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Show BP DASADENA. CALIF. A tall. wil- lowy figure drifted recently across the California scene. He was headed for the solace of the 1m mi South Seas to pon-j" pon-j" der his problems f 7 and adjust himself f r ' J to a strange future v , he had never con- K sidered a year ago. )S ' Ll -I 0ne lp ' t - ' star5 k'3 Prtes j , Ss one of the s , "-yl smartest this ad- ! ' J?! Justment will call 'P' .-"A for exchanging an ' WYi J annual salary of GrantlandRice year for a pay check calling for $30 a month. And this is to happen after one of the greatest years he had ever known. I'm speaking of Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers. There is a big difference In what the owner of a big league ball club can pay an outstanding star and what our Uncle Sam can afford to offer a private soldier. In this case the difference happens to be 100 to 1 If you happen to get the wrong number in the draft. Greenberg, for example, is older than either Bobby Feller or Joe Louis, who are not exactly starving. The spin of that draft wheel happened hap-pened to cost him $35,000 a year which is the way It should be and has to be in an existence which is now a trifle cock-eyed. Long Hank was on his way to Honolulu when I ran across him Inspecting In-specting the floral beauty of Santa Anita before taking a chunk of the Pacific in his stride. Okay by Hank "As you know," he said, "I have a low draft number and I may be called in June or early July. Which is all right with me. From the way things are moving there may be a lot more of us called out by then than many people figure today." to-day." Hank is already looking In the old P. of C, sometimes known as the pink of condition. 'This season," he said, "I hope to be in the best early season shape I have ever known. I may not have many weeks to travel, so I can't afford af-ford to waste any time getting started. I ought to be in good shape, anyway, to play on some army team." There is a good chance that by next summer army competition In baseball will be quite sharp. And there will be loud cheers from any division or corps that happens to bag the tall Tiger. "We'll have a tough Job this season sea-son defending our title," Greenberg said. "The two toughest opponents we must face should be New York and Cleveland. Bob Feller can make almost any team look good, but Cleveland has more than Feller. Don't forget Boudreau and Mack at short and second. "The Yankees are sure to be bettor bet-tor than they were a year ago when they got away badly. Their young pitchers will be ready to pick up where the veterans begin to leave off. Through 1940 they had become fed up with too much winning. You know that can happen. "While I still think New York and Cleveland are the teams to beat, the White Sox won't be far away and you'll see a much better team in Fred Haney's St Louis Browns. The Red Sox must still get better pitching. Aside from that they can play with anybody." About the Tigers "What about the Tigers?" I asked Greenberg. Hank grinned. "We were picked to finish fifth or sixth or maybe sev- enth last April In the South," he said. "Still we won the pennant I'll tell you why. I think we had i the finest spirit I've ever seen in j baseball. We hustled through every inning of every game we played. There was no time out for inter-I inter-I missions. "Don't forget we still have a good j pitching stall coming on, headed j by Buck Newsom and at least three j or four fine young pitchers. We j still have Rudy York's hitting and ; his greatly improved play at first We have three Infleld veterans left i who will be Just as good as they jj were a year ago. Why? Because 1 they are ball players at heart be-s be-s cause they have brains and spirit. I They are not through." j "Suppose you are called away J early in June?" I asked. "The Tigers are no one-man ! team," Hank said. "I'm Just an- other fellow out there, doing the best I can. You can never tell 5 in baseball. Don't sell us too J short." 1 Hank Greenberg is something more than a fellow who bats over .340 who drives in from 150 to 180 i runs a year who can shift from a I fine first baseman to a fine outfield- tr in one quick season. "Not only as a ball player," Fred Haney of the Browns told me, "but ' in the way of spirit I'd like to have 'I nine Greenbergs on my team. I re-3 re-3 member one year when he hit camp j ahead of schedule. He asked If It : would be all right to take a work- out. He worked three hours a day, f when he didn't have to work a single sin-gle minute." i i ) ( t |