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Show I SPORTLIGHT , 'Dem Bums' Classiest Nine in Play I By GRANTLAND RICE 1 SOME four years ago, back in the early winter of 1947, two eminent emi-nent baseball diagnosticians, Harry Salsinger, the Detroit historian of sport, and Toots Shor, were discus-ting discus-ting the two pennant races. They were talking about the Dodgers. Dodg-ers. "There will be little to it in the National League for some time to come but the Dodgers," Salsinger said. "Very little to it," Toots replied. "They have all the ballplayers they need and they have others coming on just as good." "It is the list of young players coming on," Salsinger said. "This Dodger team is almost sure to get stronger and stronger. By 1950 or 1951 it will be at its best, hard to beat for several seasons." Shor agreed fully. The Dodgers won in 1947. They won again in 1949. They should have won easily in 1950. Now, as Messrs. Salsinger and Shor said four years ago, they are approaching a new peak. Mr. Rickey built much too well for the remainder of the National League race. Especially his Pirates, who are currently far behind the Dodgers. It isn't only for 1951 that this dark Brooklyn shadow will hang over the rest of the league. This thing might go on for several cam- This Dodger team is much the same way. They seem to fool around until the eighth or ninth inning and you can almost hear Dressen or someone else say: "Aw, let's have a home run." And Snider or Hodges or Cam-panella Cam-panella or Furillo or Robinson will promptly oblige even with two out in the ninth. With Pafko now added, every man on the team down to the pitcher is dangerous. The Red Sox have Ted Williams, Vern Stephens, Bobby Doerr and maybe one or two more who can upset up-set the apple cart on a moment's notice. no-tice. But the Red Sox have no such array of A-bombs as the Dodgers have. The Yankees, in this respect, are not even in their class, or close to their class. The Cardinals have Stan Musial and who else? The Giants have one or two fair distance dis-tance hitters. Pittsburgh has Kiner. The White Sox have Robinson. But what other team has Snider, Pafko, Hodges, Campanella, Furillo, Robinson Rob-inson and now and then a fellow known as Pee Wee Reese? The Test of Oakmont Oakland Hills, always a first-class test, was souped up for the recent U.S. Open. Apparently it is impossible to soup up a course beyond Ben Hogan's play. But no one has to soup up Oakmont, a bunkered fortress for-tress just outside of Pittsburgh, where the P.G.A. holds championship champion-ship at match play. Tommy Armour, a brilliant golfer in his day, tied Harry Cooper at Oakmont in the 1927 U.S. Open with a 301 score and then won the playoff play-off 76 to 79. Armour was good enough to be U.S., British and P.G.A. champion. Sam Parks won the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1935 with 299. Par at Oakmont is 73. So the last two winners there needed an average av-erage of 8 over par. After all, 287 was good enough to win or tie at Oakland Hills. This was 13 strokes under the Oakmont test and at Oakmont the stroke-saving wedge was just coming into use. According to Armour the wedge means a saving of 2 strokes a round, or 8 strokes in a 72-hole test. Oakmont, the dream terror of Bill Fownes, is a magnificient test for either match or medal play, but its main pressure comes from the medal side. Merion and Oakland Hills are the two toughest courses the Open has known in recent years. But neither nei-ther is quite up to Oakmont with its ridged bunkers and its slippery greens. In match play Oakmont lends itself it-self to birdies as well as to bogies. paigns, as it did for the Yankees some years back when they won six out of seven consecutive pennants. I can't see how any other team can get enough extra help or added strength to move within a furlong of r ., - oi . the NX. leaders. Grant and Rlct , They had all the best of it until they added Pafko and Schmidt, and this merely added crushing strength on both the offensive and defensive side. Recently the Dodgers moved through a heavy batting slump, yet they kept on winning with better pitching than anyone looked for, plus the long hit needed in a pinch. Only overconfidence or sheer laziness lazi-ness can stop this squad. Waiting For the Punch Years ago Stanford had seven men who deserved to make any Ail-American Ail-American team. Among them were Keith Topping, Benes Hamilton and Bobby Grayson. Yet they kept winning games by a field goal. "We knew we could win any time we felt like it," Topping told me. "So we'd fool around and finally someone would say: "Aw, let's kick a field goal.' " |