Page 20
BASKETBALL'S FORGOTTEN MEN

To Sports Editor of The New York Times:

Every Monday morning newspapers carry basketball statistics, These com
prise, in the main, salutes to the scorers, That's all right; points win games
and athletes who make them deserve plaudits,

But isn't it time to recognize that plays have to be set up in advance
of the score? And that such eminent playmakers as Dutch Garfinkel of St. John's
Ben Auerbach of N, Y,. U. and Ossie Shectman of L, I, U, set the stage for hun-
dreds of baskets?

Basketball differs from baseball in this respect: In baseball the ath-
lete at the plate makes his own score, A Greenberg or a DiMaggio controls his
own destinies, He can triple or strike out, all on his own power,

In basketball, on the other hand, a player engaged in an offensive thrust
must depend on the cooperation and deftness of a team-mate, Thus a White or a
Lobello rises or falls by the skill and passing of a Garfinkel or a Schectman,

Emphasizing the fact that these floor men are not prolific scorers is like
jJournalistically penalizing Walters and Feller because they are not .300 hitters,
It is a rare thing to find such standout ball-handlérs as Garfinkel, Auerbach and
Shectman operating on one scene in one season,

How about making that observation now? It may be years before we see the
likes of them again,

Bernard Green,
New York, Jan, 23, 1941,

Editorial Note: The spectators see more than the hands that shoot the ball
into the basket and they pay tribute accordingly, But possibly some more compre-
hensive charting system will come into the game eventually,

se * & H HR

SOMEWHERE IN THE GAME

Somewhere in the zame

Beyond the grip of battle and the dream

Of greater conquests and of richer game

There comes a chance to lay aside the glean,
The gleam that we call glory, or renown--

But which is mostly myth -- to lend a hand

To some fagged, reeling entry who is down,

And give him one more scrimmage with the band,

Somewhere in the game
You'll find a good bit more than winning strife--
The fickle cheering or the mad acclaim-—-
That you once thought to be the sum of life,
You'll find the value of all this is small,
A drifting phantom through a shadowed glen,
Where you might lift some pal who had to fall,
And give him one more chance to start again,
-- Grantland Rice,

REMEMBER THE DATES ----- MARCH 24 and 25,