Show i Who'll rii Fill Baseballs Baseball's Gaps By GRANTLAND RICE ONE NE CAN RECALL looking back many years how people began to wonder who were going to fill i the gaps when Hans Wagner Christy Mathewson and Nap La- La Lajoie Lajoie Lajoie joie had finished Then there was Ty Cobb followed Cobb followed by Babe Ruth Ruth and Gehrig No one could take Mattys Matty's and Cy Youngs Young's place But Walter Johnson did And after John John- Johnson Johnson Johnson son there was Bob Feller It may be that no ballplayer can canfill canfill canfill fill the gaps left by Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth Or perhaps per per- perhaps perhaps haps Walter John John- Johnf f son No Noone one has hasI I II quite filled Hans k- k Wagners Wagner's place at g short w But with the Di- Di Dib L Ted Wil Wil- Williams b liams hams Bill Dickey Bob Feller H Hal a 1 I H. H New h 0 use r Lou Boudreau B 0 u d rea u Stan Grantland Rice Elce and a few w others most of the gaps are plugged Ruth Cobb and Wagners Wagner's remain unfilled But we have now come to a spot in the t e game g a m e that either Gen Abner Doubleday or someone else in in- invented invented invented vented where we have to look lookaround lookaround lookaround around for other gap Bill Dickey is through as a player So is Mickey lickey Cochrane another catching brilliant Wil Wil- Williams Williams Williams liams and should have havea a few years more They are two of the tops tops maybe maybe the best But Joe DiMaggio Bob Feller Ewell Blackwell Charley Char Char- Charley Charley ley Keller Whitey Kurowski Marty Marion and many more morea are a r e nearing the borderline where the sign reads reads Game Game Called It must be admitted there are not too many headliners left from the old guard Ted Williams is the top man now is struggling in the grip of an early season slump is still pitching well but he isn't winning as he used to win Blackwell a great pitcher has been struck down He may mayor or ormay ormay may not come along later on Char Char- Charlie Charlie Charlie lie Keller is now out in No-Man's No Land No one knows when he will be back Feller is a pen bull pitcher Where are the gods of yesterday So they are asking today who will take the places of lag Dil DiMaggio gio Williams Feller Marion Boudreau and nd other headliners who will soon be over the hill This makes one of the greatest guesses in sporting history Who will be the coming stars to fill these gaps For there will soon i ibe be many that will need plugging Here are a few guesses guesses guesses-Al Al Dark and Earl of the Braves Ralph Kiner of the Pirates Zern- Zern ial of the White Sox Jerry Cole- Cole Coleman Coleman Coleman I man Al AI and Bob Porter- Porter Porterfield Porterfield Porterfield field of the Yankees Perhaps Lar Lar- Larry Larry Larry ry Yogi Berra and Larry Doby of Cleveland Ralph Branca and Sid Gordon of the Giants Eddie Kazak of the Cardinals Richie Ashburn of the Phillies Cari Carl Furillo Dod Dod- Dodgers Dodgers Dodgers gers Bob Chesnes Pittsburgh Johnny Groth Detroit and Roy Campanella Dodgers Tommy Henrich is one of the star ballplayers of the year But Tommy is 32 years old and he has been a pro ball player for 15 years So Tommy cant can't be included with the stars of tomorrow Then you can watch Lloyd Merriman l of the Reds a possible gap filler Dick Kryhoski of the Yankees and George Kell of the Tigers are other possibilities possibilities possibilities-don't don't dont overlook either Enos Slaughter and Pee Wee Reese have come along too late for any future build up maybe build maybe Fer Fer- Ferris Ferris Ferris ris Fain and Eddie of the Philadelphia teams may prove the answer around first base which has taken a heavy dip Then we might take a look at all those and bonus players- players Johnny Antonelli of the Braves Curtis Simmons and Robin Roberts of the Phillies and Phillies-and and a few others who have yet to prove how good they are It might be mentioned Here liere that Bill Dickey ranks Yogi Berra as potentially the best catcher in either league Con Considering Considering Considering Berra in every detail Dickey said Id take Berra over any catcher in baseball today He is young strong and ambitious He has a fine arm armand armand armand and he can ean hit Dickey is extremely keen about the future possibilities of and Porterfield He isn't suggesting they can fill the gaps that will be left by Feller and But he is sure they are much better than merely good pitchers Gus of the White Sox a giant Texan has shown exception exception- exceptional al promise He may move up to challenge Ralph Kiner as the run home-run star of 1954 or 1955 has shown enough promise to tb be rated high in any future book Dont Don't overlook Dark of the Braves He is one of baseballs baseball's fastest men |