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Show WW AS FAR BACK as 1934 the ram-pant ram-pant spirit of the St Louii Cardinals brought them the titli of the Gas House Gang. Their 1948 outfit hasnt a Dean aboard "Me and Paul" a Delan-cey, Delan-cey, a Pepper Martin, but it has much of the same spirit that has . carried the team along so many years. Spirit is almost as indefinable as color, but it lasts longer. It can become a heritage, which color can't As Eddie Dyer put it: "It was nothing but sheer spirit that carried our team from a bad last to second place last summer. When we lost nine straight games to sink deeper into the cellar there was every excuse ex-cuse to quit especially as we had so many sick or injured men on the squad. But the team refused to quit and that gave me further proof it was about as game a bunch ai I ever saw. "We hate many of the same men on our squad this year that came from 10 games behind In ' August to win some six years ago. Marty Marion Terry Moore Stan Musial Country Slaughter White y Kurowski some of oar pitchers, although we've lost Lanier, La-nier, White and Beazley from that 1942 squad. But the same old spirit is still there. "Remember last spring in St. Petersburg, Ducky Medwick was the best-conditioned man in camp and one of the best hustlers. A lot of years had passed since 1934 but they couldn't affect his spirit. I've seen too many of our men out there hustling when they should have been in a hospital. "I'll admit we haven't the youngest young-est team in the league, but it isn't too old. It still has the spirit of six years ago when they beat the Yankees four out of five World Series games. "This is still an open race. The big improvement in the Pirates and Phillies will make a difference. And the Reds no longer will be a soft touch with Blackwell back.- It's a tough league in which to set up a winning streak. There are too many good teams and too many good pitchers in your road. This will be the toughest of all races." Disappointing Red Sox Last year it was the Cardinals. This year it's the Red Sox. The Cardinals, a 3-to-5 odds-on favorite, still were trying to wiggle off the last place hook around this date last year. The Red Sox would have been last at the quarter mark this season sea-son if the ignoble White Sox hadnt been in the same league the worst team in big league baseball. Yet the Boston ball club carries Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom Di-Maggio, Di-Maggio, Johnny Pesky and Vern Stephens, rated among the best men in baseball. All this plus Joe McCarthy. Yet for the first six weeks of the race this clnb couldn't keep pace with the Browns, tabbed as the all-time jokes. It might be mentioned here that the home support given the Browns has proved again this franchise must leave St Louis and let the Cardinals Car-dinals have an exclusive roost But this isn't explaining the Red Sox. One answer is shoddy pitching, pitch-ing, but this can't be the only answer. an-swer. They did far better last summer with about the same pitching. pitch-ing. The Red Sox dropped from second place in team batting to fifth despite de-spite Ted Williams' consistent hitting. hit-ting. Their first pitcher was in the 23rd spot in the league ranking, and they have only one regular who was above .500. But still they had the same staff as they had last year, plus Kramer and Kinder. McCarthy Broods Joe McCarthy has nearly always been a winning manager. There is no other manager who broods as . much over defeat. So anyone can see the miserable spring and early j summer the Buffalo leader ha known to date. Have his Red Sox dumped themselves them-selves out of the pennant race? That isn't the problem now. The problem is can ;they finish in the first division? Certainly none of this Red Sox misery can be laid to Williams. At last reports, Williams was leading the American league in individual batting and in runs-batted-in. He was second in home runs. He was well above his record of a year ago and hot on the trail of Ken Keltner of the Cleveland Indians. It couldn't be Williams. But Doerr, Stephens and DiMaggio were not too hot They are better than .250 hitters. Johnny Pesky is also more than 60 points below his normal average. The Red Sox have nothing like the team spirit carried by the Athletics, the Indians or the Browns. They lack the urge and the lift the desire to win. They have looked dazed and bewildered fn many games, as If they still dont believe they have spent over six weeks headed for the oellar. |