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Show I SPORTLIGHT i Yanks, Sox Nay Fight for Second ! By GRANTLAND RICE "QO YOU FIGURE the Red Sox and Yankees will take care of the pennant race and Cleveland may finish third," Hank Greenberg said. Hank, as you may recall, is the new general manager of the Cleveland Cleve-land Indians. "I only see one mistake in that ranking," Greenberg continued. "The Indians will r win the pennant and the Red Sox and Yankees will have a good scrap for second place." "No, I'm not kidding," kid-ding," he said. "In the first place, Cleveland will have one of the best nitrhini staffs in unless bath Yankees and Red Sox are much better than they were last summer, I can't see either beating us out." Hank Greenberg is a natural optimist op-timist anyway. He has full faith in the Indians to move up where they were in the fall of 1948, which is in front. Hank is an extremely able operator already, although still young at his new trade. .He won't do his ball club any harm. The Unworried Manager While inspecting the various managers who have been in New York we ran across the one and only unworried leader. His name happens to be Burt Shotton, the I celebrated Florida . fisherman. I . Burt is in a tough spot. If they ever start crowding him, all he can do is to retire on more than enough and fish the rest of his life. A very sad fate. "They come to us In trades," he said. "We don't have to go to them. We've got all the ballplayers ball-players we need. When young Morgan arrives, our infield will be complete. He is better than a .300 hitter and a fine infield-er. infield-er. I guess that leaves us a punk infield Gil Hodges at first Jackie Robinson at second sec-ond PeeWee Reese at short and Morgan at third plus three or four utility stars. "We have about six good outfielders. out-fielders. And I mean good if not great right now. Pitchers? How many games will Don Newcombe win in 1950? Twenty? Twenty-five? Maybe more. Preacher Roe? About 80 per cent of all he can pitch." "How about Branca and Barney?" Barn-ey?" I asked the eminent fisherman. fisher-man. "If either had some of Dizzy Dean's confidence they might be 30 game winners. Their weakness isn't physical it is psychological,' I guess. Some year, maybe this year Branca and Barney are going go-ing to become winners." Rex Beach Athlete Rex Beach was a magnificent writer on the side of adventure and rugged life. It is impossible to recall re-call a finer gentleman and I still can't recall a rival in the combined com-bined fields of writing, athletic accomplishment ac-complishment and sportsmanship. But Rex Beach, the athlete, shouldn't be allowed to step into old Charon's barque and slide into the fogs forgotten. Rex was one of the finest athletes I've ever known, and I'm not barring Jim Thorpe. Grantland Rice the league. Watch I young Garcia this season. He will be one of the best in baseball. He was good last year but he will be even better this next season. Hooked up with Bob Lemon, we should have two of the best starting pitchers in baseball. Gene Bearden is back in condition again and he will be just as good as he was in 1948. Our staff will be much stronger than it was, even in the year we won the pennant. Bob Feller Fel-ler may not be the star he was some years ago but he'll still win us a lot of games. "The infield starts off with ! Luke Easter, the big 6 foot 5, ! 240-pound slugger, from the Fa- cific coast at first. Here is a ballplayer who can even hit as hard as Babe Ruth once did. He has tremendous power and I think you'll find him a sen-j sen-j sation. Joe Gordon is far from I being through at second. I jl "This time Lou Boudreau will re-i re-i port in shape. You might remem-; remem-; ber that a manager has less time ! to get in shape than anyone else, i I mean a playing manager. Last i season Lou put on around 15 s pounds. He waited too' long to work i off this extra weight. So he opened j the season much slower than usual, j This time he will start geting ready ' the first of the year. When we hit I camp, Lou will be down to his ! playing weight. j "Last year Larry Doby fell ; off many points in his hitting. He'U be back well over .300 this i year. Doby is a natural .320 hitter. So is Dale Mitchell, who i reached .318 last season. And !j this isn't counting In the rook-! rook-! ies we'll have along. We have good material coming up and |