Southern Oregon News Review, Thursday, July 29, Here's a Happy Idea Salaries of Athletes ' I 'H E Y riA Y /N ft POU K * B PS AGAINST H IM AIN'T G * * \ - BLIN.' -rue WAY I UN0BHÍTMÍ9 ( s A m BLHM, V STAND SOME SLIGHT LWA aic C OP WINNING !** NANCY “ W A IT M is e . »’IX CO IN , T U A N A N O <»CT ÉN O U frH FO R B O T H a s h o w ON THE CHARM OP U $ TO /*» By Ernie Bushmiller. were talking about the * money a professional athlete could make, and how much moat of these athletes were worth. In the first place, among eight or ten old-time writers, in the discus­ sion it wag generally voted that the ring business was the most lopsid­ ed. This means that a few were far overpaid and the others were far underpaid. For example, Joe Louis has bowled over close to four million dollars for his 62 ________ fights. Now four million dollars is quite a chunk more than any other contestant c o u ld c o l l e c t from any other game. A bove th a t we’ll say Louis p i c k e d up 3 50 thousand dollars for his last fight. Babe Ruth That is about the pay that 10 of the highest-paid ballplayers would get for an entire season of 154 games. But after all, the fight cham­ pion collects because he can draw. When two ball clubs meet there may be 50 ball players engaged. When fighters meet, only two in the main event get any real money, and one of these gets most of It. After all, a con­ testant is entitled to get his part of the swag which his drawing power can earn. Babe Ruth was paid as high as $80,000 a year. He was actually worth more than double this amount to his team, the league and base­ ball in general. It would be hard to measure how much he actually earned. I ’ve seen home teams drawing 1.500 a game jump to 33,- 000 when the Babe came along. Few Get Rich But, while Jack Dempsey, Louis and Gene Tunney have all collected huge amounts, and a few others have picked up important checks from the fight game, the vast ma­ jority get little except queer noises in their skulls. It ’s a tough game, if you make good. I t ’s a thousand times tougher when you don’t. Commissioner Eddie Eagen tells me there are more boxers than one might think who are putting away from $50,000 to $60,000 a year. This Is amaz­ ing when you figure the cut the manager and his helpers get. The fight game is good only to the few. For the others it is large­ ly a m atter of scrambled brains. It is not a profession to be recom­ mended too highly to the youth of the land. Baseball and football are the two best average paying games, espe­ cially in the higher circuits. Oddly enough, more than a few young stars who dabble in both sports have to make certain drastic decisions. Alvin Dark of the Braves was of­ fered more to play football than he gets playing baseball. Dark picked baseball and the Braves. Charley Trippi tried out both games, and this season the ex- Georgia star decided to give all his time to the Chicago Cardinals, leaving baseball flat. He found the combination too much to handle. Chuck Conerly of Mississippi and Bobby Layne of Texas were two baseball stars. Both had bright baseball futures. Both picked foot­ ball with the high guarantees now offered. Years ago, Walter Hagen could have been a noted big league star —one of the greatest in the game. Hagen picked golf and then pro­ ceeded to roll up a million dollars in a few years—which the carefree Haig promptly spent. Joe Gordon was an Oregon great at football before he switched en­ tirely to baseball. Torgerson of the Braves was another football star who picked baseball for a money­ maker. There are many others I could mention. The b ird design—m ost popular new idea fo r c h a ir sets! M ake these g raceful bluebirds in easy pine­ apple design crochet—th e y’re so s m a rt! B luebird c h a ir set—a g raceful touch fo r any room . P a ttern 656 has crochet directions fo r set. L a u ra W heeler’s new, im proved pattern m akes needlework so sim ­ ple w ith its charts, photos, concise directions. Sewing Circle Needlecraft Dept. JSI W Randolph St. Chicago SO, Hl. Enclose 20 cents (or pattern. No________________ N a m e _________________________ Address. <*- <*• O- f*- <*- O» O- O- O-