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Show SI I ACEjl WE HAVE been reading laUly, from something like a dozen spring training camps, about the number of amazing rookies tiiat have come along. This happens every spring. It has been going on for some 50 years. 1 L j TY COBB It is only natural that it should be this way, for the rookie, is usually young, keen, ambitious and thinks only in terms of today. The veteran vet-eran has to think in terms of next summer, sum-mer, as he nurses his waning arm and none too certain legs. Spring Is the rookie's happy hunting hunt-ing ground. It would be a wonderful wonder-ful thing for the game if they all could make good, but as one veteran vet-eran manager told me lately "All I can ask for is one, or maybe two. That would be a big average." So far the Dodgers and the Glantt seem to have discovered the leading lead-ing rookie phenoms. But if either team (fan start the new season with two rookies who are good enough to win a Job away from some regular, they will be two lucky ball clubs. Now and then you hear about "another "an-other Cobb" or "another Ruth." Suppose Sup-pose we check back on these two famous names. Cobb reported to Augusta in the Sally league in 1904, where he batted bat-ted .237 in 37 games. I was working in Atlanta that year and I heard no great upioar about Cobb being "another Wagner." Ty's best press agent was Ty. Ty joined the Tigers in 1905 where he batted .240 in 41 games that season sea-son and there was no overwhelming chorus about coming greatness. He Jumped to .320 in 1906 and from then on it was something else again .377 in 1909, .385 in 1910, .420 in 1911 and .410 in 1912. Ruth Known as Pitcher In 1914, Babe Ruth's fame belonged be-longed to pitching. No one had anything any-thing to say about his hitting. In 48 games with Baltimore and Providence, Provi-dence, that 1914 season, the Babe batted .231. My record book shows that he hit one home run that year. In his first five years as a pitcher with the Red Sox, the Babe averaged aver-aged slightly over .300 with no great home run record. That came later. Frank Frlsch was no terror when he broke into Giant ranks, right out of Fordham In 1919. In 54 games that season with the Giants he hit only .226. Not so hot for a rookie, even one Just out of college. But McGraw still had full faith in him and the Fordham Flash moved up to .280. A year later, in 1921, he was up to .341, winding up as one of the great second basemen of all time. Maybe not the greatest but up among the best. Hank Greenberg batted only .214 with Hartford In 1930. He moved up to .290 with Beaumont in 1932. But he reached .301 with Detroit in 1933. The greatest pitching rookie that I recall was G rover Cleveland Alexander. Alex-ander. Reporting from Syracuse to the lowly Phillies In 1911, Alex won 28 games his first year. He was rookie you dream about. Among the all-time rookies I And that Chuck Klein or the Phillies, Lou Gehrig of the Yankees and Jimmy Foxx of the Athletics were around the top possibly the best. They began be-gan tearing down fences shortly after aft-er arrival. The year 1946 had Its full share of exceptional rookies, Including In-cluding Del Ennis of the Phillies, Furillo, Whitman and Edward of the Dodgers. "The second year is the big test." Frank Frlsch tells me. "That's the test for the hot rookie and the young fellow moving up. Good rookies often fold up after a good first year. They take too much for granted. Some slower starters can press them mile In the second season. Smarter Smart-er fellows with more hustle." This new season may be packed with exceptional rookies, facing G.I. veterans who were not too hot las) year. It will be an interesting study to see how they come along. The Top for 1947 A correspondent has asked us to forecast sport's top name of the year tor 1947. What was sport's top name for 1940 Joe Louis, Eddie Dyer, Leo Durocher, Bob Feller, Stan Muslal, Ted Williams, Hank Greenberg, Armed, Assault, Red Blaik, Frank Leahy, Jack Kramer, Ben Hogan, Eddie Arcaro, Bob Wa-terfleld, Wa-terfleld, Charlie Trlppi, Davis and Blanchard, Joe CroninT Suppose you try to pick a name from this lisL There was certainly no Babe Ruth around last season. There was no Ty Cobb. There was no Jack Dcmp-sey. Dcmp-sey. There was no Jim Thorpe, no Knute Rorkne, no Bobby Jones and no Walter listen. My vote for IMS would go to Stan Muslal, the best all-around baseball player Glenn Davis, the best all-around football player Assault, As-sault, the best horse, and Ben Hogan, Ho-gan, the best golfer. It takes the high mark of competition com-petition to make top performer and Muslal, Davis, Assault and Holm Ho-lm took the lead. |