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Show i SPORTLIGHT ; Stretch in Both Leagues Is Hot I By GRANTLAND RICE TjASEBALL'S 1949 stretch Is now only a few furlongs away. And this next one can be a nectarine full of juice. Oddly enough conditions In the two leagues have been somewhat reversed since last April. At that time the Red Sox and Indians were to make the American league race. The DodEfers. Cardinals. Braves. Pirates and possibly pos-sibly the Giants were to churn up foam In the National. Nation-al. As the case Is today only the Cardinals and Dodgers appear ap-pear to have anything to say Both Yankees and Indians still recall the 11-game deficit Joe Mc-: Mc-: Carthy and his Red Sox wiped out I last summer and fall. Arid certainly McCarthy has never quit in his belief be-lief the Red Sox will win. The Yankees were the most consistent con-sistent A. L. team until early August, Au-gust, when Red Sox, Indians, Tigers Ti-gers and Athletics were involved in winning spurts and dizzy downward down-ward spirals that looked to be headed head-ed for oblivion. There has been more in and out, up and down, good and bad baseball base-ball played in the American League than anyone has seen for many summers. And a good part of it has revolved around erratic pitching. pitch-ing. The National League The Cardinals are even now an old team, largely products of 1941 and 1942, and by next year they will be over the hill. I can't see any other team coming along to fill in the gap, not even the once-challenging Phillies. The Cardinals or some other club had better collar the Dodgers Dod-gers this summer or it will probably be too late for some years to come. Burt Shotton's young pitching staff and young team is just picking up the seasoning and experience needed need-ed and by 1950 will outclass the National league, Cardinals included. in-cluded. The downfall of the Braves and the Pirates has been one of the jolting factors in the older circuit. Those who know Billy Southworth and have known him for years can't understand a group of ballplayers backing up under his leadership. He has always been too able a leader and too fine a character in the past. This has affected a ball club that never was too hot, even when it won a year ago. The Braves will be too far back of the Dodgers by 1950 to have a look in . Old and New Ball Baseball has had at least one mystery we have never been able to penetrate. How was it that in other years, though the pitchers could do anything to a ball except cut it in two, the batting averages of many players were so high? The hurlcrs could douse it with spit-ball moisture they could use emery they could fuzz it up they could blacken it and there were times when they froze it. aoout ine com-Grantland com-Grantland Rice lns stretch in the National league while the Yankees, Indians, In-dians, Red Sox and Tigers may all be lumped together through September in the American. This American league September stretch may be one of the best in many years, even close to the 1948 scramble. Past results have shown us what can happen when these stretch runs in the two leagues start. The Pirates Pi-rates twice have had a seven-game lead shot from under them in former form-er years. In 1934, the Giants lost six of their last seven games to give the Cards the pennant by two games. Dizzy Dean was the spearhead spear-head of the St. Louis team. The White Sox put on a 19-straight 19-straight rally in September as far back as 1906. The Cubs picked up a 21 consecutive game streak a few years ago to blot out the Pirates. There have been any number of leads shot to pieces in late August or September. On copy paper the Red Sox still look to be the strongest team in baseball with the upsurge up-surge of Parnell, McDermott and Stobbs, hooked to the power pow-er of Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Stephens, Doerr, Pesky and others. The Yankees, Indians and Tigers are now well balanced, bal-anced, with Red Rolfe's hired men carrying the more effective effect-ive pitching in Newhouser, Trucks, Hutchinson, Houtteman, and Gray. Dartmouth's Rolfe has done a fine job with the squad he opened with. For that matter so has Casey Stengel. From now on everything depends de-pends on how the stretch run is handled. |