| OCR Text |
Show SPOR TLIGH T Something on the Ball His Eyes! By GRANTLAND RICE TTITTING A BASEBALL, like hit-ting hit-ting a golf ball, is a combination combina-tion of many details working together. to-gether. Bill Dickey was talking about Ted Williams. "If you have ever caught back of V"' ' Williams," Dickey said, "you could understand why he is such a great hitter. hit-ter. In the first place he has a remarkable re-markable pair of eyes. He can usually usual-ly tell whether 'the ball will pass just coaches football has known. But this season they are caught in the strongest, highest grid-ranking Ivy league the venerable Ivy green has known in many generations. This is no advance alibi for Herman Her-man and Lou, for Yale and Columbia. Colum-bia. The raw facts are that Yale and Columbia material doesn't measure up to the man-power possibilities pos-sibilities of Cornell, Dartmouth, Pennsylvania, Brown, Princeton, Harvard, Army and maybe even Navy's young squad. But I have a feeling that both Yale and Columbia are going to lose more than a few games to better bet-ter football teams. A fine coach is a big help, but fine material is an even bigger jump towards football fame. Now it is quite possible that Yale and Columbia will move into action with better material than one might look for. But Columbia has lost practically her entire first string, including such brilliants as Ros-sides Ros-sides and Kusserow. No one can say yet what Lou Little has. Hickman lacked the man power, the material, that most of his rivals had last fall. Levi Jackson, Tale's captain, is a good player but in no sense a great one. He was injured in spring practice and no one can say how useful he will be. He was not up to many star eastern east-ern backs last fall. Young Spears, son of the famous Doc Spears, may be a Yale life-saver. life-saver. But one man isn't enough. Not in a conference that has Cornell, Dartmouth and Pennsylvania plus Brown, Princeton and Harvard. It may be that Herman Hickman and Lou Little will wave the magic wand of Merlin and overturn the football dope. But the point is that football, after all, is a college game and not a matter of life and death. The game is packed with able, hard-working coaches who lack the material to compete with other coaches who are no better. The Mile No one can say definitely what mile runner will be the first to reach the 4 minute spot for the mile. The Swedes have run within a stride or two of this mark and they may be the first to hit it. The horse that could beat the present mark of 1.34 is the horse that holds this mark. His name is Coaltown. Given the proper track which means lightning fast Coaltown can beat 1.34. He may not quite reach 1.33, but he won't be far away. Grantland Rice uver UIe t"1"cl ux an inch or two away when it is still moving towards the plate. It is really amazing how he can call these balls and strikes in advance. "But even more remarkable," remark-able," Dickey continued, "is the speed of his bands and wrists. Many hitters might wait as long as Williams does to decide de-cide whether the pitch will be a ball or a strike. But if it was to be a strike they could never get the bat into action quick enough. I recall there was many a time when I would practically feel the ball in my glove, only to hear the crack of William's bat meeting the bail, and the ball upon its way. "Williams is a great concentrator," concentra-tor," Dickey says. "He follows the ball from the split second it leaves the pitcher's hand. He never makes the mistake of taking his eye off the ball, or taking his mind off the ball. Once he decides it will be a strike his hands move with a rattler's rat-tler's speed." Tall Ted came to the Red Sox in 1939. He lost three years of baseball in the naval air force, so 1949 is his eighth season. To show how consistent he is, Williams Wil-liams seven-year average is .354, just about what he has been hitting this season. He got away slowly this spring but has been the game's best all-around hitter to date. His lowest mark was his first year .327. His top mark was his third year, 1941, when he reached .406. Check back on all these statistics and you'll find the Boston hitter has done a pretty fair job of hitting hit-ting a base ball. Lou Little and Hickman Lou Little of Columbia, and Herman Her-man Hickman of Yale are without any question two of the ablest |
