Show oTi I CE A Baseballs Baseball's Top Optimist TN EVERY GAME played In any 1111 5 IN sport there is usually a leading optimist to match a leading pe pes For example practically nil all football football foot toot ball coaches are soaked from front ankle to forehead in pea pes In fri baseball d' d 4 Jt 5 f you OU get the optimists ot up up to July And probably the F I chief optimist of the tho lot Is Fre J the owner ol ci the Cardinals S Fred was that thai 5 way b back a c k In Rice March l He lie was still till that way war In early June Dont sell us short he writes After Alter a rather hectic start we are now ready to settle down to play some real baseball We are supposed supposed sup sup- posed to be a veteran team We are both young and old I honestly believe we are going to surprise you and a lot 10 of others The Cardinals are not going to surprise us We picked them to finish second last fall faU and they carried carried car car- ried ned the fight right up to the last day We picked them to finish second second sec see ond this fall although rating Eddie Eddie Ed Ed- die Sawyers Sawyer's Phillies right along along- side This Cardinal up line-up is really a remarkable collection Many of them were supposed to reach their peak eak in 1940 1941 or 1942 Here lIere and there some ball club has hae a survivor from the Neolithic age who lasts eight or ten years But Dut only one or two are still on the scene Look at the years these Cardinals reached the big leagues Max LanIer Lan Lan- ler Ier 1939 1931 Enos Slaughter 1938 Stan Musi l 1941 Marty Marion Marlon 1940 Howie Howle Pollet 1941 Harry Walker alker 1940 Harry Brecheen 1940 Alph Brazle 1943 I Here we have eight men who average 10 years service with one club Make it nine and one half years years If you care to And yet et this one club built on spirit as well as ability is still one of the favored teams in the older lea league e a ball club that might well enough go on onto onto onto to beat boat the highly favored Dodgers and win another pennant They are the exact opposite of the youthful Phillies many Phillies-many many many years older Yet neither the Dodgers nor Phillies so far have been able to shake these veterans loose They have an exceptionally fine flue manager In Eddie Dyer a sportsman a scholar a gentleman an able manager and a swell gu guVe guy We Ve have no zoo idea of selling the Cardinals short They are the only National League team in over 20 years that has been good enough and game enough to crowd the American League into a rough corner corner cor cor- ner ncr more more than once and apply appl the theold theold theold old right hand to the chin What other National League team has won fo four r world series in the last 20 years a S 4 i I I Vanderbilt Uprising The right things in life dont don't always come to the right people I but a turn in this direction has been I taken by Al Vanderbilt and his racing stable Outside of Discovery the Van Van- stable hasn't been able to give racing many top horses just before and after alter the war You had the feeling some years years' back that hat Vanderbilt horses seldom won any races You considered this point in your visits to the windows But Dut there has haa been a sweeping change in the last two years Bed won last year as a year two-year old Vanderbilt is a smart horseman lIe He saw at once with the war over that he be had to move in a hurry bum So he got Winfrey one of at the smartest smart mart est trainers in the business to get his horses ready He also picked Ralph Kercheval to ru run his farm tarm You may have forgotten Ralph Kercheval Not so long Jong ago he was one ooze of th the thO best backs Kentucky ever had Ask Shipwreck Kelly KeUY his teammate Kercheval was also one of the greatest kickers football ha has ever teen n. n I me mean n up there with Ken strong the nonpareil of kickers Kercheval bad had taken a keen liking to the thoroughbred game rame Both Winfrey and Kercheval have worked together torether to give rive Vanderbilt as strong strone a lion tion as aa lay any racing man needs C S e a Tangled Snarl The Called 50 tight HIM gam game has d de d the weird habit of 01 moving further and Ind further lurther into the deep tangled Wildwood As A. a starter tarter It n ItI has only I two good divisions today and the better one the middleweight Is n The rho Practically twisted out of 01 shape hape for tor leading people e eligible to tight ht this crown 1 are re Jeke LaM LaMotta a. a defending champion Ray Robin Robin- Ion ert on welterweight 1 ch champion pon Rob Rob- and Laurent Daut Daut- and nd Rocky |