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— —a yfiBr __l m HI EL 3™___rS I Hp -andMK :I___Hwwh___I l-aSr w * - *__l Rfr -__i _KF and ■L. i _■_! _B and __ _» 1 ► j __ Busby Owes Baseball Career To Case of Inflamed Tonsils JIMMY CARTER— Lightweightchampion will meet Enrique Bolanos in a ten-round non-title bout in Los Angeles, July 10. Operation and Lost Weight Forced Former TCU Athlete To Give Up Quarterbacking By MILTON RICHMAN United Press Sports Writer Joltin Jim Busby, the White Sox new speed sensation, admitted today he owes his big league baseball career to a set of inflamed tonsils. "Why, if it werent for those tonsils," grinned the 24-year-old rookie outfielder who is hitting .330 and leads both leagues 1 with 16 stolen bases, "I probably wouldnt be in a White Sox uniform today. As a matter of fact, I probably wouldnt be in 1 any kind of baseball uniform at all." Pulling his baseball cap over his eyes to 1 shut out the sunlight, Busby, a drawling Texan from Corpus Christi, told how he 5 was given a football scholarship to play 1 for Texas Christians Horned Frogs. "I was what you might call a quarterback," . he said lightly. "I played one year f of football in high school and put in another year at TCU." Then Busby came to the part about his 3 tonsils. "My tonsils became so inflamed in the summer of 1947," he said, "that a doctor r told me I had to have, them removed. So 1 I underwent the operation. Everything [ went along fine except that my weight , dropped from about 175 pounds to 148." . Busby swallowed hard at the memory of those extracted tonsils and continued. Down to 148 Pounds "When I got down to a measly 148," he : I said, "I knew that my football days were j over. I thought it over a while and decided " to go out for the baseball team, so I did and here I am." Here he is, and how! Considered one of - the major leagues outstanding rookies, * Busby makes light of his batting accomplishments " by saying, "Im really just a slap hitter." Among his 69 hits are eight doubles, two 0 triples and two homers, which all go to- * gether to make quite a lusty slap. In addi-_ " tion to his other accomplishments, Busby j already has earned the reputation of j s "breaking" faster for the next base than 1 any other speedster in the league. e "Funny thing about my base running," „ 1 Busby pointed out, "but the fact is that I ■ t used to get very poor starts in trying to j steal a base. Paul Richards White Sox * manager had a talk with me about it this ■ spring and taught me how to get that fast * break. But Im not going to say what he showed me," Busby laughed. "Thats a a _ trade secret." _ Regarding his spectacular speed, Busby ". t said he was timed in 9.8 for the hundred ■ - yards while running in a track meet for y dear ol TCU in the spring of 1948. Hardly » e had he finished that track meet, when he * put his text books aside and began playing pro ball with the White Sox-owned Waterloo, Iowa, farm club of the Three-I League. "Pete Fox, the former Detroit outfielder, ;• _ was managing Waterloo then and he ■ helped me a great deal," Busby revealed. u J "I know I still have a lot to learn in this s a game." s Oh, yes, the White Sox outfielder sud-Jj " denly remembered, there were three other s things that helped him make up his mind J s to switch from football to baseball. What were they? "I broke my collar bone," he 2 replied, "three times."
