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Show ALTHOUGH the Chicago White Sox aren't too pleased with the pre-season build-up, they're the one team picked to make life slightly miserable for the Yankees during the coming months. No less an authority than Connie Mack mentioned them as the team to knock off the Yanks. Two years ago Connie said the Yankees would finish third. They did. Last year he said they'd win the pennant, they did. The Sox are hoping the 1942 season will enhance his reputation as a seer. Jimmy Dykes, manager of the Pale Hose, is a hustling, scrapping, smart individual whose main idea is to win ball games. He refuses to I concede the pennant to the Yankees. He knows he can't overwhelm such men as DiMaggio, Gordon, Keller, Dickey and Henrich. But he knows his pitching staff can do much to silence their bats. Dykes Is quite certain that the Sox have the best chance to beat the champs if they are to be defeated. de-feated. Last summer his mound staff was the most effective, as a whole, in the American league, pitching the team Into third place. I This third place standing takes on added significance when It Is remembered re-membered that the team chalked up no better than a .255 batting average. Hitless Wonders The Sox greatest need, of course, Is offensive power. They need one or two .300 hitters to bolster their attack. The present Sox crew is slightly reminiscent of the 1906 "Hit-less "Hit-less Wonders," with Walsh, Altrock r i v V J A I f ro JIMMY DYKES and White. The team, with a batting bat-ting average in the neighborhood of .230, managed to win the American league pennant Then they proceeded proceed-ed to demolish the famous Cubs, who, in turn, had wrecked the senior sen-ior circuit Getting back to the pitching staff Dykes probably will start the season sea-son with nine hurlers. As starting pitchers he has Thornton Lee, Dunk Rigney, Edgar Smith, Bill Dietrich, Johnny Humphries and Ted Lyons on Sundays. Fighting for the relief berths are Orval Grove, Lee Ross, Joe Haynes and Ed Wieland. Ted Lyons, who has spent 19 full seasons with the Sox, rates Thornton Thorn-ton Lee as the greatest pitcher in baseball today. In 1941 Lee won 22 games and had an earned run mark of 2.37, topping all regular hurlers. Rigney, who won 13 and lost 13 last year, is a good bet to hit the 20 mark this summer. Last spring he was bothered by the flu and a strep infection. In addition, his personal life was not on its customary even keel. The Outlook Smith could win 20 games without the aid of a miracle. He pitched same excellent ball last year and is working hard to keep his weight down. Dietrich should play a better bet-ter brand of ball than Is indicated by his five victories of last year. Lyons, at 41, will win his share of games and Humphries, who didn't get in many games, should win consistently. con-sistently. The Sox catching staff should be stronger. Mike Tresh is one of the best in the league and Turner and Dickey will have improved to a considerable con-siderable extent Dykes Is well known for his ability to get the best out of a player. He isn't the gentle, soft-soaping type. He doesn't worry about offending those on the other side. He has the idea that a man must be able to take it to belong. He knows his players aren't odds-on favorites to cop the American league pennant, but he knows too that they'll go down swinging if they go down. A great deal will depend on the infield. Joe Kuhel is still a real ball player at first While Hollo-way, Hollo-way, Lodigiani and Kennedy aren't the strongest hitters in the game, they may take fire if the club is pointing towards the top. Taft Wright is the shadow of a rock in a weary land. He is superbly superb-ly confident that he will bat around .350 this season and his reasoning has logic behind it He spent three weeks in a hospital last spring and didn't regain his strength until the middle of June. He was hitting around .200 late in June. |