Show RICE TF IF F you will pardon us for pointing A big league baseball today has at al extremely high average of leader leader- leadership leadership leadership ship in its managers now after th thi golden fleece The 1948 1946 crop can match anything we have known in baseball As they will figure largely in the headlines of the new year they should be worth just a bit more space than they have hava received to date Who are they Even if you dont don't remember they include Joe McCarthy of the Red Sox Bucky Harris of the Yankees and Lou Boudreau Boudreau Bou Bou- dreau of the Indians It might be Steve ONeil O'Neil of the Tigers also be be- longs We are not so well acquainted acquaint acquaint- ed with his work It might be that Connie Mack can be included in m this list list we we mean 1948 the 1948 the oi only duly y year that matters now You can throw out all the others The American league battle willbe willbe will willbo be bo a to hand-to-hand throat-cutting throat duel between McCarthy and Har Har- Harris ris It ought to be bc They have most of the good ballplayers McCarthy is a brilliant manager But dont don't underrate H Harris the most human leader of the lot Harris can handle his squad and when you ask him a question point-blank point he answers answers answers an an- point-blank point protecting nobody nobody nobody no no- body telling you the truth as he sees it Harris is a rarity I haven't seen since the days of John J. J McGraw McGraw as I knew him was a helpful helpful helpful help help- ful friend when you needed a story So is Harris Managers Need Players Boudreau a great ballplayer has never had the material to prove his place Boudreau might have churned churned churn churn- ed up a mess of trouble this season if the Yankees and Reds hadn't reached out and lassoed most of the good floating material A fellow can be honest have an honest opinion and still be wrong nong- In the opinion of this restless roamer the best manager in the National league is Billy Southworth Southworth Southworth South- South worth of the Braves possibly Braves possibly the best manager in baseball today Next to Southworth we put Eddie Dyer and Leo Durocher on level terms Both are something better than good managers We like Dyers Dyer's system of handling his men and working with umpires better but we can be quite wrong here Burt Shotton is one of the great managers of baseball Rickey should have given him 50 per cent of every dollar he took in through 1947 For all of that Durocher is an able leader He isn't a McCarthy a Harris Harris Harris Har Har- ris or a Southworth but he is good enough Mel Iel Ott has another chance to prove his place Ott is one of the most likeable persons iI iri in the game today He had the power last year and he should have it this year Charley Grimm Johnny Bill Meyer and Ben Chapman are all good managers With better material they might be much better better better bet bet- ter managers But they will chuck in a number of grenades when the Cardinals Dodgers Braves and Giants Glants come along Florida the Beautiful Florida may have many things that other states lack lack and and that in in- includes includes n- n California In the Everglades Everglades Everglades Ever Ever- glades for instance the state that Ponce de de' Leon helped make famous has the last frontier of sport the most famous 10 thousand square miles in the United States Here within a brief whirl of the social softness and glamour of Palm Beach and Miami Beach Bench you can come upon both beauty and savage wildness fang and claw the rattlesnake rattlesnake rattlesnake rattle rattle- snake and moccasin the copperhead and the coral snake the puma or what is known here as the panther bear up to pounds or more deer alligator egret pelican heron and crane almost every known variety of bird life and fish beyond all ima ima- In one days day's haul in a small boat we returned with 12 varieties of fish The boat was halt half full of fish by 2 o'clock There were wild duck and geese flying lying overhead and there was quail in the dryer spots The jungles of India and Africa have nothing to match the variety or beauty of the Everglades or its look of wildness in certain sectors There are no tigers lions elephants elephants elephants ele ele- or leopards around But the tho puma or panther ranging nine feet from tip to tip weighing close to pounds is a replica of the West's Vests mountain lion The puma Isn't a tiger or a leopard it isn't even a jaguar but it is still nothing nothIng nothing noth noth- ing to meet on a n narrow trail The mangrove swamps and ghost here can get you lost in 10 minutes lost beyond recall without a guide r I I was lost in less than 10 minutes Would I ever find my way back I asked after clearing a few mangrove mangrove man man- grove spots Not in a hundred years my guide said unless you youcan youcan youcan can beat a to 1000 shot Florida has something that too many of ot its people never have ap ap- ap- ap It is about time they understood For what they have is invaluable in the long run a more important part of the nation than Washington D. 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