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Show BASEBALL may have a better philosopher phi-losopher in its midst than Casey Stengel, mandarin of the Boston Braves, but we doubt it. During the past few weeks we have put in considerable time hur- dling the divots of leading stars with Casey in tow, or vice versa, along the western border of bunkerland, discovering discov-ering each time new depths in the Stengel Sten-gel philosophy. A certain star would plunk one into a trap, squawking bitterly bit-terly when he found a heelDrint. Casey Stengel "Did he," asked Mr, Stengel, "expect "ex-pect to find the trap studded with a flock of wooden tees? Suppose some of these birds had to play from places I pick out from hole to hole?" It was no difficult job to swing Casey back to baseball. "The draft," he said, "can make these two pennant races a big scramble. And I'm not referring to the Yankees. The main American league scramble will be to keep somewhere in sight of the Yankees. Any ball club that has DiMaggio, Gordon and Keller doesn't have to bother much. But there can be a big scramble for second and third places. "We might find out, for one example, ex-ample, whether the loss of Ted Williams Wil-liams hurts the Red Sox more than Feller's absence hurts Cleveland. The Yankees suffer no such destruction. destruc-tion. That's the way it is in life. The breaks usually swing to the top, not towards the bottom." In the National Casey looked for an even tighter race in the National league than 1941 had to show. "The Dodgers and Cardinals will be about as strong as they were a year ago. I believe the Reds can be better, bet-ter, with the pitching pitch-ing they are sure to get. Just a few more base hits can make this club a tough contender back of Walters, Riddle, Derringer and Vander Meer. Those are four rough parties to face in any series. I feel Bucky Walters sure the Cubs and Pirates will improve. im-prove. Maybe the Giants. I hope we do. "We have some pretty fair kids coming along if they are not taken away in the draft. This is where the scramble comes in. No one can say now how many more players will have to go by midsummer. And you'll find few ball players turned down physically. They are a pretty healthy lot. "One big trouble with baseball," Casey said, "is the little so many players seem to learn. They are . usually big, fast and strong, and they appear to think that's all there is needed to make a ball player. "Oh, here and there you find a rookie who is keen to learn his trade, to improve himself. But you don't find this sort often. There are too many who either know it all or are too lazy to work at it in the hard way. "Good baseball is a smart man's game. This is why many an old-timer old-timer will still hang on this season, and more kids will fall back. It should be a big year for the veterans. vet-erans. I could use a fellow in Los Angeles by the name of Jigger Statz who is 43 years old. He is still one of the best outfielders in baseball and a pretty fair hitter." The 1942 Season Philosopher and psychologist Stengel Sten-gel looked forward to a good baseball base-ball year. "The average human mind," he said, "can handle only so much trouble trou-ble and brooding. It needs some form of release now and then. The entertainment and the amusement baseball brings to millions will be badly needed. And this can in no way interfere with war work of any sort. "Workers in war industries can use an hour or two here and there to rest their nerves and get needed relaxation. All those needed for war service will be taken. They have been called in large numbers and they still will be called whenever when-ever and wherever wanted. But there will be others left many others oth-ers including older men with families. fami-lies. Not so many of these will be taken, with so many unmarried younger men around. "And stars keep coming along. I remember they once said nobody could take the places of Wagner and Lajoie. Then we had Cobb, Speaker and Jackson. Who could lake their places? Then we had Ruth and Gehrig, llornsby and others. Nobody No-body could Gil those gaps. But suddenly sud-denly there were DiMaggio, Feller and Ted Williams. Also Pete Reiser, a great first-year man. And that Joe Gordon is no doormat around second base." "Yes, they keep coming along," Casey said. "The war will make a diflerence for a while. |