SER mer TN oma

ee

nae

Racial barriers breaking down
Influx of Negro players
sets new Big League high

By LESTER RODNEY NEW YORK

Checking over the revised big league rosters after the cut down to the 25 player,

limit, we note that eight years after the ending of jimcrow, the number of Negro players in
the big leagues has reached thirty-four. This is a new high, following last year’s new high,
which reflects, the steady maturing of Negro players who turned to our national pastime |
when the bars finally started crumbling.

Last year at the same cutdown es
time, there were 28 Negro players,
20 in the National and 8 in the
Ameriean. Today’s 34 are divid-
ed into 23 in the National and 11
in the American, an increase of
three in each league. They play
on 12 of the 16 big league clubs, |-
Only the Phillies in the National,
the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox
and Baltimore Orioles in the Am-
erican have no Negro players now.
The first three named have never
had any, the Orioles had several
last year and lost their most prom-
ing, outfielder Durham, to the
army this spring. The Orioles were
happily replaced by the Yanks
this year as a no-longer-lilywhite
club, with Elston Howard, last
years’ MVP in the International,
making it. '

Reflecting the start of a normal}
ebb and flow of talent within the
context of a steady overall rise,
there were seven Negro players
in the big leagues last year this
time who no longer are up. They
are Luis Marquez of the Cubs,
Nino Escalera of the Reds, Curt
Roberts of the Pirates, Tom Alston

Durocher gives familiar third base handshake to Willie Mays.

Dodgers; SS—Ernie Banks, Chi- “can’t miss” by scouts.

of the Cards, Jehosie Heard of the ee nea Se Sarina scape kk =o *
SHAE. “bab. Boyd. of thie White| Cliente: etinid Larry Dpdy 2
Med: a cg f the A’s. Of Cleveland, Willie Mays of the
ake Behe: eit. pres by Giants, Orestes Minoso of the

Se, . io
big league clubs and some may White Sox. Catchers—Roy Cam

RH anella, Dodgers, and Elston
return, notably the long hitting Bowe sets Pitcher ae is
young Alston. x

Newcombe of the Dodgers, Ru-
Negro players who were not up

: : TadecGand ben Gomez of the Giants, Sam
S his ti include San ‘
eg ee a rode: NE Jones of the Cubs, Brooks Law- |pinama. Hector Lopez of the A’s

Sam Jones of the Cubs, Bob Thur-| "-. cai ea he .,. |and Humberto Robinson of the
ah Ge ne ede“ Gookee Orowe ot], 2s would ‘lekve. “on the side |Braves. There is also a second
Ss Ghine, ‘Rdkerto Clemente of} —!°. such players as infielders| Mexican-American in addition to
she Pirates: Hrodks Tawhence of Jackie Robinson and Gene Baker} last year’s A.L. batting champ,
the Cards, Hector Lopez and Harry and such star outfielders as Hank Beto Avila of the Indians. He is
Simpson of the A’s, Elston Howard | “2°: Bill Bruton, Al Smith and Felipe Montemayor of the Pirates.
Of the Yanks, Carlos Paula, Juan! Monte Irvin. Al Carresquel remains the lone
Delis and Pedro Ramos of the Sen-| This is the major league picture Venezuelan. The number of Cubans
ators. as of the current rosters. To get! and Puerto Ricans continues to in-
The sizzling Dodgers are the the full picture of Negro players; crease. — ; ;

team with the most Negro players,|and the big leagues you would| The list (which in nine cases
six, followed by the Milwaukee have to also note the many young! overlaps with the listing of Negro
Braves with five and the Giants|Stars in the minors, suen as Brook- players) is: Carresquel Conseugra,
with four. The Indians, Cubs, A’s|lyn’s young million dollar’ infield|Fornieles and Minoso of the White
and Senators have three each. combination of Charley Neale and|Sox; Amoros of the Dodgers; Cle-
-A mythical Negro “allstar” team Humberto Fernandez who in their/mente, Mejias and Montemayor of
compiled to show the all around) first 23 games with Montreal click-;the Pirates; Gomez of the Giants;
strength of this once barred sec-| 4 off 31 double plays. As well as; Power and Lopez of the A’s; Rob®
tion of our population was former-|4 young slugger named Pinkston|inson and Vargas of the Braves;
ly weak only in pitching, but this| With Columbus who Kansas City} Paula, Pascual, Delis, and Ramos
is no longer tr it mi
with Seo hated ela a famous Rickets brothers of Du-| Orioles; Avila of the Indians and
combe and the flowering of Jones.| uesne, still in college but rated| Arroyo of the Cards.

ec oe eae oan ‘Landy’s record can
be beaten’--Tabori

: By LASZLO TABORI
|

Also an interesting sign of the,
times is the increase of players
from what are generally called the
Latin American countries to our
south. Last year this time after
the roster cut downs there were
nine such. Now there are 20, in-
cluding two for the first time from

: LONDON
I still think that John Landy’s world record of 3 minutes 58
seconds for the mile may be beaten. I believe that two or even three
seconds can be cut off this time in a strong international field com-
posed of the world’s best runners, but I do not necessarily believe
that. I could do it.

I have only been training for
athletics regularly for two years,
but our facilities in Hungary are
first class, and the mass sports
competitions —— over 100,000 take
part in them—are helping to find For most of the distance I stay-

the best youngsters. ed behind the leaders, then, when
Tt was an extremely pleasant|] made my first effort to go to the
surprise for me to become the front, Chataway managed to hold
third man to break the four-min-| me off. ;
: : ; ute mile barrier. - Yet even when I did go to the
Lowering of racial bars came Yet I did not go into the race|front in the straight I still expect-
too late for Satchel Paige, one | with any deep-laid tactics. I wait-|ed to see Chataway out of the cor-
of the the greatest Negro pitch jed for the race itself and then ran|ner of my eye. 2
ers in baseball history, and per- |it out to the best of my ability. _ The race may have been even
haps the greatest hurler of all I had heard much of Chris Chat-|faster if my countryman Sandor
time. Paige made the majors |away, the man who helped take;Iharos had been able to run. He
in the twilight of his career, and |Roger Bannister and John Landy|beat me over a similar distance a

and faster finish from Chataway.

When I passed both he and
Brian Hewson down the finishing
straight the thought that the race
was now as good as over never
entered my mind.

seconds.
slower.

will watch closely, and such as the|of the Senators; Miranda of the}.

even then proved effective for a |to their world records. In fact,)week before and has been in ex-
few seasons as a relief pitcher. |I had expected a much stronger} tremely fine form recently.

\
\

Bert Whgte's

ST a triple under-four-minute
mile — now a double two-

mile world record! That’s the in-
credible story of the most excit-
ing athletic meet ever held in
Britain (says the London Daily
Worker).

‘At White City on May 30,

Sandor Iharos, 25-year-old Hun
garian Army lieutenant, ran no
less than seven seconds off the
three-year-old time
Reiff. Finishing eight yards be-
hind him was British runner Ken
Wood of Sheffield, also easily
smashing Reiff’s record.

of Gaston

Iharos’ time was 8 minutes 33.4
Wood was 1.4 seconds

Says the Daily Worker, describ-

ing the race:

“Wood and Iharos, who was

always a little in front, were left
to battle it out together over the
last half-mile.

“Wood was always lying handy,

right at the Hungarian’s shoulder,
but 600 yards from the end Thar-
os opened up a 15-yard gap, only
for Wood to close up to him.

"lf the Sheffield runner had

had more reserves he might have
caught lharos in the run-in, but
he had spent all his energy keep-
ing up with his rival, and had no
other
draw. :

powers upon which _ to

“The early part of the race had

seen Laszlo Tabori make most of
the running, with Iharos, Chris
Suddaby and B. T. Barrett with
him: At the one mile, reached
in 4 minutes 17.2 seconds, Tabori
was ahead of his fellow. country-
man, with Barrett and Wood in

third and fourth positions.
“Two laps later Tabori had

had enough and Iharos took over

followed by Wood, to the bitter-

ly fought end.”
x

* *
Stubborn is the word for swim-

mers Bert Thomas and Pat Rus-
sell, defeated by the unconquer-

ed Strait of Juan de Fuca last

weekend. Both announce that
they'll try the heartbreaking
swim again.

Thomas, 29-year-old logger

from Tacoma, was within nine

SANDROS IHAROS

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 10,

- eal or physiologica

SPORTLIGHT

i : ulled
miles of his goal when Aye:

out. UBC star Pat Russe half
elled about nine and one”
miles, beating Flo Chadwick's aie
cord, before she had to be 9@
ed into her boat.

“1 am going to swim tha
even if it costs me a year
versity,” said Pat, ‘later. ,

A pilotage official praised
Thomas and Miss Russell but P

t strait
at unl:

PAT RUSSELL

dicted they had come
as dhe: will eves com?
swimming the strall.
Dangers words, bron ie
member, they used to S&7 on
would ever swim across 44
tario. :
x x Kis if
A horse. spotted 4 Fast
yards in a 100 yards a
Lansdowne last Sat d. ;
beat the biped by a & 150)
Because sonnet Harty + the
took a ‘practise try ff? pyett
blocks, and stanter cy and
thought he was on his we endet
rang the bell, lettin’ ee was
Belle break while ae said
slowing up, it could” £0). fy
“They're ott —< ang awey oust
good start!” Harry heal © agait
ing hoofs and began t0 17. rom
only to be nipped 4 str
the wire. ean Ores e
Matching man against ce pore?
really a silly sport. A a 60 fee!
will step between 50. ere
per second,, Man O.. r
average leaps of 27 feels git
ing he made two jvMP> ° slow
ond, even in comparativ®’ a
time. en
Even a plug like, am abot!
Belle can do 100 yar does
seven seconds, SOW" imman?
that leave the fastest
i * R searcl

.

In a recent issue

‘Guide, published Oy ea

famed Sports College,
vey on the question | 4 as mel
athletes training as a ;

- Some conclusions: physiol

“It is recognized ge Z
fsts that the female Ogura
ies has about half the ine 0
potential of her masch
terpart. However, ? z a
mean that she shout deste” ne
hard — only that her 4 to!
endurance as; comPa™”;. jim
degree possible in ™"

ple’
ed. a female at gut

ss instance, | e
ode perbek: develop es Ca
ance that would mé@ “le as ie
able of ‘running But she if
as a trained man. ile aoe
capable of running @ iit be ce
she trains hard sh@ man
to.. improve.. her- f pet
without ill’ effects. wi hip ine

“Mn other words, © emi me
range of capability, “ ihe 5

athlete is subjec a mate.
physiological 1aWS 95, no me
“There appears & 50!

a feminine athlete ©
work as vigorously ey: he ye
training will produt’ ore wh
general results ane oy only
no side effects com
her.” GE 10

1955.52