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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. rITH the Induction of Catchei William Malcolm Dickey into the navy, the New York Yankeei lost the last man of an era that made the champions the most famous fa-mous club in baseball. Bill Dickey played with Babe Ruth. Lou Gehrig was his roommate, room-mate, and in more recent years there were Tommy Henrich, Joe DiMaggio, George Selkirk, Johnny Sturm, Buddy Hassett, Red Ruffing, Ken Sears, Phil Rizzuto, Bill Johnson, John-son, Charlie Keller and others who made the Yankees the champions of the world. When Manager Joe McCarthy received re-ceived word of Dickey's status he said: ! "I guess it's only the beglnnlng.-I'ncle beglnnlng.-I'ncle Sam wants him and that's all there is to it. I wish Bill the best of luck. We'll all miss him. He was a great catcher, great hitter, ! and a great man to have on a ball club. The records prove Dickey was the greatest catcher of all time." Exactly how much the loss of Dickey will affect the Yankees re- 'V-MmmmA L W y&4enm i l i ppme S BILL DICKEY mains to be seen, but most observers observ-ers believe that it will rank with the biggest, comparable to the loss of DiMaggio, Keller or any of the others who are In service. Dickey's Rating Unquestionably Dickey deserves ranking with the best catchers of all time. He shared In nine World series cuts and appeared behind the bat in every contest of the Yankees last eight series. Only Ruth appeared ap-peared in more World series, and Dickey's feat of playing on seven winning clubs tied a mark held by Ruth and Gehrig. The only uniform that Dickey ever wore in the big show was a Yankee uniform and he wore that for 16 seasons. The veteran, who will be j 37 years old in June, received the plaque as player of the year at the recent Baseball Writers' dinner in New York. He holds the major league record of catching 100 games ' or more for 13 consecutive seasons and batted over the .300 mark in 11 seasons. His lifetime average is .313. Apparently the Yankee front office of-fice had seen the handwriting on the wall. Joe Glenn, a veteran, was purchased from Kansas City just a few days before Dickey was Inducted. Induct-ed. The club also has the services of Bob Collins and Mike Garbark.t rookies with little or no big league experience, and maybe Rollie Hems-ley, Hems-ley, a good catcher but a man who says be would sooner be farming than playing baseball. All-Important When the news was given to McCarthy Mc-Carthy he wanted to say he was sorry to see Dickey go. But he checked his words for fear they might be misunderstood. As the manager of a baseball chili it Is inconceivable that McCarthy should be glad to see Dickey go. A catcher Is all-Important. A winning ball club must be strong through the middle, from the catcher's bo through center field. The trend of the times was evidenced evi-denced by the fact that, when news f nirkev's induction came, the only catcher in the Yankee spring camp was Claude Larned, a councilman from Pleasantville, N. Y., where he has a gas station. ' Larned is not even trying out for the team. He was around only because he likes baseball and happens to be a friend of Paul Krichell, the Yankees' No. 1 scout. The mighty have not fallen, but their troubles are as numerous as those besetting the seven other clubs of the league. And that alone is most unusuaL SPORTS SHORTS fi. Elmer Riddle is the 15th pitcher in Cincinnati's modern baseball history to win 20 or more games in one season. . Major league clubs will play 168 spring exhibition games before launching the championship season of 1944. C. Before the Detroit Lions gave him a contract, Frank Sinkwich signed ' a release absolving the club from responsibility in the event of permanent per-manent injury due to his heart con-iition. |