OCR Text |
Show 'TPHERE seems to b a rathei ' widespread opinion that yoi must look for value in ballplayer among the averages. The average! slip you a pretty fair answer bu' not the entire story. For example we'll take the 194) ' season. It is dead sure to furnish thi , hottest race li !?r year iocatinj if" ' most vaIuabl t j-w i ballplayer the oni f $ 2 . who has rendered ;I vf ; ! greatest service tt 'I. ? .j-'1 I bis mates. Ther j 'f .: are certainly flv IjA J5f ; men worth cons id deration Ted Wil-kii-A. liams and Verm KELLER Stephens of the Red Sox Joe DiMaggic of the Yankees Lou Boudreau ol the Indians and Stan Musial of the Cardinals. Yet their averages art wide apart in many respects. In this group Williams, Musial and Boudreau all bave been bitting bit-ting over .360 most of the year. DiMagglo and Stephens have been under .300. Yet the effective effec-tive play of DiMagglo and Stephens lists tbem high up, practically on even terms with those having far higher batting averages. The hottest race will be in th American league when it comes to naming the most helpful star. Stan Musial should take over the National Na-tional league selection with several kilometers to spare. Keller's Good Nature You can get an idea of Charlie Keller's type from this Incident. When they wanted to give him a "Keller Day." the Yankee outfield-r outfield-r insisted that all receipts taken In be used for a Maryland university univer-sity scholarship for some needy youth. That would be Charlie Keller's way. The Yankee outfielder graduated grad-uated from Maryland 11 years ago, came to Newark in 1937 and reported report-ed to the Yankees in 1939. He was not only a great ballplayer at Maryland Mary-land but also an honor student and one of the most popular fellows on the Maryland campus. I asked him once where be got that pair of hands the most powerful looking I'd seen in baseball. VMllking 12 cowf every morning," Charlie sals, with a grin. Keller was born In Middletown, Md., in September, 1916, some 32 .years ago. He came from the right state as a slugger the state that Cave the game Babe Ruth, Jimmy Foxx and Home-Run Baker. In his first year with the Yankees, Keller hit .334 and followed this with a world series mark of .438. Except for the roughest luck you can imagine, he could have been one of the greatest power men of the fame. He was on his way to lead the American league in all power departments de-partments when he broke an ankle. He was heading back when war arrived ar-rived and took him away from the scene in his prime. Once again he fought his way up, then a spinal injury cut him down. Now he is coming along again in his fourth surge. Maryland university, under the direction of Curjey Byrd, Is moving up in both education and athletic ranking. Under Coach Jim Tatum's sound guidance and a few better football players, it is a worthy opponent op-ponent for any team it meets it sould be said here that Maryland graduates and Maryland students are proud of student Keller and ballplayer ball-player Keller, who has never broken brok-en a training rule in his career, either ei-ther via the alcohol or nicotine route. Keller could have accepted Keller Day with the usual thanks. In place of this, the Yankee hitter Insisted that the main benefits to be derived m such a day should be given in '.he form of a scholarship or scholarships scholar-ships to deserving young men who wanted a college education. F ootball Prowess I ran into rugged Texan the other day who has followed football :losely for many years. "I can't deny that I'm biased," ie said, "but, throwing all bias out it the window, I can't agree with Jiose who place the Midwest over .he Southwest. I'd like nothing bet-r bet-r than to have a substantial bet n S.M.U.. Texas, T.C.U. and Rice igainst Notre Dame, Michigan, Purdue and Minnesota. On the side, te have Arkansas and others who ire much stronger than the remain-jig remain-jig Midwest teams. "Notre Dame would be hard to nandle, but I doubt that Leahy's am could beat S.M.U. or Texas. Minnesota has a great line but no acks to compare with the passers and runners we have in Texas. "I don't believe Michigan Is deep mough after her losses from 1947's tig squad. Texas Is much deeper .han Michigan. "It has been said that ne Southwest team will play Notre Dame. I don't think Notre Dame would bave the slightest trouble getting en aim out any Southwest schedule, Including 8.M.U. and Texas." |