Salt Lake Telegram | 1938-02-21 | Page 12 | Backseat Driving

FRAN FRANK K K BAKER BAKE R TELEGRAM SPORTS EDITOR The biggest question mark in all the American league is Lynwood the Rowe otherwise known as Schoolboy Detroit pitcher because the outcome of the 1938 pennant ra race in in the junior loop may be said to hinge upon the them m mound performances of the big fellow If If Rowe should recapture the life and pitching cunning in in his right arm and pitch as he did through 1934 and 1935 1035 when Detroit won the championship the anticipated Yankee march to another championship might not be nearly as easy as it now appears Eighteen or twe twenty ty victories by Rowe might readily put an entirely different complexion upon the pennant chase Put the Schoolboy in good form upon the mound every fourth day with Tommy Bridges Vernon Kennedy Eldon Auker Roxie Lawson Jake Wade and Cletus supplying the rest of the hurling and the Tigers would stack up as a true title contender Even Detroit is taking no financial gamble on its former star this season lie He has advised the Tigers that his arm feels I loose and strong again but following his disappointment last season the Bengal bosses are leaving the burden of proof squarely square square- ly up to the big Arkansas fellow himself Rowe goes to camp without a contract and must prove his fitness by actual mound performance before the Tiger front office will even start talk about putting him on the payroll again It is therefore a case of now or never with Rowe Hes He's still a young man and normally could expect somewhere somewhere somewhere some- some where between five and ten more years of top flight duty in in the big leagues Arm injuries sometimes leave pitchers with ith a mental fear which is hard to overcome Frequently t this reaction becomes a paramount barrier over which some hurlers never climb They are afraid to bear down again They feel all right but have trouble forcing the arm to really go to work again In putting the issue squarely up to Rowe as they have done the Tigers may help him overcome that problem and if the doctors have really rekindled the fire i in his once mighty arm Lynwood Lynwood Lynwood Lyn Lyn- wood Rowe may be in the headlines again this summer Last summer the Tigers won 9 and lost 13 games to the Yankees Rowe in top form might help balance that competition x tion lion or even reverse it And every time the Yankees were stopped it helps the other like Cleveland and Chi Chi- cago cage Press them close enough and Feller Allen Harder Str Stratton and Whitehead might also be able to come through with better fortune against the Ruppert Rifles That's why r Rowe is such an important question mark He lie might mean the difference between another Yankee walk-away walk or a real tight pennant race in the American league