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Show ' AS YOU probably know, It isn't A an easy job to get baseball managers to give out personal inter-views inter-views concerning the comparative ' -mmfmUm strength of ' i r! . quotes were avail-Joe avail-Joe Gordon m have . ! across seven managers and scouts, ; quite willing to give out their pri-; pri-; vate opinions. Here Is the way the concensus came out No. 1. Rlwuto and Gordon, Yankees. No. 2. Pesky and Docrr, Red Sox. No. 3. Reese and Rojek, Dodgers. No. 4. Boudreau and Mack, Indians. No. 5. Marlon and Verban, Cardinals. This ranking or rating included all-around quality, hitting, fielding j and double-play results. There was close finish between the Rizzuto-(Jordan Rizzuto-(Jordan and the Pesky-Doerr com-; j binations. It was generally agreed j j that the Red Sox pair carried the i j higher-hitting average, but the de-fensive de-fensive play of Rizzuto and Gordon . gave the Yankees a slight lead. In the work they have shown be-j ' fore and what they have turned out ; this spring, it would be difficult to find a more brilliant pair of infield workmen than Rizzuto and Gordon. Both are all over the lot. And both , i can get the ball away quicker than ! you can discard a burning package j , of paper matches. They keep you i ! dizzy attempting to follow their dou-I dou-I ble-play actions or their work on I some slow grounder that has to be j handled in split-second time. Pesky and Doerr are good and: they are likely to rate higher on I the hitting side. But certainly on j defense the Yankees have the edge over any other combination In el- j i ther league. The Dodger Ranking I was surprised to see Peewee Reese and Stan Rojek rated over gome of the others. But these votes came from scouts who had talked with National League managers. They figured that Reese would be good enough to give either Marion or Miller a stretch run at shortstop; and that Rojek would be a big sur-1 prise. Oddly enough they figured that while Marion and Boudreau were two of baseball's best shortstops, short-stops, their second-base support couldn't match Gordon or Doerr. And Rojek, with all his bright possibilities, pos-sibilities, is still something of a guess when planted in this able company. This shortstop-second base combination com-bination means a lot to any winning club. Suppose we look back a few years there were the old Cubs, winner of four championships in five years and their entry was Tinker and Evers. How about the Athletics from 1910 through 1914 when they also won four pennants? Their answer an-swer is Jack Barry and Eddie Collins. Col-lins. Cleveland once had Tuck Tur-Der Tur-Der and Larry Lajole. One of Mc-1 Graw's greatest teams had Dave Bancroft and Frank Frisch. They j were factors in winning four pen-! nants in a row. It might be noted that the clubs more favorably mentioned in the two pennant races are strong at this essential fortress. They are the Yankees, the Red Sox and the Cardinals. Car-dinals. Two-Sport Stars A while ago we attempted a rating rat-ing of the best baseball-football combinations such as Frank Frisch, Snuffy Stirnweiss, Lou Gehrig, Ma-thewson. Ma-thewson. Overall, etc. Ray Farnham from Philadelphia writes that we have left out the star bet of the lot. "His name is Mickey Cochrane,'' says Ray. "Cochrane is still remembered re-membered as one of the great catchers catch-ers of all time one of the best hittersa hit-tersa winning manager. But few remember that at Boston university in the early twenties, Mickey was also one of the best backs of many seasons. He was a star "triple threater one who could pass, run and kick with any All-America named that season. He was also a magnificent tackier and blocker, j Cochrane was also the strongest I part of the offense used by the Providence Steam Rollers." In addition to this baseball-football argument we have already located lo-cated the best combined tennis and golf player known to sport. His name is Ellsworth Vines. In his day tennis never knew a harder hitter. He was one of the best. Vines Is now to be listed among the better pros, good enough to break 70 here and there, and usually in the low 70s. The tall and willowy Ellsworth can belt the ball a long way, is a first class iron player and a pretty good putter. His long game is good all the way. Vines has always been a fine competitor. |