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ii ■■■SBMMBKJ t SPORTS CLOSE-UPS By Ira Seebacher I NEW YORK, N. Y., May 11.— Poor Herb Score is in danger of losing the sight of his s eye or both eyes as the result of being hit t ii by by a a smoking smoking line-drive line-drive B by by a a smoking smoking line-drive line-drive B off the bat of Gil Mc-Dougald. " The terribly unfortunate incident t occurred in Cleveland i last Tuesday in the e first inning of the e game. It is completely understandable that Gil was plunged into 3 the deepest sort of f gloom. Remorsefully, , he remarked that if ■ anything anything happened happened to to 3 ■■■SBMMBKJ anything anything happened happened to to 3 Scores sight, he, McDougald first thought t he would quit baseball. No one blames McDougald, not even ! . Score, and McDougald understandably felt as bad as he possibly could about having » been the one that felled Score. Yet it was 3 wrong for Gil to castigate himself this way. Baseball is a game which depends upon hitting a ball at a high velocity — a hard I ball. Weve seen accidents many times in ball parks more often, it is true to people sitting in stands than to the players, but it t is a game that has a certain number of calculated risks, both for the players and for r the spectators. It would be as ridiculous to say, as a result of this unfortunate episode, lets ban baseball as it would be for McDougald to take himself out of the game merely because he was the one that felled poor Score. It might have been anyone who lashed that ball back At the Cleveland pitcher just as s t B " t i e e 3 f , ■ 3 t ! . » 3 it might have been any pitcher out there who was hit. * There just is no way to eliminate com- pletely all the possible injury factors in the , game. As it is, there are very few consid- ering how many players are involved, how 1 many games are played and the number s of man hours spent playing them. ] * a a The majors enjoy a particularly fine rec- ord. All clubs employ doctors and hesitate j not a minute in summoning the finest t medical aid obtainable for the assorted aches, ills and sprains that arise. Players, ] when at bat, are now compelled to wear their crash helmets and while a man hit l on the head wearing one of these helmets J may be felled, his chances of sustaining a * severe head injury are far lessened. Still, there will always be poor fellows like Score, * players who ram immovable walls, players * , 1 s ] j t ] l J * * colliding when fielding a ball, foul tips that J nub outstretched fingers and the like. r The list of minor injuries is a long one. t Players make light of the charley horses, £ spike wounds, broken and sprained fingers, I j muscle pulls and the like but, of course, when a major injury is incurred, such as Scores, it is sobering to realize once again that there is a very real element of danger in the game. Yet their risk is a calculated one and T not a particularly great one. It would have t been foolish for McDougald to have stuck i to so rash a vow and our time might be c better spent in praying that Score will fully 1 recover the use of his eye and go on to be j one of the games greatest pitchers. He has a been dogged for a long time by ill luck. Maybe it is his fate now to get some of the breaks. We hope so. The more we think of the schedule so far I this year, the more we agree with our dis- Continued on Page Fifty-Nine • _ x I SPORTS CLOSE-UPS By IRA SEEBACHER Continued from Page Two tinguished contemporary, Joe Williams, that it is about time that baseball decides once and for all whether to fly with the chicks or swim with the guppies. This business of trying to be fish and fowl is satisfying no one. Either all baseball games— except week-end ones — ought to be played at night or night games should be a very occasional experiment such as they were in the beginning when seven such ventures in an entire season was considered par. Today some clubs are playing virtually a I night schedule and others have enough night dates dotted on their season schedule to make the alternate grind of day and night play a terribly grinding thing for the players. Either they get little time at all for sleep or too much time. Isnt it a sensible thing, or so we believe, to have it all one way? If it is the feeling of the majority of clubs that night ball is a better dividend producer then why not nothing but night games? Of course, at this point the Dodgers havent the faintest idea what it is that will bring out the Brooklyn fans. Their attendances have been atrocious even though j good teams have been on the visiting list. I Perhaps the fans are annoyed with OMal-leys threat to pull up stakes. While we cannot blame OMalley, we find it is hard to blame the fans, either. If the situation deteriorates any more there will be simply nothing for OMalley to do but to move. Perhaps he first thought he might be able to needle the fans into better support and needle New York into giving him a new stadium, but the needling hasnt worked. The fans apparently are giving the club the cold shoulder and New York either cannot or will not produce the new stadium.
