OCR Text |
Show SPORTLIGHT Pro Football Awaits Big Season L By GRANTLAND RICE . I .j j FEW DAYS' NOW, close to a ' ithousand mammoths, mastodons ml gazelles will be turned loose on !l it public domain. These repre- r : ' i !,! i i sent the pro loot-ball loot-ball crop for 1950, with peace finally established. There will be 13 teams in action, where each squad will be large at least in the earlier days of practice, before the nruninff knife Ted also remembered that he isn't getting any younger. He will be 32 years old in October, which isn't venerable, but which also isn't too youthful. In other years Ted has mixed his home-run hitting with more attention atten-tion to mere base hits.' This season he is really giving it the full treatment treat-ment at a time where as Ford Frick says "Even the pitchers are trying for home runs." Williams will have plenty in the way -of competition the rest of the way from Rosen, Kiner, Dropo, Stephens, Campanella, Snider and a few others, including in-cluding DiMaggio and Easter. But from the way long Ted is taking his cut at the ball, he is the one more likely to reach the goal, if anyone does. Ralph Kiner is leading the National Na-tional league and he is sure to pick up his pace later. As a rule he falls into the groove after July Fourth. A year ago he hit 20 home runs the last 30 days of the season. seas-on. The same output in 1930 might just push Kiner over the top. He is the one drawing factor the Pirates Gnollind Rice falls. Inst what the aggregate iM night of these 13 squads will ' be is beyond our guess but the 4 weights ran from 153 to 285 ' pouods and there are more pliTers over ZOO than under M. The 13 head coaches and their aids have a tough job to lite in reducing the oil and fat (intent where steaming blub-to blub-to must be taken off in tons. The new season will open with a friadelphia explosion where :;gles and Browns are figured to i cw some 100,000 clients. So r-ioj players, good and average, at been shifted around, back have left for the season. It might interest Joe McCarthy to know that no manager ever left the scene with a better press than the departing Red Sox leader drew around the circuit. Maybe a manager who wins nine pennants and seven world series doesn't need too many boosts. What's With Baseball? It has become pretty evident that something has been shaken loose from the baseball we all knew as it is now played in the two big leagues and the leading minors. Either an extra charge of TNT has been inserted in the ball or an extra zip has been removed from pitching arms, something is wrong to break the news mildly. We have the Red Sox scoring 20 runs against the Browns in one game and a day later the Red Sox piling up 29 runs against the same team. Then the Cleveland Indians pile up 14 runs in the first inning against Mr. Mack's disintegrating Athletics who have hit the soapy chute at record speed. Is this baseball or cricket? Scores ranging from 12 to 16 runs are common. Few pitchers pitch-ers -ever complete seven innings. inn-ings. The pitching can't be that bad. The war has been over five years. So the war can't be used as an alibi for so much inferior playing play-ing all over both leagues. a forth, that it is only a raw J ;. ;s now to start picking any B : ers. but you can be pretty sure a Eagles, Browns and Bears will a tp there. Bo McMillin's Detroit j; ir-al will be another effective out- 0 X especially with Leon Hart's P S Poinds in the cast. 1 flirt may not weigh quite that V: mien but it won't be far away, mordujg to Frank Leahy's M judgment last faU. "The boy . still growine," Frank said, ... "to Hart reached 260. "He is Mly 20 years tii f rang th0se who wm b(J fea. V season are Van Buren Eagles, Lujack of the Bears, ,"iltld ' the Rams. Graham of J Brms, Conerly of the Gi-; Gi-; nd other good passers with J laakees, Colts, etc. leagues are well fixed for rs but the Eagles still look to Z better passulS and running I to an all-around at- I to, , ' 'hers' however, getting the draft have aU been ; lengthened where Greasy aile h to stand pat-or nearly I ' ' I Williams Goal Cyes on te Babe Ruth J mark of 60. I 'UT 'he ,act tha' I " ttUU,saseasoB as BUh the aU at least bUonraitaU,n0,JaCk |