Show j OY 4 4 ac C LEO LE 0 DUROCHER the aas lest job in sport next year he H takes over rightfully a ball lub club that had its greatest year last sea son the dodgers have won pen nants before but they never won a flag with so many spectacular thrusts they never played to as many people and they never looked as good in any past world series since larry macphail and branch rickey were under fire last spring not durocher Duroc ber his years suspension was out of order there was little rickey could rightfully do except give durocher Duroch cr another chance the dodgers were supposed to be pennant winners in 1948 1943 not in 1947 according to Ric dickeys keys sched durocher rocher ule burt shotton beat the gun by a year the dodgers should be better in 1948 than they were in 1947 durocher has the same team with a years more experience this can be a big help to the dodger pitching staff which is packed with young talent that only needed a few pitching angles and better control it takes a year or longer lor for a thrower to become a pitcher but the dodgers raw material has been exceptional durocher should have five or six winning pitchers next spring including ralph branca who may reach the 25 game spot durocher also discovered through his years rest that even bigger crowds will come out it if the there is less umpire balting baiting which is no longer required no one cares h how OW hard the teams and the managers fight one another crowds today are no longer interested in arguments with umpires has fire and color billy southworth one 0 of f the greatest of all managers has proved this I 1 tor for years so has joe mccarthy another member of the all time greats shotton proved this case beyond a all 11 argument the crowd comes out to see a ball game not to listen to a dull and dumb debate between some manager and some umpire A fighting manager is all right but why light fight with umpires 9 this type of baseball belongs with the dodo and the great auk being a pretty smart fellow durocher haj haa sensed the big change I 1 believe no one can question the fact thal thai durocher smart he has fire fira and color and a scrappy hustling ball club he also has one or two tough ball clubs to beat Inc including ludin the braves and cardinals also the tha giants it mel ott can get any pitching the giants have everything else the cards who made a brilliant showing last year by forging into second place after a dismal start again will be a threat the pitching staff will be the main worry coupled with the advanced age ol 01 I 1 players only a small improvement on the tha part of braves and cardinals can make a big difference especially il 11 the dodger pitching staff does n 1 I move up and locate in a vague wa way y the general direction of the home plate lack of control along this line weve just received a letter from our all time favorite pitcher grover cleveland old pete alexander who far from being the greatest an all around pitcher that ever threw a ball and this includes cy young walter johnson and Christy ma mathewson th also carl hubbell and lefty grove here Is alexanders letter dear grant I 1 just finished reading your article on what Is wrong with present day pitchers and thought I 1 would drop a few lines no I 1 am oot not looking for anything I 1 am just trying to figure why they never have taken some old timers on during spring training to work with these young throwers th rowers as you aptly termed them they teach hitting and about everything else but not pitching when men I 1 first came to philly pat moran was the coach and about the first thing he said to me was this kid you have a good arm but a heck of a lot to learn he took i i me in hand band and be sure did teach me pat was smart of course it took work hard work 1 I never have been able to find out dut just what I 1 did that put me on baseballs blacklist I 1 tried several times to get back and even wrote mr chandler tor for almost anything to do I 1 had a bilco letter from him ein and then en ano another er one saying that there was no opening and they did not expect any I 1 was just out pitching means control by control I 1 don dont t mean the plate I 1 mean one or two inches of the plate 11 A real pitcher ought to be able to set get the ball one or two inches from inhere be wants it not one or two feet but pitchers need instruction which few ever get what good Is stuff the greatest crea test stuff ever thrown that cant cross the plate chis means hard work hard work ind and instruction learning how maybe the hard bard way which Is centrally the only way 0 C alexander wood river elver ill III |