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Show 1IM TO 'PLAY pair Great Ball Season Seen Returned Vets Add Color to Natl Game By AL JEDLICKA WNU Features. "Play ball! " And the crack i of the bat again thrills Amer- icans the nation over as the 1946 season gets under way. While softball, football, basket-bull basket-bull and golf have challenged base-; base-; ball for youth's attentions in recent years, the game still ranks as the i No. 1 sports spectacle, fin enjoy-I enjoy-I able outdoor relaxation for the fans. Lust year, Approximately 15 million persons paid to watch major and ! minor league ball, and with most of the big stars returning from the ' war this season attendance should be equally great or greater. Nineteen hundred and forty-six j may be a memorable year for another an-other reason, too, for it marks the introduction of baseball on a big-time big-time professional basis in Mexico. Following an old American custom, President Avila Camacho tossed out the first ball at the Mexican league's first game In which the Vera Cruz j Blues walloped the Mexico City Reds 12 to 5 before an overflow I crowd of 33,000 in Mexico City. In the U. S., chief interest again will center on the major league races, though the return of topnotch performers from the services and continued postwar prosperity should herald a banner minor league season. sea-son. It'll be like old times again in the American league with the New York Yankee sluggers back in there, denting the fences. But because of an average pitching staff, Joe McCarthy's aggregation will be EASY WAY . . . Jimmy Dykes with Rudy Laski, Joe Smaza and Doyle Lade of the Chicago White Sox. strongly pressed for pennant honors hon-ors by the champion Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox and Washington Senators. Yanks Have Sluggers. Indicative of the dynamite In the Yankee bats. DiMaggio hit .305 in his lust season out, Keller .301, Stirnwclss .300, and Dickey .351. Though falling below the .300 mark, the other regulars have that explosive explo-sive Yankee touch In the pinch. While the New Yorkers are long on power and short on pitching, the Detroit Tigers have strength in both departments and may well repeat their 1M5 league triumph. A .311 slugger In 78 games Inst year after hij discharge from the army, Hank Grecnberg will be at first this season, sea-son, with hard-hitting Pinky Higgins back at third and Barney McCos-ky. McCos-ky. IJick Wakefield and Pat Mullin in a youthful, brilliant outfield. But the Tigers' real strength lies on the mound, with lanky Hal New-houser, New-houser, who won 25 games in 1945 while dropping only 9, heading the staff. In addition, Manager Steve O'Neill has Dizzy Trout, an 18-game winner last year; Virgil Trucks. Stuffy Overmire, Al Benton and Ruff Gentry. because of all-around balance, n ni,y of the major league scribes like the Boston Red Sox chances in 1SH0 Williams Sparks Red Sox. Back from the wars after three years in naval aviation, spindly Ted Williams, who hit .3.rG for Joe Cro-nin's Cro-nin's outfit in 1042, promises to put plenty of punch back Into the scarlet hose along with Rudy York, obtained ob-tained from the Tigers in an overwinter over-winter trade; Johnny Tesky. who hit W 1 ; I . . ii iImii iilii i iiTllhlllll IMSTWilWfcillililliMlS lilrili ii ii, Mi.iiidlWi''lli I" i ii I ii i i I II i, ill I ii iillUmfr - - CARDINALS . . . Manager Eddie Dyer (center) talks it over with i Johnny Beazley and Enos Slaughter. .331 before joining the navy in 1943, and Bobby Doerr, who rung up a .323 average prior to his induction in the army In 1944. In pitchers Tex Hughson and Big Boo Ferris, Manager Cronin appears ap-pears to have two sure-fire 15 to 20 game winners, while Mickey Harris, Jim Bagby and Jim Wilson are expected ex-pected to develop into grade A moundsmen. Nosed out of the American league pennant by a single game in 1945, the Washington Senators will be back knocking at the door again this year if their knuckle-balling pitching staff stands up under the six-month strain, and the boys can stir up enough punch to help out hard-hitting Jeff Heath, Stan Spence, Buddy Lewis and Cecil Travis. Head of the Senators knuckle-bailers knuckle-bailers is 36 - year old Emil ("Dutch") Leonard, vet of 13 long seasons of play who chalked up 17 victories in 1945 against 7 losses and possessed an earned run average aver-age of 2.13 per game. The other so-called so-called "flutter-bailers" are Roger Wolff, who turned in 20 wins last year, Marino Pieretti, with 14, and Johnny Niggeling, much stronger than In 1945, following the removal of ulcers. Others Have a Chance. While Cleveland. St. Louis, Chicago Chi-cago and Philadelphia have been counted out of the American League pennant race, they may, with lots of luck, crowd into the first division. Because of a strong pitching staff headed by the sensational Bobby Feller, fresh from the navy, Cleveland Cleve-land stands the best chance of breaking into the select four, while 83-year-old Connie Mack's Philadelphia Philadel-phia Athletics appear headed for the cellar despite the presence of Russ Christopher and Dick ("No Hit") Fowler on the pitching staff. Profiting again from their extensive exten-sive farm club system, the St. Louis Cardinals are the ruling favorites to take National league honors away from the Chicago Cubs. The Brooklyn Brook-lyn Dodgers, New York Giants and Boston Braves also are highly touted, tout-ed, while the Pittsburgh Pirates may well develop into the dark -horses of the race. Few new major league managers have stepped into the gold-mine Eddie Ed-die Dyer has in his first year as the St. Louis Cardinals' manager. He succeeds Billy Southworth, who has taken up the reins of the Boston Braves. In his regular outfield, the lucky Mr. Dyer intends to start Stan Mu-slal. Mu-slal. who hit .347 before entering the navy in 1944; Terry Moore, the fielding genius who hit .288 prior to his induction into service in 1942, and Enos Slaughter, who batted .318 before Joining the air force the same year. Star performers in the Infield Include In-clude the great Marty Marion, wide-ranging wide-ranging shortstop, and Whltey Kurowski, slugging third baseman, who hit .323 and batted in 102 runs last year. Mighty Mound Staff. Among Dyer's ranking pitchers are Red Barrett, who won 23 games his last time out; Johnny Beazley, 21; Max Lanier, 17. and Harry Brecheen, 15. While Charley Grimm has none of this kind of talent in Chicago, he does have a hustling ball club to work behind a winning mound staff headed by big Hank Borowy. who helped pitch the Cubs Into a pennant pen-nant after being secured from the Yankees last year; Claude Passeau. who won 17 games In 1943 despite an ailing right arm; Hank Wysc, who turned in 22 victories in spite of a sore back, and HI Bithorn, who chalked up 18 wins in 1943 before entering the navy. r7r 1 The National League's champion batsman in 1945 with a .355 mark, Phil Cavarretta, will be back at first to pace the Cubs' attack, with help forthcoming from the veteran Stanley Stan-ley Hack at third, who hit .323 in hid 12th season as a Bruin last year; little "Peanuts" Lowrey, Andy Paf-ko Paf-ko and Grimm hopes Big Bill Nicholson, who flopped to .243 last year. Led by the irrepressible Leo ("The Lip") Durocher, who won fame as one of the toughest of the "Gas House Gang" at St. Louis in the thirties, the Brooklyn Dodgers are figured to be right up in the thick of the National league race. "The Lip" enters the pennant run with a fair country outfield in Pete Reiser, who hit .310 before joining the army in 1942; Goody Rosen, who batted .325 last year; the veteran Dixie Walker, and rookie Gene Her-manski. Her-manski. In the infield, Billy Herman Her-man and Pee-wee Reese make a winning combination around second. While none too strong, the pitching staff is built around fire-balling Kir-by Kir-by Higbe, Hugh Casey, Ed Head and Vic Lombardi. Giants Still Powerful. The New York Giants, while not the hated and feared aggregation of the John McGraw or Bill Terry days, nonetheless is expected to cut a figure in this year's race. No defensive de-fensive geniuses, the Giants do possess pos-sess power, with Manager Mel Ott, who hit .308 last year, in right; Johnny Mize, .305. at first; Mickey Witek. .314. at third, and Walker Cooper, .317, behind the plate. Ability of brainy Billy Southworth to spur the Boston Braves to give X J V ' j SMILING . . . New York Giants Bob Blattner, second base, and BUI Rijcncy, shortstop, have the old spirit. all they have largely accounts tor the high esteem in which the team has been held this year. The Braves do have the nucleus tor a winner with big Mort Cooper, who won 65 games for Southworth in three years for the Cards, on the hill, and slugging Tommy Holmes, Max West and Johnny Hopp in the outfield. Pittsburgh's Pirates, rated none too highly in the early doping, could easily develop into the dark-horse of the 1946 season. In shortstop Bill Cox and outfielder Ralph Kiner. Manager Frisch has come up with two prize prospects to go along with established performers like Bob Elliott El-liott In the outfield and Elbie Fletcher Fletch-er and Babe Dahlgrcn in the infield. in-field. With Lefties Ostermueller. Wilkie and Roe and right-handers Sewell, - Gables. Hcintzelman and Klingcr, the Pirates should get good pitching. Quoted at 30 to 1 longshots in euily belting to win the Nulional league gonfalon, the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies do not figure fig-ure in the running. ARMY DISCHARGEES Four army dischargees in a tanning tan-ning bee with the Pittsburgh Pirates' doctor. They are, left to rlgh Ken Hcintzelman, Charles A. Jorgenson (the doc), Russ Baucrs, Bill Clem-ensen Clem-ensen and Cadis Swlgart. Every big league team has its share of ex- j servicemen in the starting lineups. 1 Boston has Tex Hughson. Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio back, tot Instance. The Washington Senators number Buddy Lewis, Cecil Travis, and Al Evans among their vets. |