Show TM N THE general collision of the world series and a new football season a crash between a budding c cyclone and a dying tornado several baseball details have come up for inspection one is that casey stengel as good as he Is going to win any pen nant or run second with the team bucky harris carried on his back largely aided by joe dimaggio DiMagg lo everyone knows that bucky harris fired fared for inefficiency he was fired because lie he is a mend friend of mae mac Ph ails in our book STENGEL it u was a stupid st ma move ve as bucky has always been a high grade manager and the type of 0 man baseball needs the selection of casey stengel was a smart move following a dumb one which often happen stengel is also a high grade manager who knows hla his trade but there wont be as many laughing stories written about casey in 1949 not with the job he has ahead cleveland the best team in baseball won the 1948 world series the indians should be the best team in baseball in 1949 and should win again unless the red sox can jo locate a few pitchers then it wo would ild be different the yankee farm system has b bogged down in recent years a and nd no matter how stengel hustles ales lie he know where his pi players ayers are coming from lie he needs one outfielder three in fielders lel ders a catcher and three pitchers all good this makes a total of some eight ball players good ball players pl ayere better ball players than most of those he has except dimaggio DiMagg lo henrich lindell and kaschl yogi berra is a useful fellow to have around infield lacks hitters last season Stirn and rizzuto drove in 82 runs gordon and boudreau drove in runs stephens and doerr drove in runs we are speaking now of second base combinations rizzuto and were a brilliant defensive team but they were so tar far behind stephens and doerr derr boudreau and gordon two anero was no comparison om parl you could tr trace ate at least 10 games in a nip and tuck race to this missing clutch hitting maybe 4 1 r t 15 games W I 1 H 1 I 1 I 1 the yankee infield plus pleaser er ratio yankee pitching kept the yankees from winning by 10 or 15 games where there was certainly no outfield to match joe dimaggio tommy henrich lindell keller and berra they drove in over runs far more than the red lied sox outfield hammered in here they are dimaggio DIMagg lo henrich berra 98 keller 45 lindell 55 total what about tho the red sox williams dom dimaggio DiMagg lo 85 others less than 80 far below the yankees so was cleveland the yankees had the outfield outlook for 1949 the middle of the 1948 football season seems to be a somewhat early date to be discussing the september finish of pennant races for 1949 1049 but no one can bo be arrested and shot for trying the two american league teams to beat in 1919 should be the cleveland indians and the boston red sox they have by far the better infields which are the baslo basic strength of a baseball team especially the play around short and second there a chance the yankees will vill have anything to match boudreau I 1 and gordon or stephens an and d doerr when you consider both the offense and defense both sets are standouts stan douts cleveland has the better of the pitching with bearden Bc arden lemon feller and gromek wither neither the red sox sot nor yankees have a dependable pitcher the tigers still have pitching possibilities but little else the athletics can finish fourth or fifth no better majeska and joost are hardly likely to be as good as they were this year both were extra good the yankees only strength la Is in the outfield the section headed by joe dimaggio DiMagg lo that carried the rest of the team dimaggio henrich lindell keller and berra kellers health is still uncertain Clev elands outfield Is only fair even with an hn improving doby the red sox could use new pitchers national league in the older league the braves and dodgers have the callior call for 1949 with the tha dodgers well in front the braves need infield and improvements in rather large qua quantities n in sain and spahn they have the two best pitchers in their league the best nucleus tor for a winning staff the dodgers have added another years experience which Is all they needed plus some home saner handling |