention to the article and asking that we comment on it. It was a finely written piece, but we did not enthuse too much about commenting for the reason that we are not of that school who feel we should constantly be making apologies for a sport that is the target for reformers. Nor did we exactly agree with Newborn when he placed the critics of racing in three categories : 1 1 Those having only a superficial knowledge of the sport, but condemning it because of what they have read and heard prejudicial to it; 2» those who assert that the bias against the sport is solely because it involves betting, and 3» baseball partisans who are envious of the turfs growing prosperity. We especially disagreed with the last classification, because we did not believe that baseball writers were as narrow-minded as Rip would have us believe. We know many fine baseball writers who enjoy a day at the races. Just one who comes to mind is Garry Schumacher, of the Journal American. But we are beginning to realize that the baseball ranks do have some, referred to by Newborn in Esquire. Just last night we picked up a New York newspaper to read in one of the columns, "Baseballs popularity dive can be delivered in one word — money. Horse racing, with betting, will outdraw any ganie with a ball ever invented. Given a bank roll, most people prefer racing." Following that, the columnist goes on to rant and rave about how much it costs for a day at the races. What he is really telling us, although endeavoring to defend baseball, is that people will go to a ball game when they are short of funds, but will run for the race track when they have a few dollars. Why get excited about that? Yet, you do meet people on the race track who, though they do not have any cureall for racings ills, do have sound suggestions for its improvement. On Saturday we ran into Alex Gordon, a veteran of the old school. Alex had one simple suggestion and it struck us as a good one. He pointed over to the barns and said, "Take any backstretch, on any race course, these mornings when trainers are sending their horses through the early routine, and you will know that those men have a problem that is troubling them." Gordon continued, "Trainers are feeding their horses and at the same time thumbing condition books to find suitable opportunities for them to race. You do not have to be around these men very long to note an undercurrent of helplessness in the job they are trying to do. The underlying trouble, of course, is the labor situation. The war has taken a great many men from the stables and racing should be proud of those men who have given their services to their country. But a lot of those men are now returning — many of them with just minor wounds and ailments — so why doesnt the racing now take the trouble ; to find those who want life in the open and who are capable of doing work that is not too hard or difficult." We hear a great deal thee days about post war planning. Whether we know it or not, that condition is upon us right now. Recently, one magazine stated that the unemployed would total 7,000,000 by the spring of 1945 and that the figure would be doubled by the spring of 1946. Men are being sent back every day in the week — some are driving taxis and taking other jobs where they can earn a quick dollar to aid in rehabilitating themselves and helping to take care of the families. How many racing can absorb, we do not pretend to know, but we do know that the stables are sadly short of competent help and many men soon to be out of uniform could fill them. Horsemen should look into this condition of the returning soldier. The soldier does not have to have any particular knowledge of caring for a horse and can be taught in organizations that have some capable grooms. This is merely a suggestion on our part. It came from the man who knows what he is talking about and, unlike some of these baseball experts, who while away their time by going to a race track andl knocking its brain out in their endeavor to scream that the growing popularity of horse racing is the real reason behind the waning popularity of baseball.
