Show TF F 9 THERE RE are any upsets any reversals of form in baseball this season the same will come from the pitching side for example if anything happens to the boston red sox the trouble wont won t come from their infield or outfield it will come from a pitching staff that Is still uncertain last season dave ferriss rex hughson and mickey harris won many well pitched games 11 but they ey also won a it 7 flock oc k of games that only savage hitting and run making saved games in which they were ham into pulps tex te hughson before the war was rated as one ot of baseball baseballs s best last season tex needed the help of red sox bats to save him game after game and so did dave ferriss in the season seasons s opener the red sox gave hughson a 6 0 lead and yet be he couldn coulden t finish it is more than probable that joe cronin will need some extra help from some of his younger pitchers if it he is to win again even it if he has more good ballplayers on his team than any other rival by a two to one ratio red sox pitching hardly belongs to in the same class with cardinal or tiger pitching these are the two strong staffs in baseball well be yond any other collection of right and left arms is the best pitcher to in baseball today bob feller Is sure to have a good year but he isn t sure te to have a great year as great a pitcher as he has been in the past the tigers have at least four high grade pitchers who also have strong supporting aides so have the car danals durable hurlers when red munger opened his new season with a well pitched game you could almost hear eddie dyer s sigh of relief drift in from the mid west for munger over 6 feet ee weighing pounds is the type that tha a can work to in 35 or 40 games he is also the type that might win 25 ibis means that such slender and somewhat fragile workmen as pol let brecheen and dickson can get all the rest they need it Is quite possible that with the addition of allie reynolds and the showing of yung young johnson the yankees pitching staff will be the strongest section ef of the squad it I 1 they are to get anywhere it will have to come through with better than average pitching As tar far back as 1906 the white OX known as the hitless wonders proved what good pitching t hi g could do their team batting average was yet ed walsh nick altrock and dec doe white carried the team to a pennant and then to a world series victory ever the powerful cubs the white sex sox starting from last or near last place won 19 straight in their flag drive pitch tog ing did it in 1914 rudolph udolph It tyler and james pitched the braves from last place to the pennant and then a four game sweep in the big series in etch case you 11 notice that three pitchers did most of the work few pitchers today get half enough werk work A geed good pitcher should be worked every fourth day to keep his condition and build up his con trel credit tor for connie mack s star teams of some 40 years ago was always given to his brilliant infield I X d give even greater credit to bend er plank and coombs three of baseball s best his infield wasn gasn t great enough to protect an only average pitching staff worked 45 games all you need to t discover what the power ef of good pitching means is to look through past world series records and see what happened to ty cobb hans wagner and many other stars up through ted williams and stan giant pitchers held even the mighty babe to a mark of to in one world series most of the great pitchers of base ball those with the stronger arms could werk work through 45 or 50 games a year this list includes cy young matty johnson alexander walsh chesare feller and dizzy dean the tendency today Is to lift a pitcher the moment he begins to wobble a trifle this is often a necessary move but it deeon t help the pitcher pitchers s confidence nor bring him the work he needs in past seasons looking well back good pitchers were allowed to stick this accounts for the fact that many of them were able to win from 30 to 40 games a season matty al aexander and johnson turned this trick at least twice feller insists that the heavy pres sure he put on his arm last year from january to december had no harmful eff effect act everyone hopes bob is right but there Is also such a thing as overwork ww |