The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 9

ri SO MY ft TELL ME By Ralph Trost L.I.U. Has Old Score To Settle This Night Blackbird Five Thirsting to Avenge Memorable Southern Cal. Defeat of '39 Fordham Slight Favorite Over Rice By GEORGE E. COLEMAN All season Clair Bee has been asking his Blackbirds to win just one game. That tilt is tonight's battle with Southern California in the first encounter of the twin bill that brings Fordham U.

and Rice Institute cagers together in the late tussle. It was the Trojans from California who snapped Long Island 42-game winning streak in 1939 by a 57-to-49 count and the Buzzing Bee wants to sting back and continue the team's winning streak of 22 victories. Bee admits that his cagers are improving, but. not sufficiently for him to warrant any optimism over tonight's tussle. Coach Sam Barry has Bob Ormsby and John Luber, who were on the 1939 Trojan quintet 'MW If.

to Sum that snapped the L. I. TJ. streak, plus veterans Aiex Omaley and Ted Gof-sard, with sophomore Len Berg, as his starting five. TT 1 Dodgers, I I AX IJ I I Miscellaneous Records for 1941 Single Out Reiser, Camilli, Medwick By TOMMY HOLMES I Wb Aw H)M 1 i TOO MANY RULES Have you ever met Hugh Ray? He's a little man.

He's over 60 now, He's got a skin as white as tablecloth, a mild voice and a passion for numbers. Hugh Ray used to be a school teacher. On the side he was an official. An umpire or referee or field Judge. He handled football, baseball and basketball.

The more Hugh Ray officiated, the more he was certain that all rules are too confplicated to be completely understoodand when Hugh Ray said this, I was interested. That's what I think. Games are spoiled by too many rules. People won't bother learning. That Is, only a few will and while a small percentage want to know the rules so that they i vill play the game as intended, the majority or rule-knowers turn out to be rule-lawyers.

Though he had officiated for years, Hugh Ray didn't believe he knew, honestly knew, all there was to be known. He floundered around at first trying to get experiences and opinions from others. But the more he got, the more he sought and the more he could get his clutches on, the more cein he was that the only answer was in numbers. He started to compile statistics. One thing Hugh Ray never suspected when he started out was that insurance companies were interested.

"Sure, they'd write insurance to cover injuries in sports, particularly in football. But they didn't have the case histories, the volume of data on which their experts could base injury-expectancies, cost and premiums on policies." Eventually Ray and his aides compiled the statistics. Now football players can be insured. PROOF IS IN THE RECORDS When the National Football League was well on the way toward financial solidity, Ray sold the mthe idea that his figures could prove a lot of things they wanted to know about speeding up the game, about rules and such. And so Ray, wit hassistants now, kept on plugging.

Out of his labor on reports and the vast charts on which these reports are reduced to numbers and percentages, he obtained enough information to rewrite the present high school code, his numbers and his rules are the reason the high school season is down to seven games. Too many injuries in the eighth game! Not in every eighth game, of course, but in a sufficient number of eighth games. The high school code, you know, differs from the intercollegiate. Thst bothers the little white man. His pro code also differs.

And he doesn't like that either. Just before I left Chicago last Monday, Hugh Ray gave me a package. It's a book of numbers and percentages. Forty-eight solid pages! "There's everything on football in there except the human element," Ray said with, in all probability, memory of what was evidently weak officiating in the Bears-Giants battle for the league title. AN ENCYCLOPEDIA You can find almost everything In Ray's numbers if you study hard.

You can find that the so-called open football which seems to go fast, is actually slow. The time-outs on incompleted passes. That's the reason. You can find that rain doesn't slow ply particularly. Oh, he's got the numbers.

Don't battle with him. You'll find that whether in college or in pro football, the percentage of running plays and pass plays is, on the whole, almost precisely the same. The only way the pros get in more passes in by running a greater total of plays. And they do this with a rule that permits 30 seconds between plays as against the collegiate rule which allows only 25. Down South, in the college league, the demand for fast games brought on games completed in as little a two hours and 16 minues.

"I can' be done, legally. My records prove it," said Ray. And so Ray's dockers went to work and discovered that he's right. The college officials got quick overall time by cutting down on the length of the time outs. Out of his experience and his numbers, Ray would change the rule about interference on forward passes so that if there is mterfernce with the receiver, the penalty is a flat 15 yards.

"It's immoral to assume any pass over 25 yards will be completed more often that once in about four tries. Yes, and there's interference by the offensive team," he says. Oh, Ray's made up a mass of figures. "They're necessary if we're going to get the proof that can shorten and simplify the rules," he says. "But there's that human element.

Ray can't get that down in numbers. But he's still in there trying. Just as he's trying to get all phases of football to agree to the 30 second rule so he can then develop a watch which will tinkle when 30 seconds are up. "Then there'll be no question of enforcement. The clock will do it and quarterbacks, on fourth down, won't be able to go into a trance while debating whether they'll run, kick, pass or try for a field goal." HOPE TO CHECK BLACKBIRDS' STREAK Alex Omolev, Len Berg ond John Luber (left to right) sharpening their work under the basket in preparation for game with Long Island University in opener of doubleheader at Garden tonight.

Blackbirds have won 22 straight. Trojans snapped L. I. 42 straight streak two years ago. 'Amerks Mark Leafs on Ice OROOKLYN ThiS starting 1uintet saw action in a practice tilt against Fordham on the Rams' court yesterday and handed the Rose Hill outfit a sound beating.

Yet, it is expected that the Bee-men, with Hank Beenders and Dick Holub doing their stuff around the backboards and Saul Cohen, plus the Rader twins, Howie and Len, popshooting, should turn in the victory. Bee, however, keeps his fingers ushUv sed. he wants to go on nis tr'P to tne Su8ar Bowl. where the Blackbirds meet Tennessee Tuesday, undefeated, and at the same time wants to smash that California jinx that hangs over the Brooklyn downtown school. It was Stanford that snapped the 43-game winning streak in 1937.

Fordham where the best basketball in town wears those white and maroon jerseys, should have a difficult time downing the veteran Rice cagers, who lost out to the 1940-41 L. I. U. five in the closing seconds of the toughest 40 minutes the Blackbirds had that season, Rice has won seven straight games, with Bob Kinney and Bill CIoss, a pair of six-feet-six-inch giants doing a large portion of the scoring, while Placido Gomez, the captain of the outfit, who was out of action with a broken foot in Rice's last visit to the Garden; Chester Palmer and Hal Lambert round out the combination. Ed Kelleher, the Rams' coach, has an all-veteran team.

Max Loeffler, Bobe Croke, George Sherry, George Babick and Dick Fitzgerald are well known to the Garden fans. Fordham has captured four out of five games, losing a one-point decision to Dartmouth on the Big Green's court. South All-Stars Favored In Blue vs. Gray Game Montgomery, Dec. 27 (U.R) All-Star collegians of the South faced Northern All-Stars at Cram-ton Bowl today in the annual Blue vs.

Gray football game, first of the post-season gridiron classics. The Southerners were favored to win in a contest that promised wide open play and plenty of passing. Co-captains for the South are Lloyd Cheatham of Auburn, quarterback, and Bob Gude, center from Vanderbilt. Northern leaders guard, and Bob Friedlund, Michi gan State end. The North won two of the three previous games which resulted as follows: 1938: North 7, South 1939: South 33, North 20; 1940: North 14.

South 12. Cook Improving Jack Cook, executive of the Jersey City Giants Baseball Club, is "doing very well" after being ill of pleural pneumonia since Tuesday, it was said at the Park West Hospital yesterday. Cook has been managing the farm affiliations of the Jersey City club. i SPOR For the last time this year, of baseball statistics, this mess tional League miscellaneous It is the N. pleasure tinnal in the order of their average of total bases on hits divided by official times at bat.

In the American League, these figures are lined up accord- ing to the number of runs batted in. All of which makes little difference. In either case, members of our Dodgers would write their names all over the upper brackets. If you like the slugging percentage system, Pete Reiser is first with .558, closely followed by Dolph Camilli with .556. Somehow Johnny Mize sneaked into third place with a mark of .535, but another Dodger takes over fourth position Joe Medwick with .517.

Mr. Medwick is the outfielder Eddie Brannick says the Giants couldn't use. tieisrr mosi ravonie i arirei Or maybe you like the A. L. sys- tern.

In that case, your leader would be Camilli, whose 120 runs batted in topped the league. Or perhaps you'd like to create a new system and rate your sluggers according to total bases. Then Reiser would be your top man with 299. Rated according to number of times hit by pitcher, first is Reiser, whose anatomy was nudged by high, hard ones no less than 11 times. Or perhaps rate them according to the number of times they stuck out.

That would be Camilli, who whiffed 115 times. About the only departments that do not place a Dodger on top was the matter of bases on balls and hitting into double plays. Elburt Fletcher, the Pirate first basemen, led the league with 118 walks. Camilli was second with 104. -Frank McCormick hit in 22 double plays, tops for the year.

Again a Dodger finished second, Medwick, who hit into two-outs 20 times. Collectively, the Dodgers led the league in slugging percentage with .405. The Cardinals were second with .377. The Dodgers also drove in more runs than any other club, 747, and drew tne greatest number of bases on balls, 600. Braves a Favorite Victim There is another table which shows the number of shutout games each club won and lost.

Who leads? Why, the Dodgers, of course. Brooklyn pitchers hurled 17 shutouts and the Dodgers were blanked only four times for a percentage of .810. Cincinnati's fine pitching to I i I i I I SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1941 AXAC Vt i I we'll dish you out a heaping final being the Na- records 1941. rate individuals on this addi-' their or K. of C.

Prout Games Boston Canceled 7iton, Dec. 27 One of Boston's best sporting fixtures, the annual Knights of Columbus Prout Memorial indoor tfick meet, originally scheduled to be held Jan. 31, has been cancelled, it was announced yesterday by Walter G. Powers, I State deputy. The reason Powers gave for the event being called off is that the organization's State council de- sired to concentiaie its entire I membership on civilian defense projects.

reeistered 19 shutouts but. the Reds were whitewashed nine times. A getneleman with great respect for the Brooklyn brand of bowling Casey Stengel, Braves were shut out seven times by the Dodgers. And here is still another table, a compilation of the various games decided by one run. Again the Dodgers are in front.

They won 28 games, lost only Id by the closest possible margain for a percentage of .636. The Cardinals were second, winning 31 and losing 22 by one run for a .585 mark. Nine of those stirring games be tween the Dodgers and Cardinals were decided by one run and the Dodgers won five of the nine. No less than 11 of the 22 games with the Reds were that close and Brooklyn took six of the 11. Another table is of extra-inning games, and again Brooklyn leads, having won eight of their dozen games that went overtime for a .667 percentage.

The Cardinals had no fewer than 22 extra-inning contests and could only break even with 11 victories. Another table shows that the Dodgers won the pennant on the road. The Cardinal record at Sportsman's Park (53 victories and 24 defeats! is one game better than the Dodger record at Ebbets Field (52 victories and 25 defeats). But away from home Leo Durocher's hardened travelers were three and a half games better. They won 48 and lost 29 in foreign ball parks, while the Redbirds were winning 44 and losing 32 in enemy territory.

It all adds up to the obvious fact that our Dodgers had one whale of a year. t7 i Perry to Bound Back in Few Days For ten fiftul. lineerine Thompson's nation-wide professional tennis tour rested on Fred Perry's funny-bone. In the final set of his match with Joins Naval Reserves Chicago, Dec. 27 (INS).

Steve Juzwik, star back of Notre Dame's 1941 undefeated football team, last night announced his enlistment in the Naval Reserve Corps, i Juzwik, 22, and a senior at Notre Dame, Immediately will be enrolled in the midshipman's school at Northwestern University's Chicago campus. EAGU moments, the fate of Alexis1 Garden last night, Perry took and landed on his right elbow. Trenton tomorrow night minus Perry. But he will probably be ready when the tourney opens in Philadelphia on the 29th. Perry was getting more trouble Ulan wgainea (or irom aoooy iiru lit ijun.

ma Luinuir. Bobby had won the first set, 63, and Fred the second set, 6 4. Riggs was leading. 5 4, and the count was 15 all when the accident occurred. It was a sorry ending for Rikrs, his contemporary, Frank Kovacs, had just beaten Don Budge, 6 4.

26, 6 4, and Riggs had hopes of making a clean sweep for the newly turned pros. When Kovacs won the first set after sweeping three games, tne crowd settled back, expecting Budge to turn ojt the heat. But Frankie kept coming and won the first two 1 games of the second set and then i collapsed, while Budge ran through him for six straight games to even the match at a set apiece. It looked as though the clown had had his momentary spotlight and wa.s now folding before the master. He appeared nervous and broke his own service with two do'ibie faults.

Nogrady Tressed Into Service But Frank bounced right back in the third set, which was packed with good tennis. Kovacs broke in the third game and took a lead which was never headed. Don tried valiantly, but could not stop the net clown, who was obviously jittery despite his success. He missed three straight match points in the ninth game, but ran his own service into the 10th for victory. Point scores on the sets were: first.

Kovacs 36. Budue Budge37, Kovacs 23; 29: second, Kovacs 35, Budge 30. John Nogrady. well-known tennis teacher of Brooklyn who was a spectator at the ma'ches. wa.s en listed to take Pern's place along- side of Budge against Riggs and Kovacs in the doubles.

A surprisingly fair crowd of 11.237 turned nut for the matches. The gate was $26,404. i i As Next Victim The Brooklyn Americaai wored their first victories of the season over the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks this past week, leaving only two teams that the Duttonmen have failed to defeat the Toronto Maple Lea's and the Boston Bruins. Tomorrow night the Americans hope to cut the list in half by tak- ing the measure of the formidable Maple Leafs at the Garden. That in itself is quite an assignment for the Leafs are only one point re-; moved from the top of the standings.

They blanked the Bruins on Thursday night. 20. and the Bruins have things pretty much their own wa-v in fir- Plate- Marker May See Action The Amerks arp placin fheir hopes in Charley Raynor. youthful goal tender. Toronto has twice beaten the lorais but on each occasion Earl Roberuon was in the nets.

Tomorrow night it will be Raynor, and Charley is currently turning in some of the best goal-keeping in the league. Garden fan.s will probably get their first peek at Gus Marker of me Americans, wno nas Deen out of the lineup with a broken wrist in the first game of the season. Marker is now said to he ready for duty and should add considerable power to the Amerks' scoring punch. For the present Dutton is plan ning to go along with three de- fensemen Pat Egan, Wilfie Field and Tommy Anderson. Andy Bran-igan, who was at first thought to have suffered a broken leg, is expected back with the Amerks in about two weeks, now that his injury has been diognased as a sprain, C.C-D.

HAS HIGH HOPES Larry MacPhail, Dodgers' president, who believes Flock will be a better team next season, but who says they'll hove to be to ccp PPnnont- He said this in an interview in Miami. fer Brooklyn Represented Ably at Seton Hall i Seton Hall College, very much of timers heaven. Johnny Bobby Rtggs at Madison Square a tumble going after a low one Perry writhed and contorted on the Garden floor and was carried off in a stretcher to Polyclinic Hos- across the street. The injury was diagnosed as a contusion of the radial nerve. For a.

mnmpnt, it. wa.s hplipvpH that Perry had cracked a small bone in his right forearm, and if 1 such had been the case Thompson would have had to call off his which is scheduled to visit 80 cities. It would not be much of a tour with Mr. Perry missing, 1 The net cavalcade moves into Beckman, the best basketball plaver that ever stepped on a court 'and if you doubt that ask Joe Lapchick. Russell, Nat Holman or any other pro player except Rody Cooney he holds out for Holman) in the section are Stretch Meehan.

Uie tallest man of pro ranks of 20 ears ago, now a top flight attorney out New Jersey way; Dutch Delinert, the inventor of the pivot play in the days when the pivotman seldom shot; George Norman, leader of the famous St. James Triangles and the No. 1 athlete who ever wore a St. John's U. uniform.

Tap Gallagher, coach of Niagara and known to the moderns a.s the DeGray's top athlete, starred in basketball, football and baseball: but Norman starred in all those and in addition was No. 1 on the swim ming, boxing, wrestling and track Two weeks aeo Norman. now about 50 years old. had his biweekly basketball workout at St. Francis College.

Braginetz. the Terriers' captain, took one look and tried to ru naround the former pro player from Bay Ridge. some reason of other Braginetz i found Norman always in front of: Just experience, says coleman. Sharkey Offers to Referee Jack Sharkey, only sailor who ever won the heavyweight title, has offered his services free as refree of the world's heavyweight title fight between Buddy Baer and Joe Louis to be fought for the benefit of the Navy Belief Society Jan. 9.

Sharkey is a licensed refree In Massachusetts. iisit VICTIM OF TENNIS WARS with Bobby Riggs last night the injury was not serious. a minor-league basketball outfit five years ago, is now one of the outstanding quintets of the nation Brooklynite John (Honey) Russell of 221 E. 37th St. is the man who performed the Honey, known by his professional basketball cohorts as a top promoter, daily commutes to South Orange, N.

where he coaches his Hallers in the grandest field house on the Eastern Dartmouth, which beat St. John's and Fordham, plays Seton Hall on that 95-foot-long court tonight. Many spectators will hail from Brooklyn as the South Orange school's five is spotted with Flat-bushites. Bobby Holm, the top under-the-basket man; Ken Pine from Adelphi and John Stud-will from Richmond Hill, all on the first five, while the bench is crowded with lads who spent their weekends strutting along Flatbush However, there's always the bright side and in this case it's that Russell has scouted the Dartmouth giants, and with any pro it's the old byword, "Just give us a peek at I them an dthey're beaten." There's a section of the Seton Hall gym's balcony that Is an old- i i i erry writhing in pain after taking a tumble during his match is foot in the tautly-stretched green canvas, but, fortunately, Graphic photo shows Fred ot the Garden. Perry caught.