Atlanta Daily World

Joe Louis Really Breaks Up Detroit Ball Game

DETROIT-(ANP)-Ten Thousand people almost mobbed World Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis when he stopped a baseball game here Tuesday afternoon. The champ really broke up the game-not in the same manner, however in which he breaks up pugilistic hopes and ribs of his opponents but merely with his presence. The Joe Louis' Brown Bombers soft ball team, was playing the Black Hawks, representatives of a local beer cavern, at Atkinson field where 10,000 fans waited an hour before game time because it had been announced that the champ would play first base for a few innings. Joe sat among his players wearing dark sun glasses and a big leg-horn hat turned down and the multitude failed to recognize him. They crowded on the field so close that the outfielders had to play almost on the edge of the diamond and the police failed in their attempts to move the crowd back. In the fifth inning, when Joe arose took off his glasses and hat in preparation to play, some one yelled, "There he is!" and the surging mob started running Some thought he was coming in and rushed to the gate to meet him, while the rest swamped the popular idol and literally rushed him off his feet and swept him on towards the gate instead of on the field. Little children men and women, white and black tugged at his coat, tried to shake his hand and the poor helpless champion, looked bewildered Police came to the rescue and escorted the fighter to his car and the game was over. The Bombers won the abbreviated game 5 to 0.