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Show AS THEY SWING THROUGH JUNE BASEBALL form still is somewhat muddled as the major league teams swing along. In the National league, the Reds and the Dodgers are holding up, but the Cardinals, heavy pennant choice in some sectors sec-tors when the spring predictions were under way, lag so badly that if they are not already out of the race they are teetering on the verge. In the American league the Yan-have Yan-have come on but not rarjidlv t enough to fit in with the pre-season f j schedule that called ? i for them to be away " out in front by this h jHt1 ' time. Otherwise, league is in accord- - Ssi8r! ance witn 'he dope, s vigf with the Red Sox, ' v-M Incians a"d Tigers up ahead and the liLiisial second division held Grantland the White Sox, Rice Senators, Athletics and Browns. The Browns, it seems, have had their splurge and from now on not much is likely to be heard from them. One of the main surprises has been offered by the Giants who, after aft-er a bad start, have moved up Into the running. At the outset, the Giants didn't look any better than they did at the finish of the 1939 campaign. But the return of Joe Moore, the fine pitching of Carl Hub-bell Hub-bell and the batting of Harry Dan-ning Dan-ning pulled them out of that early season slough. They still don't look as if they might sneak through and grab the pennant. But they do loom as a threat to the Reds and Dodgers, between be-tween whom the pennant seems tc lie. They can make a lot of trouble for those teams. Unable or so it appears to win themselves, they can have something to say about who does win. The Reds and the Dodgers The Reds naturally are favored. They moved back briskly from their collapse against the w . . 1 Ljiimi iiimimjj a Yankees last fall, iwT! lost little time tak- K ing over the lead its,ai!ws and have played at &s sgas. J a steady gait most t 4 of the way. Again J this year two of the i . ; most important fac- f tors in their play j kJ have been the pitch- n ' ing of Bucky Wal- " ' ters and the all- ,",," around work of Bill Bucky Walters Werber. Walters seems headed for a season as brilliant as that which he had in 1939. Take Werber out of the Red infield and it would sag so badly the weight of it would drag me team aown. The Dodgers have exceeded the expectations of Larry MacPhail and almost met those of the Brooklyn fans. Larry said In the early spring he didn't think the Dodgers would be as good as they were last year, while the fans claimed the pennant. And, of course, they remain the most exciting team in baseball. A Quick Comeback The robustness of the Dodgers' spirit was emphasized by the manner man-ner in which they threw off the effects ef-fects of the loss of those two games to the Giants on Memorial day. That, it must be remembered, was . more than just the loss of a double-header. double-header. It was a bitter, humiliating humiliat-ing and total defeat suffered on the home grounds at the hands of a hated hat-ed enemy and with all the fans who possibly could be packed into Eb-bets Eb-bets field looking on. It was enough to have thrown them off their stride for a couple of weeks at least, but they bounced right back from it as only a thoroughly game outfit could. Once more Leo Durocher is demonstrating dem-onstrating his skill as manager as he guides the Dodgers past bumps such as that defeat by the Giants and the loss of Pee Wee Reese. The Brooklyn players and this is one of their main sources of strength , think he is the greatest manager the game ever knew. I can't go quite that far with them but I will say there is no manager in baseball base-ball now who is doing a better job. Yankees on the Way The Yankees, though they have lagged, may be on their way at last not yet with the smoothness that Is characteristic of them but in a fashion that makes them still look like a fair bet to smash precedence and win a fifth pennant in a row. They have got over their bewilderment, bewilder-ment, brought on by early season setbacks, and are hitting again. In Marvin Breuer they have the best first-year pitcher in either league. They have had days recently such as they usually have at their peak. The Red Sox, holding first place, aren't going to be overhauled easily. eas-ily. Even the Yankees know that. Cleveland, with Bob Feller swinging along and a fine second-base combination com-bination in Mack and Boudreau, and Detroit, with a lot of power, are dangerous, too. The White Sox are going to be troublesome from time to time as they were last week, when they took two games out of three from the Yankees but they scarcely are contenders and the rest of the clubs do not matter, either. That's the way it looks as the teams roll through these weeks. |