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Show II BE SPECTACLED BALL STAR 1 UPSETS DOPE IN BIG SHOW Glasses Are No Bar to George Toporcer, Who Is Making Good in a Walk With St. Louis Club of American League I By nrrr.Y EVANS A PHENOMENON I George Topor-ccr Topor-ccr of the St. Louis Cardinals. A baseball Is nine inches in rlrrum-ference. rlrrum-ference. Scientists claim that to accurately accu-rately follow tlif i of so small an object one .must have perfei I vision. Not so with George Toporcer. lie defies the laws of science. Ills vision Is Imperfect- When on tin- ball Held he Is forced to wear a double barreled lenses in order to properly focus. When Toporrer Joined the Cardinals in the spring of 1921 he was hailed as a curiosity, is'o one floured for a mm-inent mm-inent that would he possible to solve big league pitching with a pair of eyes that needed heavy glasses to right tho vision. The idea that a player could per-H per-H form In the infield, handicapped by H bad eyes and wearing glasses, was also ridiculed. True. Pitcher Meadows who i H made his start with St. LolS.U hr.ni H been successful, but pitching H ferent from playing the Infield. H While Toporcer will never be a Rag- H ers Hornsby yet he has proved a most H valuable player for the St. Louis club. In the sprincr of lasl year, w h-n Mll-ton Mll-ton stock was late m reporting, UOrns-by UOrns-by moved to third in place of Stock, and Toporcer filled in mOst ac-H ac-H ceptabh' at - oral. PINCH ROLE H Illness on the spring training trip put Johnny Lavan the Cardinals' shortstop out of i in running EUckc H must have a shortstop at once Once again the pinch role was handed to Toporcer. H How Toporcer pcrfonmd w hile La- , van was ill Is now u matter of hls-H hls-H tory. Hit batting was the sensation : H of the first two month- of play In H the first 36 games he hit better than .400 H On May 15 and 1Q of this year he ' j achieved the unique distlm lion ( hnv . i i PRONOUNCE IT TOE-PORE-SIR GEORGE TOPOKCER has been a much talked about individual In the National league Wearing heavy classes to correct neni-sightedncss, neni-sightedncss, his batting was the sensation of the circuit while nubbin--; for Shortstop La van of the St. Louis Cardinals. Perhaps i bo name of no player i who has broken into tho majors has been mlspronouncea ns much as that of Toporcer Recent Iv, when BJvans disked him how to do it. lie' r idled: "Say 11 tbls Tnr-pom-sir. Ac- I cent on the pore and ytH have It.'! . ; ing rapped nut two triples and t o In me runs in four successive trips to the plate. That is some feat for a leather-ncck-ed veteran, to .i nothing oi .i pink-cheeked, pink-cheeked, "four-eyed" rookie. Toporri-r is s left-handed hitter, and h:LS been unusually successful against soUtnpav pitching. Hod does Toporcer feel lacing the i- hots of the leading National li igue pitcher? Hero is his own answer an-swer FIFTY-FIFTY "It regulres no more nerve to face bl - league pitching with glasses than v. ithout them. If a player wearing glasses is lilt in the region of the eyo he surely is in for some trouble. How- )-. let a pitcher hit a batter without glasses In the renrlon of the eye and you can draw your own conclusions, it s a bi ur an equal chance either way." Toporcer has worn glasses since he was ii years old. Be (s now 23. The spertaele.s are for near-vjehtodness |
