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Show SPORTLIGHT- , Lopat Sets New Earned-Run Record By GRANTLAND RICE ine f-utne Assignment It Is all very well to have stood with the greats, To have gathered your garlands of fame. It is all very well to have out-bucked out-bucked the fates, To have reached for a head-liner's head-liner's name. But when you are slipping as everyone does And the dirge has supplanted the sonnet; Remember how quickly a name gathers fuzz Don't try to get anything on It. New York The next essay should 3e turned in the general direction 5f one Edmund Lopat, a left-handed pitcher with the Yankees. Ed Lopat Liopat won 18 and lost t lor ms best record to date. Unless someone some-one starts throwing hand grenades, 1951 should be by all odds his best year. Two Records to Match In checking Eddie Lopat' s amazing amaz-ing 1951 record, plus the record of other stars, we pause at the marks set by one Grover Cleveland Alexander, Alex-ander, plus another set of marks established by Walter Johnson. In 1915 Alexander's earned-run mark was 1.22. It was 1.55 in 1916 and 1.83 in 1917. After the war Alex gave the game 1.72 in 1919 and 1.91 in 1920. Here were five years where Alexander allowed less than two earned runs a game, working over 400 Innings each year. He had been yanked away from his game for a year, joining join-ing the army in 1917, or he might easily have set a league-leadership league-leadership mark for six consecutive con-secutive years. In 1912 the American League had no earned run average or Johnson might have set a new mark. That was one of his greatest seasons. But in 1913 he had an average of 1.14 tier same. 1.71 in 1914. 1.55 in L': won his first six games, but actually his record is better than that. In an era where any pitcher who permits per-mits less than 3 earned runs each season is a hero, Lopat permitted an earned-run average of .60 in his first Grantland Rice five games an aU- time record as far as we can excavate ex-cavate into the past. Lopat is another rare character in a new form. He is one of the few living citizens who was born in New York City. This happy event, for the Yankees, took place in June, 1918, just 33 years ago. In spite of his brilliant start, life this year was not all milk and honey for left-hander Lopat. Lo-pat. Eddie started as a first baseman with Greensburg in the Pennsylvania State League, then moved to Jeanerette, deep in the bush, in 1937. That was some 14 years ago. He worked with Jeanerette, K i 1 g o r e, Shreveport, Longview, Marshall, Mar-shall, Salina, Oklahoma City, and Little Rock before he finally final-ly reached the White Sox in 1944. He won 11 and dropped 10 for the White Sox that year, a rare achievement any season while pitching for the White Sox. Starting the 1951 campaign Lopat has won 100 and lost 78 games for a winning average of .562. It is a much better average now with his 1951 start. Lefty Lopat. is now thinking of writing a book called "Life Begins at 33." In this three years with the Yankees, up to 1951, Lopat has won 50 games up through 1950 and lost only 29. He waited 13 pro seasons sea-sons before getting the best start he has ever known. Last season 1915, 1.89 in 1916, 1.28 in 1918 and 1.55 in 1919. Here were eleven years of great pitching by two of the games best Alexander and Johnson, Old Pete and Big Barney. No one can expect Lopat to match marks of this type in the modern era when pitchers who allows less than three earned runs are regarded as having hav-ing a touch of magic. Early Wynn of Cleveland led all A.L. pitchers last season with the chubby mark of 3.20, a long hop from Johnson's 1.14. The big slump in pitching skill or the arrival oi the rubber ball took place in 1921. Since then only Hal Newhouser, Carl Hubbell, Howie Pollet and Mort Cooper have operated under the two-earned run count. Where the People Go NEW YORK, May It may, or 11 may not, interest you to know where your fellow human beings gc in searching for a favorite sport. Also just how the trend is today whether up or whether down. We might as well start with baseball the most harassed of sports by television's tele-vision's savage invasion. In 1949 major league baseball drew 20,215,365 people. The minors were healthy with television jus1 warming up. In 1950 major league baseball drew 17,462,977 fans, with the mi nors skidding badly. Baseball, oi rather major league baseball, losi over 2,000,000 patrons in a year. |