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Show A ?CEtJl .1 A NOTHER big league baseball season is well on its way. We were thinking about this as we sat on the Yankee bench with Art Fletcher, Joe Mc- Carthy's field mar- f rfeS!'"wi shal. Al Art began his i- baseball career 38 ;5t years ago and he is . j still a spark-plug. W . tjl nearing 60, lean, ; - hard and full of fire. . J We soon started yL- talking about the r Yankees and the V w new American a4 I . svJ league pennant GrantIand Kice race. "This should be a great race," he told me. "I know many are picking pick-ing the Browns to win again, and maybe they will, as they haven't suffered much from the draft so far. Bnt if we can keep the lineup we have today, I still believe the Yankees have a great chance. "No complaining, you understand, but the Yankees have taken the worst beating from the draft in baseballDickey, base-ballDickey, Gordon, DiMaggio, Henrich, Ruffing, Rizzuto, Keller, Hemsley, Johnson, and I could give you ten more. Now we start a new season with a pretty good club. A ball club good enough to win or finish close-up. But suppose we lose Johnny LindelL Snuffy Stirnweiss, Etten and one or two more? Then we are pretty well shot. No one knows what will happen for the Browns are pretty well set, and they are the team to beat with what . they have on hand right now." Over in the National After leaving Art Fletcher, we called on two other pilots, Mel Ott and Leo Durocher. Mel, who makes several records every time he walks to the plate, refused to concede anything to the Cardinals and Pirates, picked to run 1-2. "Maybe they will," Mel said. "But only maybe. The Cardinals look best on copy paper and the Pirates look next best. But ball games are won on the field not on copy paper. All I can say is that our 1945 Giant team will give them all a battle. We have an improved team all along the line. We'll have better pitching and a better punch. You know what that means. You don't have to tell me what the Cardinals and Pirates Pi-rates have. But I am conceding them nothing. We'll give them a scrap all the way, moving on with what we have. What we'll have later, lat-er, no one knows." I happen to know that Frank Frisch, disabled all through the spring campaign, has full faith in his Pirates. "We were good enough to beat the Cardinals nine straight games down the stretch," Frank said, "and they won't be any better this season. If as strong." But the fact remains that the Cardinals Car-dinals are still the team they must all worry about and they all know it whftever they may say. As Leo Durocher put it, "Any team that can beat out the Cardinals Cardi-nals can win this pennant. The Dodgers? No. We are the guess team of the league, and I'm not going go-ing to try any early season guessing." guess-ing." In talking over the 1945 rating with a number of ball players, managers and old timers who have been around I picked up this order of finish for the two pennants: National League Cardinals, Pirates, Pi-rates, Giants, Reds, Cubs, Braves, Dodgers, Phillies. American League Browns, Yankees, Tigers, Red Sox, Athletics, Indians, White Sox, Senators. In any event the main problem seems to be St. Louis and its two 1944 winners. They are the teams to stop. ... Army Sports Program The army is going to do all it can to provide entertainment and physical phys-ical fitness for the fighting men in Europe, who simply can't be rushed home. Here is the general idea in behalf of the millions left in Europe, temporarily at least, as given to me from the war office in Washington "The Commanding Generals of the European and Mediterranean Theaters have estimated that over 60 per cent of the soldiers within their commands will elect to participate in the new athletic program. In General Eisenhower's command alone, plans call for 150,000 participants partici-pants in track and field events, 200,-000 200,-000 in organized baseball, approximately approxi-mately 800,000 in informal Softball games. 800,000 in volleyball, and 400.-000 400.-000 in informal football and tnuch-football. tnuch-football. "The entire program will assist in 'de-combatizing' personnel scheduled sched-uled for demobilization by replacing the combat skills it was necessary to teach during the period of mobilization, mo-bilization, with competitive and recreational rec-reational sports. "Purchasing equipment and supplies sup-plies for the program presented serious se-rious problems. Funds, priorities, sources of supply, production schedules, sched-ules, rail transportation and water shipping space were but a few. Upon approval of the plan, the Special Services Division set the wheels in motion. |