Show MACKS MACK'S TEAM MAY FOOL EM Athletics Are Far From Wrecked Outfit JIM FOXX TO LEAD ATTACK By Dy BILL DILL BRAUCHER NEA Service Sports Edior If you ou are preparing to shed tears for tor or Connie Mack because he wrecked his ball club by selling Lefty Grove and a few other bits of baseball baggage save ave them All Is not ot lost I IThe The wrecking exercise conducted by y Mack recently was not so disastrous trous rous as appeared at first Looking carefully over the men he sold and those lose he k kept pt it begins to appear that he e parted with only two very useful weful men Grove and Cochrane Earnshaw Walberg and Bishop contributed con con- very little to the success of the he As A's last year Depending almost entirely upon a ayoung a ayoung young oung team he had thrown together last ast spring Mack moved into the clos cbs ing ng month of the campaign with the I best cst club in the league in point of around all performance The first of September found the As A's in fourth place lace five game garnet game behind the The he club gained nine full games on Cleveland leveland Cleveland finishing third Score More Runs An example of the Mack man mange manage ge nab al acumen is furnished by statistics which show that the As A's made 25 more runs all season than Washington Washing Washing- ton on the pennant winner while making mak mak- tag ing ng 67 fewer hits Jimmy Foxx's 48 home runs also must be figured in that jat reckoning But the outlook for 1934 is not so bleak leak as it was in 1914 when Mack really eally did toss his team to the winds With an infield and outfield such ashe as ase ashe he e has Mack needs only one first class ass pitcher to make trouble all year yearn in n the first division There's Theres Foxx at first the greatest hitter litter in the game Frank Higgins kid id third baseman hit in m his first year ear of big league lIc competition and is figured to be on the way to becoming becom becom- ing ng the best third sacker in the league McNair at short has established himself himself him him- self sell as a star and if Williams can return to his 1931 form at second base there simply wont won't be any infield problem for the As Outfield Ready The outfield is settled Roger Cramer Cramer Cra Cramer mer in center cente has come through as one of the best in the league Bob Johnson in left besides being a ball hawk of the Charley Chancy Jamieson order is one of the leagues league's most dangerous and timely hitters Right field willbe will willbe be divided between Big Ed Coleman Bing Miller and Lou Finney The As A's need a first class pitcher One of a number of young oung men who toiled promisingly during the last mont hot hof the 1933 season may arise to fill this need The backbone of the staff may be regarded as Mahaffey a veteran Big Bob Kline obtained from Boston and Merritt Cain who won von 13 and lost 12 for or the As A's last year Kline who won seven while losing eight for the seventh place Red Sox last year should win between 15 and 20 games for a club dub like the As Young Pitchers Claset McKeithan young Ray Coombs Dietrich and Marcum showed at intervals last year that they knew what it was all about Mack Mackis is pretty certain to concentrate on these and other young pitchers when training begins at Fort Myers Fla the first of March No less astute an authority than Babe Ruth believes that despite the sale of or Grove and Cochrane the Aswill As A's Aswill Aswill will be the t team am to beat for the nant this year Ruth likes the young oung pitchers introduced by Mack in the thelast thelast last few weeks of the 1933 drive The catching corps consisting of Belr Berry 1 and Hayes is not so hot but there are several signal departments de de- de in m the league no better |