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Show SPORTUGHT Unbandaged Yanks Ready fo Win By GRANTLAND RICE PEERING into the palms and - pines, the Casey Stengel of 1950 is an entirely different person from the Casey Stengel of 1949. A year ago at this time, we found a bewildered, baffled, un- a year ago. That could make a big difference." The 1950 Casey may have a few inner twinges but outwardly outward-ly he fairly exudes confidence. He's the only manager I know of who is willing to admit openly open-ly that he expects to win. The Yankee Bench At that moment an ancient-looking pelican lighted for a few minutes min-utes not so far away. "I only wish I was half as smart as that bird looks to be," Casey I f ft I LitJ certain Yankee manager who admitted ad-mitted that he knew few answers to any questions involving his team. This is now a new Casey. The sun is brighter, the palms are greener, the birds said. "No one could be that smart." In the course of punching the bag I asked Casey what he thought was the strongest feature of the Yankees last year. "That's easy," he said. "It was our bench. We always had a good man ready for any gap. No other team had a bench that matched ours. Outside of first base, we had Coleman, Stirnweiss, Rizzuto, Brown and Johnson ready for our infield. Outside of DiMaggio and Henrich, we had Bauer, Woodling, Mapes and Lindell for any vacant spot in our outfield. The bench was ready to give us anything we neededall need-edall good men, too. It makes a big difference what sort of reserves re-serves you have. We had good ones, all the time Bauer, Mapes, Wood-ling, Wood-ling, Brown, etc. Anything happened hap-pened to Berra there was Silvera in 58 games, batting .318. Our pitching anything happened hap-pened to Reynolds there was Page. Anything happened to Raschl there was Page. Anything Any-thing happened to Byrne or Lo-pat Lo-pat or Sanford there was Page. "I guess that's our weakest spot," Casey finally said. "Our pitchers had to be relieved too often. No one pitcher should be yanked out of the bull pen 60 or more times in a season. That's almost half our games. Too many. We've got to do something about that. Raschi wasn't bad that way. But I think you'll find Reynolds and Byrne will need less help. . "Porterfield is sure he is O.K. and that his arm ligament has healed. Shea says he feels fine, with all his soreness gone. You can't ask a pitcher to show you everything the first day of the spring season. "All in all," Casey concluded, "We have no alibis and no excuses for what happens. I think we'll be better than we were a year ago. Don't forget to mention those two words Yankee spirit. That's what won for us a year ago. I think it can win again. It will be a much tougher league this time." Grantland Rice sing sweeter songs and even the pelicans look more intelligent. 1 For Casey's 1950 answer is "Bring, 'em along. Red Sox and all the rest.. The Yankees will be set and ready. "We are far better off than we were a year ago," Casey said. "How do you figure that one out," I asked. "You haven't added a single player." "I figure it this way," Casey ' said. "Joe DiMaggio reports in the best condition in many years. I never saw Henrich or Rizzuto look better. Joe Page is all set. In addition to Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, Tommy Byrne, Ed Lopat and others, we have Bob Porterfield and Frank Shea, two of our 1949 wounded, back in harness with their bandages band-ages removed. Both expect to be ready. "In my opinion," Casey continued, con-tinued, "Reynolds is going to be a leading star this year. I mean a great pitcher. He could also be a relief pitcher close to Page. The big fellow is a fine all-around athlete. ath-lete. He was a backfield star at Oklahoma or one of those Oklahoma colleges. Raschi will be among the best again. And I have an idea Tommy Byrne will soon find where that plate is planted and when he does, look out. He's got amazing stuff. "Here's another thing. We've found out we could suffer over 60 wounds and still win. We've discovered we could have most of our team on crutches and still win. Did you know that DiMaggio, Di-Maggio, Henrich and Berra, three of our top hitters, were only in 19 or maybe it was 17-games together all season? "We are bound to have better breaks than we drew last year. Lightning can't hit the same spot 60 times in a season. This means we should have our best men in action far oftener than we had them |
