Slants on Sports

As we left Ebbetts field Wednesday night we were chuckling to ourselves. We had seen something that we thought couldn’t be done. We had seen Tony Canzoneri trimmed to a picayune figure by his comparatively unknown Jewish opponent, Harry Dublinsky.

This lad, known as the Chicago slasher and the Milwaukee Mauler, came from behind after the first three rounds and carved for himself a name as the welter-weight champion’s newest and best threat. It was a grand fight from start to finish with plenty of fireworks, pepper and class. All in all, a typical Al Weill show.

Regardless of what happened, we were not making any excuses for this corner. Your sports scribe never conceded a chance to the fighter from the Midwest. In the opinion of Slants on Sports the fight was all to be one-sided and all the flashy Italian’s. Well, we were caught with our left arm in the washwringer. For the first time we were wrong as to the outcome of a major sporting event and we’ll just have to take it.

That’s why, when we left, we were chuckling to ourselves. We realized with what fiendish glee and infernal laughter our selection would be greeted by our pals and critics—all you boys and girls who have become faithful readers.

But it certainly was worth being wrong in this case. It brought home the fact that here was a new Jewish fighter looming on the boxing horizon and that he will go far before he sets. Dublinsky has plenty to learn, but he revealed to the boxing experts that he has punch, pepper and class.

Another thing, folks. We don’t mind so very much that our batting average for picking winners has been knocked down to #.937, What we’re kicking about is the fact that we had fifteen bucks on the line saying Canzoneri by decision. And so we departed from Ebbetts Field Wednesday night chuckling to ourselves.

ALL-STARS MEET THE BEARS TODAY IN CHICAGO

This afternoon at Soldier’s Field in Chicago, the pick of the nation’s gridiron heroes will trot out on the stadium to meet the Chicago Bears, champions of the professional football world.

These footballers, all of all -American calibre, were selected in a nation-wide poll conducted by the Chicago Tribune, the paper which is sponsoring the encounter. Aaren Rosenberg, that great Jewish stalwart from the West Coast, who has thrilled countless thousands with his brilliant offensive play and his sterling defense as a Southern Californian lineman, will play once more. This 220-pound behemoth has been named on the starting line-up that will be pitted against the eleven headed by the Galloping Ghost of the gridiron known to pigskin enthusiasts as Red Grange.

“Rosy” has been named time and again by the vast majority of sports writers and experts throughout the land as the outstanding guard in the country. He played on the frosh eleven and then succeeded in making the Varsity team in his sophomore year. Even as a first season soph he played so well against the Huskies from Washington and the Stanford Trojans that he was unanimously selected as the outstanding lineman on the Pacific Coast. His performances during the next two years on the gridiron stamped him as one of football’s immortals.

TODAY’S GAME HAS NO PRECEDENT

A couple of seasons ago the pick of the Western grid crop was placed on a field in San Francisco against the lads from the East. It was on a New Year’s Day. A few hundred miles to the South, Stanford was fighting it out with Alabama in the annual Rose Bowl clash. However, the first game in Frisco also became an annual affair and was known as the East-West game.

Last year at the Chicago World’s Fair the footballers from East and West staged their own summer show in an exhibition game. The turnout was tremendous but it seems there must have been a hole in the fence because the gate receipts didn’t tally with the number of people crammed into the stands.

This year the situation has been changed. The holes in the fences have been fixed. The Chicago Tribune is running the entire affair. The players were chosen in a nation-wide contest and these men will play the champions of the professional football world known as Red Grange’s Chicago Bears.

It should be a better game when the bruisers, the ball carriers, and the brains who made the sporting headlines last football season, and who were unanimously selected by the fans, play with each other on one team than against one another as an East-West contingent.

ROSENBERG’S FINAL GAME

Last December, when Southern California was playing against Stanford or Washington, we don’t recall exactly which at the moment, Aaron Rosenberg said that he was playing in his final grid game. However, when he was selected on the squad that was to meet the Eastern invaders on New Year’s Day in Frisco, he gladly accepted and played a smash-up, bang-up corking game. In the locker rooms he said that he had had enough of the pigskin battle to last him a life time and that now he would really quit.

But June came along and Rosy graduated (despite all the U.S.C. alumni could do to ante the playing limit up to six years). Either through ability, size, or pull Rosenberg landed an executive post at the Fox Studios in Hollywood. He likes his new job much better than the trumpeting job he had in order to work his way through school. (Evidently, Columbia pays much more inasmuch as there is no record of a Columbia gridder playing the trumpet for expenses.)

Nevertheless, despite all contradictions, Rosenberg claims that today’s game will be the swan song of his gridiron career. He says that training down to the pink is more than too much after a fellow has been off, the strict training regime for some time.

ELI FISCHER TOPS GRID STARS AS RASSLER

And, speaking of Jewish football players reminds us of the Jewish lad from Brooklyn who was a wow at the tackle position on the Rutgers University eleven. Eli was one of those boys who “died for dear old Rutchers” and when he was resurrected from the bottom of the heap emerged with the most beautiful cauliflower ear in New Bruswick history.

With this added start he turned pro rassler the day he graduated from the little school on the banks of the Raritan, and by some coincidence won his first match.

Ever since that day Eli has been up with the top-notchers in the rassling racket in this city. And since the time when Abie Coleman pulled a Jimmy Jordan and disappeared into the records of the Missing Persons’ Bureau, Eli has been groomed as the new Jewish rassling champion. He has won slight straight matches in as many weeks and should he beat Browning during September he will get a crack at the Greek Adonis, otherwise known as Strumberry Jeem Londos.