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Show In baseball, pitching Is the big PurcYi; This fact is being demonstrated day after day In the majors and minors . ... No better proof of what pitching moans to a ball club could be offered of-fered than the New York Yankees. '" Prior to theJopenlnX of the major leagues, the Vwnkees played? a series Of exhibition games with the Brooklyn Brook-lyn club of the National League The Brooklyn club won the series games to ri. Throughout the south, i the National leaguers madei merry at the expense of the Yankee pitchers. The American league pitching was Off color ,ahd of the first eleven games played, Brooklyn won eight. Coming leick t0 Brooklyn the two teams finished fin-ished the series, the Yankees winning the last three Rallies . The failure of the Yankee pitchers to hold the Dodgers in the game played play-ed In the south, caused a number of experts to feel that the pitching staff would not be able to carry the burden imposed on tho team through the loss of Ruth and Meusol. The way the Yankee pitchers tightened tight-ened up in the final three games of the Brooklyn series caused their supporters sup-porters to take renewed hope. Since the start of the American League season sea-son the rew York staff has continued Its great work. In the first ttwelve games played bv the Yankees ten of which were won, some very Interesting facts are apparent. appar-ent. The outstanding one however, is that pitching Is the big punch In baseball. base-ball. In only three of the 12 games did the opposition make LO or more hits off tho Yankee pitching staff. Two of those games resulted In the onl defeats de-feats suffered' by Now York. in the other game. New York managed to vvln lu to 8 because of superior batting prowess. In a series of four games, with Washington, all of which were won by New York, the Nationals made only 5 runs and 19 hits. In two of tho games Washington was hlunked. In the first 12 games played. tho opposition has averaged only a trifle better than seven hits per name. That's the real reason -why the Yankees annexed an-nexed 10 victories. S e - Tho pleasing feature from a New York standpoint Is that Bob Shawkey scored a shutout in his first two starts, allowing only four hits In each game A bit of Jolt to those who said he was t hrough. |