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Show I SPORTLIGHT , Mize One of Game's All-Timers I By GRANTLAND RICE AN old friend of mine by the name of George Ade once started a slogan, hooked up with an organization, which he called "Flowers for the Living." This is not a bad idea. I don't know what flowers ever mean to the dead. Or kind words. Or cheers. Or anything except the peace of eternal sleep. We feel that it is almost impossible impossi-ble to write too many kind words about an old Georgia friend known as Johnny Mize, the Demorest Destroyer. Johnny has always al-ways been a large, powerfully built, rather slow-moving performer destined to be no part of a Ty Cobb, who came from a n e i ghboring Georgia village. Johnny reported at Greensboro The Greatest Hitters . There are many styles of great 1 hitters. Willie Keeler was one of the great place hitters. I'll have to rank Ty Cobb above the immortal Willie. 1 Ty was a punch hitter. He elected this role over the slugger's job to get on base. They are paying tribute trib-ute to hitters who have gotten 2,000 " hits. Cobb got over 4,000 hits. He: also stole close to 900 bases. Babe Ruth was the power hitter. , Babe might have been a .400 hitter just as Cobb might have been a ,, slugger. The two next greatest hitters I've ever seen in some 50 years of observation ob-servation were Rogers Homsby " and Shoeless Joe Jackson. ' Cobb Ruth Homsby Jackson, They are the four tops. After these George Sis-ler. Sis-ler. Sure anybody can be wrong. But what's the matter with Cobb, Ruth, Hornsby and Jackson? Jack-son? They are the four tops in the land of the ash, in my book. Jackson was a natural-born hitter, hit-ter, if you'll take the word of Cobb, Ruth and Speaker. Years ago on ra-i dio interviews each one told me that Jackson was the greatest hitter' he had ever seen. There is no questioning the fact, now that Ralph Kiner is the biggest ; of the big hitters left. Kiner hasi averaged 48 home runs a year in the last four seasons. He may raise this to 50 by the end of the 1951 campaign. Gil Hodges will need another 25 homers to protect his earlier lead. Yet when Mize was close to 35, he tied Kiner two years running ati 51 and 40. Ted Williams is a big: hitter, but he isn't a Kiner. No one' else is. The Matter of Class Several queries have arrived lately late-ly along this line: how does thei heavyweight division of Sharkey,, Camera, Baer and Braddock com-l pare with the 1951 mixture. There isn't any big difference except that the modern heavyweights heavy-weights mentioned are more Interesting In-teresting and have more varied personalities. Sharkey and Baer were equipped to be high-class heavyweights, but disliked the game. The top men today WalcoU, , Charles, Louis and Marciano, plus.1 La Starza and possibly Layne are! a queer mixture. Joe Louis was one ; of the greatest of all ring men a ', great fighter in his day and prime. Walcott carries the greatest sympathetic sym-pathetic appeal boxing has known in years. His average isn't too hot. , He has knocked out Charles and, many feel, he has beaten Louis. 6r.ntlan.IRIc. sUShtly over 21 years ago. He was then 17 years old. Today he is on his way to 40. Johnny lost three years of baseball base-ball in the Navy, 1943, 1944 and 1945, a three-year term which cost his record at least 100 or more home runs. Possibly 150 home runs, since he was hitting at that clip after he had surrendered his Navy cap. Around 15 years ago, St. Louis tried to pass Mize along to Cincinnati's Reds. Johnny had a bad knee and the Reds turned him back. At that time everyone thought Mize was through a fine power hitter with a bad leg. So Mize had to move back to the Cardinals. He began hitting home runs without losing any time. He also began winning a flock of ball games. The Cardinals, meaning Mr. Rickey, sold Mize to the Giants in 1942, nine years ago. They figured Mize was all through, a washed-up slugger. Mize gave the Giants 26 home runs that season. But he gave them 51 home runs in 1947 and 40 home runs in 1948. Those were the two years he tied Ralph Kiner, the Pirate slasher, now the best of all the home-run hitters. Mize was sent to Kansas City in 1950. He was brought back to hit 25 home runs that year. Mize was 35 when he tied Ruler's march the second time; Kiner was 25. That's the type of hitter Johnny Mize happens to be. He tould spot 'em 10 years and handle 'em. But you can't spot 'em too many decades. dec-ades. Johnny Mize is one of the great power hitters of all time. And quite a fellow beyond that. |