the
th

“ig and B

Thomas conquers Juan de Fuca Strait |

“1

sadly edi

shown a
Minute sw

Ss the Juan de Fuca Strait aha tough to be beaten?” No sooner had Bert Whyte, Pacific Tribune
A tor, asked this question in an article in last weeks issue Aaa Bert Thomas, the determin-
*S. logger from Tacoma, took the words right out of his mouth. A rene
bove making the final few yards to shore, conquered the 18.3-mile strait in an 11-hour, 11-

im from Port Angeles, Wash., to Esquimalt.

In his fifth attempt, Thomas,

Fir.

st U.S. team visits USSR

Sovier, U.S. weightlifters vie
in friendly contest at Moscow

y,

© USsR,

By V. KHOMUSKOV

MOSCOW

Seldom h icht-lifti ontest called forth such interest among Moscow fans as
meeting has ee hace two best lifting teams in the world, from the U.S. and

Rais tne ) : : :
: uct lifters have met five times already at official championships, and each time there was

in Vj a last world championships

= in ox the fight for first
frie €tween Soviet and Am-
titles. ronetes: Of the seven world

; we iSS)
Brees yet 0 the USSR and

two gt Until 1

b
frien est t

ast month the world’s

al fams had never met’ in a
Y contest,

In an interview given to Soviet
newspapermen, Clarence Johnson,
head of the American sports dele-
gation and vice-president of the In-
ternational Weight-Lifting Federa-
tion, said that the reception ac-
corded them in the Soviet Union
iwas beyond all praise.

“Ours is the first U.S. team to

visit the Soviet Union,” Johnson

Trainer of

milers —

90es to Australia |

Last GY ERIC BUTLER

Niste, “€48on it was Roger Ban-
Ss Season Chris Chata-
Hewson have done
€d four minutes for the

Tian
=~ SMash
Mhije, “Mash

The ;
treble’ ,COMstitute the great British
hho have; 2&P hand of five men
ariey * beaten the four-minute
Wor) . “le others, of course, are
Australie! holder John Landy
Sarian es and Laszlo Tabori (Hun-
Chataway ne of the race in which
Sely : and Hewson put them-
ne the immortals).
a Dositi the credit for Britain’s
pricileg 92 Must go to London-
*ang Stamesttian-born coach Dr.
» Samnn Pel. ‘
tv Hews, thinks that the Chata-
e Open; achievement is just
be a Bre Be Shot in what should
“ts. Season for British ath:
LU
oged aegP{l—generally acknowl-
aniches. ih One of the greatest
*oung, ‘Hey | World—won’t be
th®mpe] ell ‘be in Australia.
e Went to Britain before
began by coaching
elgrave Harriers,
N many other clubs
Ryj
id let
&n if
Mig 8 Hie Titish Amateur Ath-
Agittion has.
Pitas totally un-
se ‘US man was build-
y AN tyereakers of records.
With “He hee wast ody could say
Us» “* R€ver held a position

. OV;
whe RS While

ing for Australia. He will coach
the athletes there for next year's

Olympic Games. So stand by

for more world record holders

like Landy and Marjorie Jack-
son. No doubt, they will be right

in the Stampfl mould. 4

* * *

When I asked the modest Stamp-
fl about this departure he just
shrugged his shoulders and said,
“Well, the Amateur Athletic As-
sociation have their own coaching
system.” | ;

I agree. But nothing can con-
vince me that Stampfl’s methods
would not have been capable of
greatly improving results if he had
been given the chance. His record
of achievement cannot ‘be’ sur-
passed by any coach in the world.

“Give me 100 athletes who are
anxious to improve their per-
formance and I'll produce at
least six to do the four-minute
mile,” Stampfl says, and he’s not
boasting.

Incidentally, Briaan Hewson, a
22-year-old National Service bomb-
ardier from Mitcham, is Stampfl’s
present idea of the “miler among
milers.” “I think Hewson will beat.
Bannister’s time (8 min. 59.4 sec-)
this season,” he says. :

And he goes even farther: “I am
certain that a 3 min. 47 sec. mile
is within Brian’s reach.”

I'll just wait and hope. But such
a stupendous mile would not sur-
prise me. If Stampfl says it is
possible, then possible it must be.
For, like the many fine athletes
who: Saas progressed under him.

So ¢

i
S Week Stampfl is sail-

i

T have a great regard for this giant

,Said. “I am sure that this will be

the beginning of a stronger sport-
ing ties and friendship. between
sportsmen of both countries.

‘I feel that sports are one of the
ways of extending and strengthen-
ing ties between nations. All na-
tions love sports and want to see
the best performances of sports-
men and other countries. This can

be achieved only through personal
contact. To put it in another way,
sports are a language that all peo-
ile understand, no matter what
tongue they speak.” .

First to perform were the bant-
am-weights. Charles Vinci stop-
ped at 95 kg. and fell out owing to
a back injury. Vladimir Stogov
pressed 97.5 kg. He scored 317.5
kg. for the three lifts and improv-
ed upon the Soviet jerk record,
lifting 128 kg. (1 kg. eqtals 2.2046
Ibs.)

In the feather-weight division
only Rafael Chimishkyan (USSR)
perfomed. He scored 340 kg.

The young Soviet lifter, Nik-
olai Kostylev, a college student
from Smolensk, made a splendid
showing in the light-weight, class

when he set. up a new world
snatch record of 123 kg. .-His
grand total was 375 kg. His rival,
Joe Pitman, scored only 340 kg.

In the welter-weight division
world record-holder and many
times world champion, Tommy
(Kono, and Yuri Duganov perform-
ed. Tommy Kono addded' 2.5 kg.
to the official world record, regis-
tering 410 kg. Duganov hoisted a
total of 402.5 kg.

Trofim Lomakin (USSR) won in
the middle-weight’ class with 422.5
kg. Stanley Stanczyk lost by 17.5
kg. In the light heavy-weight class,
world champion Arkadi Vorobiev,
lost to Dave Sheppard of the U.S.
who posted 457.5 kg. .

In the heavy-weight division
the best man, as was expected,
was the phenomenal American
athlete, Paul Anderson. He set
up two new world records, of
182.5 kg. in the press and 193 kg.
in the jerk. His total score. was
518 kg.

The Soviet won the team hon-
ors with eleven points, two Points |

among coaches.

more than the US. team. i

Gert Whyte's

SPORTLIGHT

(Bert Whyte is on vacation.
Guest column this week is by
George Barr). :

‘HE recent U.S. Supreme Court
~ ruling that boxing, as a busi-
ness, is subject to the anti-trust
laws surpised many people.
Whether anyone will be prosecut-
ed doesn’t really matter. This
apparent about-face of the court
is important for another reason.

In an earlier opinion on base-
ball the U.S. justices had decid-
ed. in the owners’ favor.
their position on boxing mean
they will ‘revaluate the status of
professional baseball? If they do.
1t would remove the privileged
status behind which baseball
owners have been hiding up to
now. It could also bring closer
the day when genuine trade
unionism will come to baseball.

* * *

In any case, whatever the Su-
preme Court does, there is no
doubt about the desire of the
players,. themselves, toorganize
Last winter’s annual major league
meeting, at which the players
were repesented, showed the
feelings, and potential strength
of the baseballers.

The players’ repesentatives
from each team demanded higher
minimum wages, better working
conditions (no night games on
getaway dates), a share of their
sale price and more , enerous
moving allowances for ‘traded
players. The owners refused the
“unfair” requests and threatened
to “terminate” the players’ pen-
s'on fund. However, the 32 dele-
gates forced the owners to give
in on all the players proposals
and the threat to cancel the pen-
sion fund was withdrawn.

This growing restlessness of
the players is one reason why ‘the
moguls have fought tooth and
mail to maintain their illegal
monopoly.

* x *

Seventy years ago, not long
after the National League was
formed, the National Brotherhood
of Baseball Players appeared on
the scene, led by John Montgom-=
ery Ward of the New York
Giants. During the first six years

of its life, the BBP won some, .

reforms from the owners before

it was forced to fold in 1891. Nine.

years later, the Brotherhood
came to life again and demand-
ed that the National League

abolish “farming” and “claiming”
of players.

By this time, the new Ameri-—

can League had been formed. It
fought against the players’ union
as well as for equal recognition
with the senior circuit. Although
the players finally achieved a
working agreement with the NL,
when the AL became the second
major league, its open antagon-
ism forced the Brotherhood to
disband once more, :
Besides the tradition it estab-
lished, the Brotherhood of Base-
ball Players also pin-pointed the
main problem of player-owner re-
lationship which is still in exist-
ence today. “Players have been
bought, sold and exchanged as
though they were cattle instead

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of American citizens,” the Broth-
erhood declared. If that doesn’t

describe today’s so-called “re-
serve clause,” I'll eat it.

* + x
The next union movement, the
Players’ Fraternity, was more
successful. Organized in 1912,

the outcome of a Detroit players’
strike, ‘the Fraternity soon won
aimost all the big-league players
to its banner. Among its officers
were Ty Cobb,and Christy Math-
ewson, members of baseball’s
Hall of Fame.

The owners were now really
worried and even settled an ar-
gument over a minor league play-
er.in the face of a strike call, the
day before the players were set
to take their walk. After six years
the Fraternity
decided to affiliate with the AFL,
but ‘before the details were set-
ued the owners got an assist from
the War Department. In 1918,
the government issued its infam-

ous , “work-or-fight” ultimatum
6nd the union passed from the
picture. 4

Twenty-eight years elapsed be-
fore any further attempt was
made to unionize baseball. In 1946
two Boston lawyers, Robert Mur-
phy and Joseph Doherty organ-
ized the American Baseball Guild
and promptly gained members in
11 major-league clubs.

Although the Baseball Guild
was weak, the magnates were
seared and quickly revived the
company-union idea. The owners
proposed that-the plavers of each
club nominate two teammates to
sit in on the drafting of new, uni-
form contracts. They also offer-
ed a $5,000 minimum wage for
big-leaguers, spring training ex-
penses and other minor conces-
siéns. Murphy was unable to of
fer the players a better deal, so
the Baseball Guild folded and
the owners once More were in

the saddle.
* * *
The major abuses that the

Gaild tried to correct still re-
main, and the present generation
of .ball-players, many of whom
come from union families, are
prepared to put up a fight for
their rights.

As one player put it recently,
“The owners say baseball could-
n't exist without the reserve
clause, but the same can be said
about the movie or TV industry,
in which there is no such clause.
And they sneer at a baseball un-
jon on the ground that the game
is a profession and not a trade.
But movie, TV, stage and radio
performers have been union
members for a long time, and it
has ‘helped rather than hurt those
businesses.”

It is obvious that the players
are beginning to tire of the com-
pany-union setup. Most of them
realize that all the gains they
have won in the last nine years
have come as a direct result of
the threat of unionism which the
magnates fear like the wrath of
God. Should the Supreme Court
Gecide that baseball is, indeed, a
business, it would spark a tre-
Mmendous organizing drive in the
major and minor leagues.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 15, 1955 — PAGE +