Jackie Robinson

batt

Jackie Robinson hit a home run for civ
here last week: On the bombings in Montgomery,
Dodgers star now batting for the Nationa
ored People had this to say:

* Jackie Robinson has no intention ot »
but he still has his eyes open for a

er Mounties wanted a box office

ball as a player,
managerial post. If Vancouv:

draw, they should enter into negotla
Dodger star. At present Robinson 1s

ee

f returning to base-

otiations with the former
touring the United

States on behalf of the National Association for the Ad-

vancement of Colored People.

Mickey in

big dough

faster than Babe, Ted

The 1957 baseball season

. already Mickey Mantle is seven years
eight up on Joe DiMaggio. In money,
from Oklahoma is moving faster
Yankee predecessors with a bran

at the tender baseball age of
25: Ruth was 32 before he top-
ped that salary figure. DiMagg
was 33.

When Ruth was Mickey’s
age, he was making $20,000
from the Yankees. He made
$30,000 at the age of 26, then
he signed a five-year pact for
$52,000 per year in‘ what he
termed in later years, “the
Sreatest mistake of my life.”

For it was’ during the five-
year hitch that Ruth really
came into his own not only
as baseball’s greatest slugger
but its most beloved figure. He
could have clouted Col. Jake

’ Ruppert for a hefty raise al-
Most every season.

Still, he didn’t learn a les-
son. When Ruppert offered a
three-year term at $70,000 per
starting in 1927, Ruh could-
“n’t resist. He then was 32-
years-old. :

DiMaggio’s financial rise was
delayed by his war service. He
Was hauling down $48,750
when he went into the army
in 1942 and settled for the same

still is in the talking stage but

ahead of Babe Ruth and
that is, the clouting kid
than either of his fabulous
d new contract for $60,000

figure for the first two seasons

after he came out.

DiMagg was hoisted to. $70,-
000 in 1948, then to $100,000 for
his last three years and turn-
ed his back on a fourth $100,-
000 by announcing his retire-
ment at the end of the 1951

season.

Williams, also slowed finan-
cially by. World War Il, may
or may not be the highest
paid in baseball history but at
least he has had more $100
grand contracts than anyone
else — six so far with the
seventh coming up.

But even Ted didn’t move up
as fast as Mantle, whose 1957
boost of $28,000 nearly doubled
his 1956 salary. The size of the
hike probably is unprecend-
ented in baseball history.

Mickey is baseball’s best box
office draw, bar none. Second-
ly, he has a leg condition that
makes him a physical risk for
the long haul.

PHYLLIS ROSNER

1 Association for the

les racists

LOS ANGELES

il liberties at a crowded press conference
Alabama, the former Brooklyn

Advancement of Col-

“Pm sure President Eisen-
hower will speak out shortly.
I don’t see how he can do
otherwise. We’ve had to fight
for everything we have and
Negroes will continue to fight
and are going to win the. bat-
tle for first class citizenship.”

Turning his attention to the
world scene, Robinson said:

“The colored people of the
world have their eyes on Am-
erica to see how Negroes are
treated here. We are expend-

, ing huge sums in giving assist-

ance to some of these people
abroad but their real attitude
will be determined in large
measure by their reaction to
the way in which the race
problem is handled here at
home.” ’

Robinson is on a nationwide

tour for the NAACP Freedom
Fund. .
He expressed keen disap-
pointment at learning the Los
Angeles branch of the NAACP
has “only 14,000 members.”

“With a quarter of a mil-
lion Negroes living in this area
there ought to be a minimum
of 50,000 belonging,” he said.
“This is the main reason I’m
on this tour — to tell the real
story of the NAACP.”

He declared he would never
return to baseball as a player.
If a managerial post was of-
fered, he said he would con-
sider it. >

He cited Peewee Reese, a

Southerner and captain of the .

Dodgers, as ‘the player who
gave him the greatest assist-
ance in breaking the color line
in the major leagues.

He set the record straight
on the final stage leading to
his retirement from baseball,
which had nothing to do with
his being traded to the New
York Giants.

He said he’d been offered
his present job long before the
Giant trade came off.

Earlier, the county board of

supervisors presented Robin-

son with a copy of a resolution
commending him as “an in-
spiring example of true Am-
ericanism.

In San Francisco, Jackie said
“In ten years in baseball we
won the National League pen-
nant six times, placed second
three times, and were in third
place one time. I have. never
been a loser.”

This was because he had re- -

ceived the support of the peo-
ple, of hundreds of thousands
in the stadium, he explained.
And he pleaded for the people
to continue to support him
now in his post as chairman
of the NAACP’s Freedom
Fund.

“This is a bigger fight,” he
declared. “Help me continue
to be a winner.”

Canada Horse of the Year for 1956 was Canadian Champ

(above) who recent] ywon his first race on U.S. soil.
But he had to share honors with a nEnglish-bred sprinter,
Tudor Era, for the horses hit the wire nose to nose.

Gert Whyte's

SPORTLIGHT

Tes fight game is dead, we

are told time and again,
but like John Brown’s body
it goes marching on.

The gamblers have killed
boxing, wail the critics. No
other athlete is held.in such
bondage, and the fight game
is run by racketeers.

There is much truth in these
observations, but it takes

more than a few crooks and

GENE FULMER

gamblers to bury the fine old
sport of boxing.

Perhaps a union of boxers
is on the agenda. Hockey play-
ers have recently banded to-

gether to better their lot, and

boxers could well follow suit.

Gamblers muscled into bas-
ketball, but failed to kill the
sport. ;

Boxing hasn’t died as a ma-
jor sport. Proof is that there
is still no sports spectacle as
thrilling as a heavyweight
championship bout.

Fellows like Gene Fulmer
of Salt Lake City, the new
middleweight champ,  will-
also help to clean up the
game. No sucker for the gam-

blers. Gene hangs onto his
money, lives a clean life, will
probably retire with a nice
bankroll and a clear head. He
hasn’t given up his job in a
mine and intends to work at
his trade when his days in the
ring are finished.

Television is blamed as one
of the factors which helps to
ruin the fight game. TV is
blamed for a lot of things, but
it may prove to be a blessing
in the long run, for thousands
of youngsters, seeing bouts in
their living rooms, will be-
come interested in the sport.

A couple of weeks ago I at-
tended the Buckskin Gloves
tourney in Vancouver. Look-
Ing at the 2,500 or more spec-
tators on hand, and watching
the. young. Native. Indian
fighters show their stuff, I
couldn’t help but feel that
amateur boxing is on the up-
grade. And that means that
pro boxing will benefit in the
future, as well.

FEBRUARY 22, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 15