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Show IT MUST be understood in ndvance that it is the minor leagues and ! the colleges that make the major ma-jor leagues what they are. And you can include the sand lots, who furnish fur-nish their full supply of slars. The big leagues stand and wait. But, it is the case of Lou NovikorT, recently turned back by the Chicago Chi-cago Cubs, that proves again the number of brilliant minor league stars who can shine in thoir own domain, i but are only dim 1 candlelights in the wind when they move into faster company. outstanding excep- Lou Novikoff ! tion. He is merely , one of many. For example, I recall from my earlier years the case of Three-Finger Jack Hulseman of Shreveport, who could hit .380 in the Southern league, lead that circuit more than once, and yet finished around .190 in the majors. And Hulseman was a great hitter but only in the minors. A day or two ago I had a fan ; session with Lt. Bill Dickey, late of the Yankees, and Duster Mails, one of the best pitchers of his day 20 some odd years ago. "I could name you 30," the Duster said. "Do you recall Paul Strand? I'aul hit over .400 with Salt Lake. What a hitter. Paul was a .400 minor league hitter. But a .200 big league hitter. "I'll give you another. Do you remember re-member Ike Boone, the Alabama i football and baseball star? There was a great football and baseball ! player. Ike came to the Missions on the west coast in a. tough league j with a bad right arm. He really : had only one arm he could use. A Flop in Big Time "But in his first 27 games that season, Ike batted .410. He was terrific. ter-rific. We all said that with two good arms he'd hit .500. He was big, game, strong, a natural athlete and a natural hitter. But in the big leagues with at least one or two clubs he was a steady .240 hitter. "And there was Smeed Jolley with the Red Sox 6 feet 3235 i pounds, one of the greatest minor league hitters I ever saw. He had everything. In the big leagues he hit maybe .200. "There was Bcvo LeBourveau of the Phillies and Giants terrific in the minors but a flop in the big time. I could name you 20 great minor league hitters who couldn't hit the size of their hats in the majors. And this includes the great Russian Rus-sian NovikorT who can hit everything every-thing in the minors and nothing in the majors." "One trouble with the minors," Dickey said, "Is this the pitchers pitch-ers or the catchers often fail to discover dis-cover the batters' weakness. We'll take Lou NovikofT. He can murder a certain type of pitch. He can't even foul a fast one inside. But don't ever give him a fast one outside. He'll murder it. At least that's what I hear. All I know is that after being be-ing with the Yankees in the American Ameri-can league so many years, I know just about what every fellow likes to swing at and also what he DOESN'T like to swing at. And what a difference that makes." (As a side remark, I'd like to add that Bill Dickey knew more about American league hitters than any catcher in the history of baseball. He knew everything they liked and everything they didn't like). Greatest Hitter "There was one exception. His name is Ted Williams of the Red j Sox. "There is the greatest hitter I ever saw," Dickey went on. He'd never swing at a ball two inches off the plate. Williams could wait for j a fast ball or a fast curve until it was almost in my glove. Then if j he liked it he'd even hook it to left. "Ted had the swiftest reactions I've ever seen. He could make up his mind what to do in at least a tenth of a second. I tried to cross him every way I knew, but I never could. I'll say that Ted Williams Wil-liams is the greatest hitter I ever saw in baseball, and I know how good Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe Di Maggio were. But Williams was something out of this world. If we hadn't run into this war I believe be-lieve Williams would have finished as the greatest hitter of all time." It might be added here that Lt. Bill Dickey, the Arkansas quail shot, never makes any wild statements. state-ments. He only calls them as he sees them. Nothing else counts with him. Most Thrilling Fight When it comes to the most thrilling thrill-ing prize fight, I always pick the Dempsey - Firpo volcanic eruption that lasted only a trifle more than four minutes. Where Dempsey was j hammered to the floor or at least tc his knees with Firpo's first right- j hand where Dempsey kept Firpc ; on the floor most of the round-where round-where Firpo hammered Dempsey I through the ropes where everything happened in such a hurry that no one could follow the swiftly shifting j scenario of raw action. |