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Show SPORTL1GHT Casey Dreams Up Some Trouble I By GRANTLAND RICE CASEY STENGEL, the hard-luck, good-luck miracle man who suffered over 70 team concussions last season, had a dream recently. It was a dream that turned into a nightmare and Casey doesn't care to talk about it. It seems that in this dream the eminent C. Stengel saw his team . go through the season sea-son without a single blemish. No injury or accident or Illness assailed any of his sturdy athletes. Joe Di-Maggio's Di-Maggio's heel lost its Achillean vulnerability vul-nerability and Joe foueht for the up St. Petersburg and New York this season." That BO-Home-Run Mark When the rather young Ralph Kiner moved into the 50 or better home run bracket for the second time, there 'were Increasing murmurs mur-murs about the possibility of some slugger passing the Babe's old mark. Ralph Is 6 feet, 1 Inch and he weighs 198 pounds. He has a pair of powerful hands and a pair of exceedingly strong wrists. This is where most of hitting power comes from when corrertly applied. "I might do it or someone else might do it," Ralph said. "But I don't think so. I was meeting the ball well last season. In the last 30 games I hit 20 home runs. That's a lot of home runs to hit in 30 games. I probably wouldn't do that well again in a lifetime. I mean in my last 30 games where the tension begins to build up. I suddenly sud-denly discovered that to beat 60 home runs you've got to get a good start and keep on hitting 'em. You can't afford any bad months. You can't blow yourself to any slumps. Sixty home runs a year is a home run about every 2 games. I hit better than one every three games last year, but that wasn't good enough." Since Johnny Mize was dropped as a regular, there don't seem to be any big home run hitters in sight, except Kiner. Ted Williams is usually somewhere in the high 30's or the 40's. One trouble with Ted is that he won't swing at a ball an inch or two inches off the plate. He doesn't say to himself "I'm going to belt this next one if it's close." If it's an inch off it's a ball, and Ted never swings at a ball There are few pitchers who get any thrills from having one of their fast balls hammered out of the ball park. They view such a proceeding pro-ceeding with practically no cheer. Bounding Dodgers In a strict Florida fishing accent, the Rt. Hon.. Burt Shotton, the Dodger's high gun, issued one of the most truthful statements of the year. He asked, in effect, just why the Dodgers shouldn't win the next National Na-tional league pennant since they had much the best ball club in their league including catchers, pitchers, infielders and outfielders? You've got to admire a statement of this sort for it puts manager Shotton on the hot seat. Grantland Rice Yankees in 154 games. No replacements were needed to help reinforce outfield or infield. But, at the end of the dream, the Yankees didn't win the pennant. The Red Sox did, haunted by the Cleveland Indians. Why? Mr. Stengel doesn't care to talk too much about it. But this is what happened 1. Jerry Coleman, a brilliant rookie last season, had the same "sophomore shingles" that attacked at-tacked Alvin Dark and a flock of other freshmen. The second season sea-son is always the toughest. The same disease struck the other 1949 rookies. 2. Phil Rizzuto, the star of the 1949 group, dipped a trifle from his lofty peak. 3. The pitching staff wasn't quite as good as it was last year when Reynolds, Vic Raschi, Lopat and Tommy Byrne, who all had big years, spent part of their time on the soapy chute. They were good but not as good as they had been. 4. Minus so many accidents, injuries, in-juries, etc., the Yankees no longer had any fight against fate. They lost part of their 1949 hustle. 5. Prof. Stengel suddenly discovered dis-covered that Red Sox pitching was far better than it was last season with Parnell, Kinder and McDer-mott McDer-mott out on the happy highway. 6. The pennant-saving Joe Page was good but not the Page of 1949. Joe has been great every other year 1945, 1947. 1949. This was 1950. This was the dream. C. Stengel, the potentate, failed to enjoy the next day. "Do dreams come true?" Casey asked. "If they do I may decide to stay out here and pass |