OCR Text |
Show Speaking of Sports Rookie Stars Pace Majors In 1938 Race Baseball Sloths A RACE of clow-footed, dull-wli ted ball players will soon dominate dom-inate (be national fame if the present pres-ent emphasis on slugging continues, according to Bill Lange, who 42 years ago stole 100 bases for the Chicago Cabs and speeded his way Into diamond Immortality. By GEORGE A. BARCLAY LRESHMAN ball players are rnl- lng the roost In the major leagues this year. A crop of brilliant rookies unprecedented In the history of the game have achieved stardom right off (he bat and clinched key Jobs on seven 'of the sixteen teams In the American and National leagues. These boy wonders are no morning morn-ing glories, mind you, who are likely to fold when the going gets tough. They've demonstrated their right to their Jobs by sheer merit For instance, in-stance, up to the half-way mark of the season, six of the freshmen outfielders out-fielders and inflelders playing regular regu-lar positions had knocked in 249 runs and compiled a composite bat- ' Modern ball players think too much in terms of home runs and not enough about base stealing," Lange declared. "The slugger has supplanted the thinker In baseball. Base stealing makes a player more alert mentally. He has to try to outguess the pitcher and the rest of the opposition, instead of trying to knock the ball out of the lot by brute force. "As a rule the superior base stealer steal-er is also the brainier player. One of your illustrations is Ty Cobb, the greatest we ever had. He was worth more to a team than a dozen Babe. Ruths." It Is an Interesting coincidence that Lange, in his day regarded as the outstanding player of the game and the Immortal Ty Cobb now are ' t ' . - ' V.; ,. i Jj ' f wVy'? J neighboring country squires near San Francisco, Calif. Lange, now a prosperous real estate operator, was a star for seven years, from 1893 to 1899. He quit the game In his prime. Lange was the last man to steal as many as 100 bases. He reached that peak In 1896, leading the National league that year and in 1897. Two men preceded and bettered him in stolen bases. They were John M. Ward of the New York Giants with 111 in 1887 and Billy Hamilton of Philadelphia with 102 in 1890 and the major league record number of 115 in 1891. Wonder Woman UELEN WILLS MOODY'S recent victory over Helen Jacobs at Wimbledon, England, confirmed her as the greatest woman player in the history of tennis. Whether you like poker-faced Helen or not, you must agree that her championship feat after a layoff of three years was unparalleled. This latest comeback was the second sec-ond in her career. In 1935 after being Inactive for the two previous years because of a back Injury, she triumphed at Wimbledon. Now, FRANK McCORMICK ting average of .322. And four of the rookie pitchers taking their regular reg-ular turn on the slab had won 28 out of 42 games for an average of .700. Standout among the first year men, of course, Is Cincinnati's sensational sen-sational Johnny Vander Mecr with two no-hlt, no-run games In succession succes-sion to his credit. His teammate, Frank McCormirk, a husky, slugging slug-ging first baseman, has also made good in a big way. Classy Talent Another scintillating recruit Is Joe (Flash) Gordon, second baseman of the New York Yankees and regarded regard-ed as about the classiest inficlder in the Junior circuit. The Cleveland Indians have Ken Keltner on third base, who specializes In home runs between hair-raising plays. In the outfield there are such ' young stalwarts as Sammy Chapman, Chap-man, the Philadelphia Athletics' star rookie from the University of California, Enos Slaughter of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Hank Steln-bacher, Steln-bacher, who has been batting around .350 for the Chicago White Sox. Ranking next to Vander Meer among the young pitchers Is Bob Klinger, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who has had an earned-run average of about two per nine-inning game up to date. Bob is a cousin of Charlie Char-lie Hollocher, one time Chicago Cubs shortstop and one of the most amazing fielders in the history of the game. Then there's Jim Bagby Jr. or the Boston Red Sox, who has shown enough stuff to become a dependable dependa-ble regular starter. Jim Is the son of famous old Sergeant Jim Bagby who was a 30-game a year winner for the Cleveland Indians a couple of decades ago. Tot Presnell has helped the Brooklyn Dodgers make things uncomfortable for other National Na-tional league teams this year and has become about the most dependable dependa-ble starter on the club. Behind the plate, Cincinnati scores again with Willard Hershberger, who came from Newark, the wonder won-der team of the International league last year. There are several other HELEN WILLS MOODY three years later, she has repeated. She dropped out of tennis so far as major competition was concerned after her 1935 triumph and stayed out until she hit the comeback trail this year in England. Helen has been a dominant figure in the world of tennis for 15 years, ever since she won her first United States championship in 1923. Before that for two years she was the girls' national titleholder. She took the national na-tional singles crown seven times, between 1923 and 1931. Since 1927 she has won the Wimbledon singles title eight times, including her recent re-cent victory. Just for good measure, Mrs. I Moody has won four French worn- ! en's championships and a respect- able number of doubles and mixed j doubles championships. I Here and There WHEN Bob Feller was pitching ) for Van Meter there were only j 200 high schools in Iowa playing i baseball. There were 570 high schools entered in an Iowa tournament tourna-ment this spring which climaxed in a three day competition at Manson in Calhoun county . . . Lefty Grove takes a nap on a rubbing table before be-fore each game he pitches . . . Rudy York needs only one more home run with the bases full to tie the season record of four, held jointly joint-ly by Frank Schulte of the west side Cubs, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig . . . Jack Beynon, former Illinois and Ail-Star quarterback. Is prepared pre-pared to demonstrate his new movable mov-able goal posts. The posts, which can be set on the end lines and wheeled up to the goal line when a team attempts a field goal, are designed to eliminate injury, which was the main reason the colleges ' moved them back to the end line j several years ago . . . Nine South- j em California football players, : Granville Lansdell, Oliver Day, Fhil : Duboski, Bob Peoples, Jack Banta. J Roy Engle, Howard Stoecker, Beans Russell and Glen Calvin, are doing extra work in motion pictures dur- ing the summer . . . Pittsburgh j hasn't made an important mid-sea- j son 'trade since 1923 . . . Hughie j Criti, who played second base for the Giants for a number of years, never has been inside a New Vorn night club. C Western Newspaper Union. JIM BAGBY JR. classy young catchers, including Johnny Riddle of the Boston Bees, Cap Clark of the Phillies, Herb Bremer of the Cardinals and Tom Heath of the St. Louis Browns. Put all these rookies together on a ball diamond and with the exception excep-tion of shortstop you would have an all-star aggregation that would give a first-rate account of itself In any ball game. And even so, that shortstop short-stop position could be acceptably filled by Justin Stein of the Reds. X |