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Show ALVA BRADLEY was practically the only man in the recent Derby Der-by day crowd at Churchill Downs who wasn't talking or thinking about the Derby winner. Mr. Bradley was thinking and talking only about the Cleveland Indians. You can't blame him for that. Mr. Bradley is president of that astonishing aston-ishing ball club. It may be remembered in the past that the same Alva Bradley has had more than his share of baseball sorrow. sor-row. The Oscar Vitt episode was the starter. That was the year Cleveland blew a pennant it should have won by a dozen games. Then Bob Feller's departure into the service serv-ice was no great help, and the boss had to gamble on a 24-ycar-old manager, man-ager, who had no Feller around. Naturally Mr. Bradley was not looking on the 1942 campaign through any rose-tinted glasses. He was all prepared for the worst. For him there were no "bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover," or Cleveland. Cleve-land. Then the incredible suddenly happened as the Indians took to the warpath. About Boudreau "We had full faith in Lou Boudreau Bou-dreau from the start," Mr. Bradley Brad-ley said. "I'll admit none of us looked for any such early surge. But Lou worked like six horses this :(-', N 4 '. A. J i -Xi f j 4 A ALVA BRADLEY spring and his men worked with him. He had not only their respect re-spect but also their friendship. "Boudreau hasn't been out of college col-lege long and he brought the old college col-lege spirit back to our club. He refused re-fused to let Bob Feller's loss get him down in any way. The other pitchers knew they had to take up the slack. "At this point I'd like to say that none of us are claiming any pennant. pen-nant. The main idea is to hustle all the way and win all the games we can. They say. we are playing far beyond our real strength. That's something for time to tell." The Big Change It was easy enough to see in the Indians' training camp at Clear"-water, Clear"-water, Fla., that Boudreau had done a high-class job in the way of switching switch-ing Cleveland's mental attitude. There were no longer any troublemakers trouble-makers around. There were no soreheads. sore-heads. Boudreau set up an informal club-room club-room where the bunch could get together to-gether to read, loaf or play cards. Out on the field they were all hustling, hus-tling, none harder than the young manager whose attractive personality personal-ity was no small help. Even that far back Boudreau said, "I don't know where we'll finish, fin-ish, but I can promise you we'll have a team trying hard every second sec-ond of every game." No one could figure then, with Feller absent, that the ex-IUini star was to get the pitching his team has gotten in the first starting weeks. Nor quite the heavy hitting. But Boudreau and his team have at least shown what a new spirit can do to a squad. Looking Ahead It will take another month to get the truer picture of the two pennant races. Despite the present club standings, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees are still the two teams to beat. Late in May last spring the Yankees were seven games out. They picked up 26 games on the Indians from that point on. Before the season Leo Durocher figured that Dodger power would be more than Cardinal pitching could meet. Lee had no great respect for the St. Louis attack, which so far hasn't been on the devastating side. But the Cards are still a better hitting hit-ting team than their present markings mark-ings indicate. And they still have all the pitching any team needs. The Cincinnati Reds got away slowly this spring and they haven't been flaming balls of fire so far. But they also have better pitching than they have shown and a better ball club, once it moves into its normal stride. If any outside team is to crowd out one of the top three, rated by form, it should be Frank Frisch and his Pirates. They can hit their share, and if the pitching holds up they will be a threatening factor. The main test doesn't come until the athlete has been baked out in five or six weeks of summer sun. |