European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 16, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars and stripes Page 23 commentary Foster properly avoided fistfight a number of years ago on a playing Field in Chicago there was a touch football game in which a fight broke out Between the College age participants. When matters began to simmer and the fur and feathers ceased to Fly a voice was heard some 60yards away from beside a goal Post. To Asher one player hands cupped to his Mouth yelled to a teammate. Fight Over yet the player who had taken Refuge in the end zone bad obviously decided that preserving life and limb was More important than getting involved in a fracas in which he had no knowledge no sense of doing substantial Justice and no interest. He had decided that discretion was the better part of valor that he would live to fight for some thing worthwhile another Day and sundry other verities. This is recalled because on successive Days on sunday and monday a discussion of the place of fights in baseball has Arisen in two disparate situations. One was at Yankee stadium on sunday when Alfred Manuel Martin was honoured by George Stein Brenner with a plaque in Center Field beside Ruth and Gehrig and Dimaggio and Mantle and two Popes and a few celebrated More. Fiery Billy fighting Billy flailing Billy has made a career of feuding and fighting and in fact among the gifts he received at Yankee stadium sunday were a pair of oversized boxing gloves and a Boxer s Robe. Among those who did not attend the ceremonies were the proprietors of the several bars in which he has broken up the glassware and some players he has fought with such As Jim Brewer who sued and won $100,000 after Billy broke his jaw in a Brawl on the Field. On monday at Shea stadium George Foster try ing to Clear the air Over remarks he made that were construed As racist by manager Davey Johnson of the mets and that were the Straw that broke the Camel s Back and resulted in Foster and his .227 batting average being released explained one of the other reservations about him that had appeared in a newspaper. Ira Berkove that concerned the game of july 22 in which fight broke out on the Field Between the acts and the reds and 23 of the 24 mets players plus coaches and manager ran out ostensibly to help defend a teammate or make a guest appearance and then quickly slide to the Periphery flapping arms. Now Foster is a lean strapping fellow who although no longer in the Bloom of youth nonetheless appears at age 37, still Able to administer a serious knuckle Sandwich if the occasion demands. Well on july 22, he did t think the occasion demanded. In the Macho no wimp world of base Ball it is supposed to be incumbent upon a team mate to run on the Field and in support of your teammate pack on to the swirling Ball of Pugnali to. I know what was expected of me said Foster but there were two reasons i did t run on the Field. For one thing you can easily get Hurt. And if there s a fight the umpires Are supposed to break it up. Another thing i believe that violence has no place in the game. I m against the violence Factor. And i m against fighting on the Field when it snot necessary. I m a Christian Man and i also take serious the idea of being a role Model. When there s a fight you can just imagine kids saying hey was t that great All those punches thrown in the game yesterday i strive to do the right thing. And i think that the drug Issue and violence Are critical things that May be seen on a major league level and then carry Down to the lower Levels. I Don t want to be a part of the negative Side of baseball if i can help  on occasion you go to a ballgame and a hockey game Breaks out. An Odd and unseemly spectacle for this pastoral game and setting. Odder still is the idea that players with Price tags of up to $2 million a year like Foster would risk a costly wrist or rib for one of baseball s Momen tary scuffles. It s utterly addle brained. And to have a manager or general manager encourage it seems dumber still. What if Doc Gooden injures a shoulder and is gone for the season or Gary Carter twists one of his tender Knees and is lost to the team what Price glory in pugilist at the Ball Park on the Day that the acts and the reds tussle the giants and the cardinals did the same. One result was that the giants Ace hurler Mike Krakow suffered a rib injury and had to be placed on the disabled list a move that did not help the giants pen Nant chances. The fight started after Vince Coleman was first brushed Back with a pitch and then hit with a pitch on the foot in seventh inning. It was apparently intentional. Coleman had stolen second and third in the fifth inning with the score 10-2, an the giants Felt according to their manager Roger Craig that Coleman was trying to show up the giants one of the Cotton headed cliches that abound in baseball. The idea is that within the rules you Don t try As hard As you can at All times. Why should t he try to steal if the score is 100-0? or hit a Home run or a Pitcher strike out a Batter and of course when a Batter is obviously being thrown at a fight is imminent. Meanwhile Foster says something that Martin or Craig would never utter. Though there Are surely other players not necessarily pacifists who share his views. Yet were they self serving the notion that Foster after having been benched was sulking rather than sitting there and considering the loftier Issue of role modelling is a possibility. It s also a Strong possibility that he meant what he said. If so it s a voice in the wilderness or dugout or end zone As it was with the Long ago solitary team mate of Asher. Jewish runner still angry Over 36 games by Arthur Pincus new York not while others marched Marty Glickman Sam Stoller and 381 other american athletes sauntered into Berlin s olympic stadium on aug. I 1936, in the Parade of nations opening the games of the Alth olympiad. For Glickman Stoller and All the athletes the olym pics proved that the practice time and the games of youth were worthwhile a Chance to meet and maybe beat the world s Best. Perched in his Box wearing his Gray storm proper uniform Adolf Hitler looked on and the games began there were 120,000 people in the stands overhead the Hindenburg sailed in an overcast sum Mer Iky. Richard Strauss led an orchestra and a chorus of 3,000 in a new olympic hymn that Strauss wrote for the occasion. The summer games of 1936 were to be a testament to German recovery from the devastation of world War i a Chance for the nazis to show their must Nous face to the  stadium was the Centrepiece of a huge Yapic Complex. The grass on the infield was clipped to perfection. The red Clay track contrasted brilliantly with the Arena s Gray Concrete. Although the months preceding had brought talk of an american Boycott to protest German persecution of jews the americans were there that Day. Teams enter the olympic stadium alphabetically the Host nation comes in last. So the German language put the United states Verein ten Staten just before the germans. The americans Lack of  in their stride and their tradition of not dipping the stars and stripes to a foreign Leader brought boots and catcalls. ,. The track and Field Competition began the next Day. When it ended a week later. Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller the Only jews on the track team were the Only members of that team who had t competed on he Day they were to begin trial heats � j/y-sf.400-meter relay they were pulled from the Tion. Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe replaced fuck 68 years old. When i walked out of the Tunnel under the stands i began looking around looking at this powerful place looking at the Box where Hitler  then i started to Snake found myself wanting to shout out at the people who took away my Chance an Sam Stollsr s Chance to win an olympic Gold medal. I almost passed out with the  were nine americans in a Bungalow in the olympic Village in Berlin on aug. 8, 1936 two coaches seven athletes. The coaches had made a Deci Sion and were letting their sprinters know that the Marty Glickman was yanked from the 400 relay. Man and Stoller and the americans won the relay in record time. The pain of his Chance denied still singes the Mem ories of Marty Glickman whose voice is so Well known to new York sports fans for his years of broadcasting College basketball the kicks the giants and the jets but whose athletic skill has faded in memory. He was Back in Berlin recently for the first time since 1936, serving As a consultant for the Jesse Owens invitation track meet this weekend. Despite having talked about the incident Many times Over the years Glickman was unprepared for what happened that Day he returned. My anger was overwhelming says Glickman now Robertson who was the head coach of the track team said he had been hearing rumours that the germans were hiding great runners to Stop us in the , Jesse had already won the 100 meters and the 200 meters Ralph Metcalfe had finished second to Jesse in the 100, and Mack Robinson had finished second to Jesse in the 200. How could the germans have any runners to beat us Glickman about to enter his Sophomore year at Syracuse University and Stoller soon to be a senior at the University of Michigan were stunned. They had finished fifth and sixth in the . Olympic trials an tradition said that the first three sprinters in the 100 at the trials would compete in the games in the 100 the next four would make up the 400-meter relay team. That was the Assumption after the trials. That waste Assumption As the team travelled to Europe on the luxury liner Manhattan. That was the Assumption a they trained throughout those Days of pomp and circumstance in  and Glickman had practice in the relay with Foy Draper and Frank Wykoff both products of the University of Southern California where the coach was Dean Cromwell who was serving As Robertson s  Robertson announced his decision Owens who had already won the 100 and 200-meter dashes and the Broad jump stood up to  recalls him saying " coach i be won see Glickman on Page 26