Show R EIN ina or aa 40 M MIAMI lt 11 BEACH base hits pieced together make a bill ball players meal ticket As a result when the average player hitting his head goes down and he frets and worries so much he cant field either frank Cros crosetto ettl is an exception the yankee shortstop in the company of a bombing crew hit much more than his weight yet every day he be is out there hustling bustling and playing a great game of ball no player in either major league gives a smoother performance from one end of a season to the other b 4 1 FRANKIE CROSETTI ivery every day is just like every other all good crosetti of course has spurts in which he will average or over and when he hits a ball solidly he can drive it a long way having a fine wrist action that makes up for the size and weight that most power hitters bitters have it was a home run by crosetti with myril hoag on base in the eighth inning that broke the resistance offered by dizzy dean to the yankees in the second game of the 1938 1933 world series a smash that wrecked a classic stand by diz when the odds loomed high against him the best combination francies Fran kies main value to the yankees lies naturally in his superb defensive play ile he and joe gordon provide the yanks with the best see sec ond base combination in the game today and one of the best ever of these latter day hookups hook ups preceding that of crosetti and gordon a balance was lacking 1 lazzeri one of joe gordon the great second basemen through his first seven years with the yankees have in koenig a shortstop to match him koenig was a good ball player but an erratic one a much better hitter than crosetti but nowhere near crosetti in the matter of fielding skill so that lazzeri had to crry carry him much of the time tim e lazzeri also had to carry crosetti when frankie joined the yankees schooling him to the majors and working out between them some semblance of smoothness and then just as crosetti had learned his way around and learned how to work with lazzeri tony slowed up at last joe mccarthy striving desperately tor for a combination that could make double plays put crosetti and gordon together they are perfectly matched and play to together eth with confidence speed and rhythm the plays they made in the world series last fall the plays they made during the championship season satisfied even mccarthy a hard man to satisfy a man whose fetish is the double play the threat by werber winning a berth with the yankees an easy one for crosetti or rather holding it after he had won it easy because of his light hitting his job was in danger in the spring of 1933 after he had been the regular shortstop through 1932 his first year also at the yankee camp in the spring of 1933 at st petersburg was bill werber now third baseman of the reds werber was taster faster crosetti never has been exactly a speed merchant for all the agility with which he be bounces around the short field spearing line drives scooping up grounders starting or pivoting on double plays and another of mc ale carthas Car thys demands is tor for speed and more inore speed werber was fiery colorful and aggressive and crosetti then as now was so quiet as to be almost backward even on the field tie the threat answered werber just up from buffalo boffalo started with a rush that spring before the stay at st petersburg ended it looked as though the job was his and other managers believing mccarthy had made his choice made offers for crosetti then mccarthy gave crosetti a fling at the job again and the fine play he be turned in as the team swung north decided the tussle ile he held on and werber went to the red sox |