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Show BASEBALL has known over sev-enty-tlvo spring starts, but in all that time Dr. Abner Double-day's discovery hag never before known I the tangled knot that belongs to the National League race of 1947. As a starter, the National League still has a 3 to 5 shot trailing the peck by many lengths with corn on the cobb and I watermelon Just around the corner. Eight National- ! League managers are reeling around with the look that follows the arrival of a blunt instrument instru-ment at the base of the brain. They ,,..', (rinillund Hire can t lind pitchers who can protect a 5-or-0-run lead. j They find a (lock of normally .300 hitters swinging savagely at a .123 clip, often lucky to get a foul. H Is nothing to see pitchers hand out 4 or 5 passes In one inning, forcing over Important runs. Star pitchers ! are far behind the 50-50 mark, struggling desperately to last three Innings. No one seemed to know whether I the first-division teams had slipped, or the second-division teams had I moved far up. There was no way to tell them apart, except to keep wondering won-dering how the tail-end Cardinals stayed where they were, as long as I they were allowed to carry bats to the plate. 4nybody Race Now We have made a careful check of the long list of games played in re-I re-I cent weeks, and from this roundup, It is impossible to locate a sure flrst-! flrst-! division team, or to name a team 1 that can't win the pennant by j breaking Just a trifle better than I even. Of course, this bizarre state of i affairs can't last much longer. One I or two teams are pretty sure to stumble over the lost element of I consistency and move on forward. But no one can tell you who these teams will be. The once ridiculed Giants suddenly sud-denly rushed In with the best of-; of-; fense in either league, backed up by greatly Improved pitching. Picked by many as repeating tailenders, they have been the best all-around team in baseball through the last few weeks. Mel Ott is due a number of rousing cheers for the late stand his hired men have made against some rasping luck, where the ball they have been playing most of May could easily win the National League flag. Tigers and Red Sox have made ! the American League race the more consistent scramble with the Indians crowding in. The Red Sox are far from their stampeding form of last season. The Tigers arc now favored as the best team in the circuit cir-cuit certainly the team backed up with the best pitching, which is a pretty vital matter. Joe Gordon, as one could figure In advance, has been one of the main factors in Cleveland's challenge chal-lenge once more the Gordon that ranked high among the best. It should be Tigers or Red Sox In the American League and you can do your own nominating in the now bewildered rival circuit. Cards Should Come Back No one expects the Cardinals to keep fluttering around the cellar and the swamps for any extended length of time. But their earlier crash - up has left the National League race wide open. Any pretty-fair pretty-fair ball club could step out and win this pennant against so much ragged and jittery opposition. No flag winner has much to beat, unless un-less Dyer's young men suddenly throw aside their winding sheets and play the ball they should have played from the opening pitch. On copy paper, they are still the class of the league in every department depart-ment of play. But you don't win pennants on copy paper. This 1947 National League pennant pen-nant race may not be the fanciest joust on record, but it should make up in the way of action and upsets what it lacks in class and form. Giant power has been a spring surprise. sur-prise. So has improved Giant pitching. pitch-ing. Here seems to be a pennant that almost any team can win any team willing to hustle and work a little. As the old philosopher, Oizzy Dean, puts it "There are a lot of good ballplayers around, but no good ball teams." What looked to be a one-club stampede has now turned into a four-or-five-club scramble meaning mean-ing Cubs, Braves, Cardinals, Giants and Dodgers with such teams as the Phillies, Reds, and Pirates still "dreaming of the hour." More Than I'oiver The great majority link Babe Ruth's name with the word "power." They think of a 235-pound giant hammering out more than 700 home runs, with a ball much less lively than the one in use today. Too many forget that the Babe also had an all-around skill, a matter of touch and timing, often approaching approach-ing the delicate side, that certainly matched his power. |