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Show THIS sporting life may be checkered, check-ered, dizzy and dumb, but it is never wholly dull. One never can tell from what direction the harpoon will be thrown. Here is a double example. A few weeks ago the Louis-Conn party was to be the season s greatest thriller. At that time the Phillies Phil-lies were the joke of the sporting world. They had been tagged as the eternal occupants of baseball's doghouse. dog-house. They were supposed to be imbedded im-bedded in the cement ce-ment of the cellar. All this sounded reasonable enough Grantland Rice as we looked over the chart. Then, with little warning, a cloud no larger larg-er than a man's hand or thumb worked into a western twister, while the Louis-Conn fight broke all records rec-ords as a monumental flop an all-time all-time record. About the same time, the lowly Phillies began their upsurge. Within With-in two weeks they stole the glory of baseball. They became more talked about than the Red Sox or the Yankees, than the Dodgers or the Cardinals. They have made the Louis-Conn dull merry-go-round look like a taffy-pulling exhibition. The Phillies have emerged from the grottoes and the underground into the open. They finally see the light of the sun again. They can see the summer dawn and feel the rain. Challengers Now Through the combined efforts of owner Bob Carpenter, general manager man-ager Herb Pennock and manager Ben Chapman, one of the most liberal lib-eral and one of the ablest combinations combi-nations in baseball, the Phillies no longer are baseball's doormat. They no longer belong to the tribe of "God's green footstools." At last they are a real baseball team. For several weeks now the Phillies Phil-lies have been playing the best ball In the National league. This may be no high tribute, but it is an amazing tribute to a team that has defended the cellar with record-breaking record-breaking stubbornness for a long time. It should go as a high tribute to Messrs. Carpenter, Pennock and Chapman, who have combined to turn out the best Job In baseball for 1946. The Phillies of 1946 have carried US back to the Boston Braves of 1914. That happens to be some 32 yean ago. Around this date the Braves were in last place. George Stallings, the fiery Braves manager j from Georgia, was wearing out a suit a week, moving up and down the bench. There have been many hard-losing managers In baseball-most baseball-most of them are but Stallings holds the record. Then, around the first of July, the Braves began their move from the bottom. They had Rabbit Maranvllle at short and Johnny Evers at second. Great field smart brain big heart no hit. They had Hank Gowdy, the old Sarge, back of the bat. But, above all, they had three great j pitchers Dick Rudolph, George Tyler Ty-ler and Bill James. Day after day, game after game, we saw these three pitchers in the box score Rudolph, Tyler and James. This trio proved to us that three pitchers, working every third or fourth day, are all a ball club needs. Working that often a pitcher gets control and confidence. I'm not referring to the sore-arm boys, to the once-a-week pitchers of the modern mod-ern era, where it takes three or four pitchers to finish a ball game. ' Rudolph, Tyler and James started start-ed and finished their own games, working at least twice a week. They were not pampered as the modern pitchers are, barring such men as Feller, Newhouser and a few others. From Bottom to Top So the Braves moved from 8th to 7th place, then to 6th. They moved from 6th into the first divi-sion, divi-sion, then headed for the top. They j made the top and they didn't need 1 eight or ten pitchers to carry them along. They needed only three-Rudolph. three-Rudolph. Tyler and James. The light - hitting overlooked Braves only murdered the Athletics Athlet-ics in four straight games. They outplayed and outgamed and out-pitched out-pitched and outhit one of Connie Mack's greatest teams. Hank Gow-dy Gow-dy hit over .500 in that series. But '" the main answer again was Ru- I dolph. Tyler and James, who had been seasoned under Are for over three months, who had been worked often enough to know their trade Any pitcher who can't start and finish over 20 games, who can't work in over 300 innings-or 350 inn-ings-isn't much of a pitcher. What baseball needs today is a combina-tion combina-tion of Rudolph, Tyler and James who can handle a three months1 schedule practically unaided Modem Mod-em pitchers need far more work than they are getting. No set of arms can be that fragile, that futile, that weak. If Chapman only had another Rudolph, Ru-dolph, Tyler and James he would breeze through this 1946 pennant race. It wouldn't even be a contest j |
