OCR Text |
Show BIS THIS matter of expecting even the stronger football teams to win all of their games or most of their games Is point all of joint if a point can have a Joint Even the Yankees and Dodgers, good enough to carry off a pair of pennants, won only two-thirds of their starts, and football should be Judged in much the same manner. There are too many strong teams In the field today for old grads to keep expecting one victory after another. an-other. Many have now even reached the point of tossing out teams that happen to have lost a single game. On this basis where would the Dodgers have been last spring when even the Giants beat them three straight to open the season? As Bob Zuppke once said, "Out in that Big Ten I can lose every game and still look good." And that might be true. Accidents, tough breaks, injuries ; and other details can often make a difference of two or three touchdowns touch-downs in a game. The psycholog- I ical setup has wide ranges. The main answer is that any team j playing a first-class schedule can look back on a good season if it can win a majority of its starts. Last season, for example, Minnesota won every game yet Minnesota had the closest possible calls against Michigan, Michi-gan, Northwestern and Ohio State, with whom just a slender flop in luck the other way might have brought the gallant Gophers three setbacks. That's the way football is. One or two breaks, especially in the passing game, can raise an abnormal amount of old-fashioned Cain. It has been that way every season, and this should be no exception. The 'Next leaf Job Messrs. MacPhail and Durocher of Brooklyn's Dodgers are not thinking think-ing at the moment of any revenge on the Yankees next fall. Their first move will be to stall off the Cardinal charge. Sam Breadon and Branch Rickey both believe that said Cardinals will I ' ' v - LEO DUROCHER be much harder to hold in check next spring and summer with so many crack young pitchers on hand. Against this Wyatt, Davis and Fitz-simmons Fitz-simmons of the Dodgers have a combined com-bined total of 107 years or 108 years by 1942. "You might also add that we can't be expected to have another such run of terrible luck," Rickey said. "That will make a terrific difference." differ-ence." The 1941 World series is now back with the dust-gathering archives, but thev are still talkino- nv,, t ----e "w-fv vjz Gordon, the Oregon Flash. Gordon did something more than bat .500 in the series and reach first 14 times in five games. He killed infield drives that would have whistled whis-tled safely through Dodger defenses, de-fenses, and this makes a major difference dif-ference to any pitcher. The Yankees slipped at least four hits to the right of second that Gordon Gor-don would have been waiting for or at least would have handled with-out with-out breaking his neck. The Yankee star is remarkably quick starting in either direction, and he is even quicker with his hands. As a freshman at Oregon he was the most promising-looking young football player the West coast had seen in years, but abandoned the gridiron for a diamond career Joe McCarthy wants none of his athi letes playing football. j viuiuuu uas less tension on big days than any other ball player in the game. There Is no situation that can tighten him up. And the game can't show you a finer snorts-man. snorts-man. A Call for Help "Now that the World series is over," writes a fan. "how about helping out a few of us duffers' Some time back you wrote something some-thing about 'live hands' in golf. How do you get live hands?" Dead hands and dead wrists are usually the result of leg and body tension. This tension tightens up both hands and wrists, and leaves nothing left but a shoulder or a body lunge. J |