19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

GIVING BOXING A JOLT
Sir:
I'm glad you're finally telling your readers what two-bit, money-grubbing, unprofessional clowns the WBC and WBA really are (Special Report: Time to Clean Up Boxing Again, March 16 et seq.). But showing how these organizations work isn't automatically going to improve boxing. That won't happen until a completely new system of administering boxing replaces the current one. It should require boxers to systematically fight their way to the top and, when they reach the pinnacle, to box the fighters directly behind them. Then we would no longer have to witness mismatches in championship bouts, and deserving fighters would no longer have to watch from the ringside seats, � la Thomas Hearns .

If other pro sports operated the way boxing does, the Phillies , for example, might sit out the 1981 baseball season until the World Series rolls around and then, after, say, the Yankees or Royals win the right to contend for the championship, decide to play the Detroit Tigers instead.
J.D. LANCASTER
Clinton, Mich.

Sir:
The old boxing saying "Kill the body and the head will die" doesn't hold true in this case. It seems the "head" is dead already.
VINCENT J. CALGER
Cornwall , N.Y.

Sir:
Time to clean up boxing again? When, pray tell, was it cleaned up before? Not in my lifetime, and I'm 73.
ED GARMAN
Akron

Sir:
Pat Putnam 's story on the WBC and WBA was dyn-o-mite. Keep up the fight, and maybe we'll have a sport that's truly boxing.
FRANK E. VISCO SR.
Cortland, N.Y.

TALKING IT UP
Sir:
Your piece on baseball chatter (Chatter, March 16) fascinated me. Times have changed on the sandlots, too. A couple of seasons ago, during one of the pickup softball games I played in on Sunday mornings, one of the fielders yelled, "Let's hear some chatter from the infield!"

"Great," someone else replied. "Pick a topic."

Sic transit....
MIKE LEIDERMAN
Co-host, PM Magazine/ Chicago
Chicago

Sir:
Chatter is why I am now able to speak before large groups. Where else could a 9-year-old get training in talking to crowds of friends and foes but near second base, standing with hands on knees? Thanks for the memories. They made turning 30 last week a lot easier.
JOHN B. FRITSCHNER
Director of Recreation and Parks
Ashland , Ky.

Sir:
Wrong! "Hum Babe" does not mean to hum the fastball. Rather, it's merely today's version of a classic expression that is going through an evolutionary cycle—"Hum Babe" from "Horn Babe" from "Haum Babe" from "Maun Babe" from "C'maum Babe" from "C'mom Babe" from "C'mon Babe" from "Come on, Baby."