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Show fold up this year because of his age. But McQuinn is still going strong. Batting near the .300 mark, his hustling and bustling around the initial sack is one of the reasons the Yanks are right up there. For a man who was considered through in 1946, when he batted only .225 for the A's, McQuinn's comeback is one of the big surprises in the American League today. With Ray Robinson entering the middleweight ranks, that division should provide plenty of fireworks for many months to come. Besides Robinson, there are Champ Tony Zale, Rocky Grazi-ano, Grazi-ano, Marcel Cerdan and several other top notchers ready for action. Robinson already is after a go with Zale but the middleweight middle-weight champ may want to take on lesser lights to build up a bankroll. Zale, like Lesnevich and Walcott, is also along in years and may not hold the title long. Perhaps Robinson should meet Cerdan, the Frenchman or Grazi-ano Grazi-ano first. Either match would make a top attraction. At least fans can look to the middelweight bracket for interest and excitement. excite-ment. At one time, Jack Graham, the slugging sensation of the Pacific Coast League who may go on to slap 70 or more homers this season, sea-son, belonged to the New York Yankees. But the New Yorkers figured he wasn't quite ready for big time so let him go to the Dodgers and they in turn sent him to Montreal of the International League. He stayed with the Montreal Mon-treal team in '41, '42 and '43 where he hit a total of 70 homers for the three years. After serving for Uncle Sam, Graham returned to baseball and last year played for Jersey City where he hit 39 over the fence. The point is, how he managed to stick around in the minors all those years without being scooped up by a big league club is something of a mystery. There isn't a team in the majors who couldn't use him right now. Graham is only 31 and still faces a number of good years in baseball. ISPORTS COMMENTS By Guy Stevens With the second half of the baseball season now W might be interesting to compare today's league standings with hatyof a year ago at this same time. On July 16 1947, in the National League, Brooklyn, Bos ton New York and St. Louis led tie field in that order. Pittsburgh occupied last place 15 games behind be-hind the Cards. Today, the Pirates are up in the first division, replacing re-placing the Dodgers. Actually, there's not a big cher and his boys may still work their way up. In the American circuit, a year ago New York, Detroit, Boston and' Cleveland were the top four. Today, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia and Boston lead the pack, though the race is so close you can almost expect a daily change. Right now the big question, ques-tion, among fans is, can the Indians In-dians and the A's maintain their surprising pace for the rest of the year? So far it's been a highly interesting season with the ultimate ulti-mate outcome in both leagues still very much up in the air. Ted Williams is the big punch behind the Boston Red Sox. And the same goes for Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals. Both boys, at this writing, are batting better than .400 which is something of a rarity in big time ball. Williams is hitting .415 while Musial has a .405 average. It's been a long time since the majors could boast of a couple of .400 hitters. Williams hit .406 in 1941, being the only .400 hitter in the American League since Heilmann of Detroit batted .403 back in 1923. The National League hasn't seen a super hitter since Terry of the New York Giants averaged .401 back in 1930. Of course, both Williams and Musial may drop below .400 but if they keep their average up and the Red Sox and the Cards meet in the World Series, what an attraction at-traction these two boys would make. The boxing situation has really reached a sad state of affairs. Look over all the big boys and who do you have ? You have Gus Lesnevich and Joe Walcott ruling the roost a couple of old timers who should be serving frothy suds in their own bar. All the others are third, fourth and fifth raters. The same sort of let-down was experienced after Dempsey lost the title to Tunney. From Dempsey Demp-sey to Louis a span of 11 years, there were six title holders. So until another Louis comes along, we'll probably have a new champ every year or two. But, to maintain main-tain some interest, elimination bouts should be started now. In the meantime, Lesnevich is over in London where he's scheduled sched-uled to meet Freddy Mills a week from Monday night. Gust scored a 10-round kayo over Mills two years ago. He should be able to repeat. It was just about a year ago that Manager Lou Boudreau began using Bob Lemon as a regular starting pitcher for the Indians. And no doubt that was one of the smartest moves Boudreau has yet made. Right now, it's Lemon and not Bob Feller who is keeping the Indians up around top. If the new Cleveland ace maintains his current cur-rent pace for the rest of the season, he should win 22 or 23 games. Not bad for a converted infielder. According to reports, Stymie, world's champion money-winning horse, will retire next fall. So the seven-year-old veteran may have to do some fast stepping if he expects ex-pects to reach the million dollar mark. However, it shouldn't be too difficult if he continues to show the same form as he did in winning win-ning the $25,000-added Aqueduct Handicap a few weeks ago. Stymie's Sty-mie's winnings to date is just over the $900,000 mark. After his great showing of 1947 many thought that Veteran Oeorge McQuinn, first sacker of the New York Yankees, would |