Show T THESE HESE seem to be the proper days to study the basic foundations of winning competition you can get one answer in the new york yankees dressing room from such fellows as bill dickey joe gordon red ruffing spud chandler joe dimaggio charlie keller and several eral others opening their 1512 1242 home campaign the yankees are facing the prospect of winning their sixth pennant in seven starts it might not happen that way but that is how it looks the yankees have the bulge in hitting pitching and fielding belding a fair start but they have something more something just as important por tant 0 in addition to their physical anar margin which cant be overlooked mccarthys McCar thys hired men are a team together they spend per cen cent t of their time fighting the enemy no not t fighting each other or fighting umpires find no individual jealousy no bickering no squabbles no high hats no do stars ive picked up the true lesson of team play from the yankee dressing room tor for seven years joe mccarthy stands for no bad actor no individual who stands for himself above the good of the team mccarthy simply passes this type on to some other unhappy manager while he goes for team spirit more about the yankees the yankees have been charged with being colorless just a group of young business men handling a j job ob they keep in condition they start no rows they are all friends in a bunch they are just out to win and to be ready to win they are a quiet lot they are a team of stars who refuse to be accepted as stars just ball players their business has been playing baseball and they play it better than any other team get a better understanding of this if you could mix a while with such fellows as dickey gordon keller dimaggio chandler ruffing priddy levy hassett henrich gomez rizzuto and the rest I 1 asked bill dickey about the yankees lack of color the tall catcher from arkansas who has been around a sligh matter of 17 seasons here and av there mostly with the yankees was zak mildly indignant rhe hie arkansas quail shooter gets only mildly indignant color he said what is color Is it t getting drunk and getting in fights I 1 bill dickey dont think so color to me is standing back of the plate and watching that joe gordon make plays that I 1 know cant be made ive seen hint him kill off more sure base hits than anyone I 1 ever saw 0 on n one play pay I 1 you I 1 I 1 fin find d him back of second base handling a hot grounder on the next see him somewhere in short right geld field killing another hit bit if they want color why dont they watch joe dimaggio play center field and make hard plays look easy or watch dimaggio and keller at bat when the chips are down dickey on olt color I 1 dont believe quiet easygoing easy going dickey knows how much true color he has but bill knows the main main details of color especially when he is talking about the yankees who has had the most color in american sport he asked me ill tell you babe ruth jack dempsey joe louis bobby jones ty cobb walter haben and biu bill tilden but did you ever stop to think each one of these was as a star performer one who had greater skill than the other fellows had you cant have color true color without exceptional skill I 1 still say the yankees are packed with color on account of the different things they can do as hitters bitters fielders and pitchers I 1 believe the tru true e baseball tan fan appreciates this ne he likes to see a job well done game after game better than anyone else can do it ill string with dickey in this respect A big part of color must be based upon performance under fire ive never seen a colorful punk in any game there are no colorful duffers in golf no colorful dubs in tennis no colorful third raters in boxing it may be we have stressed color that was not directly hooked up with outstanding ability too much the main alain contest there is now one highly interesting sporting scramble under way that has nothing to do with titles pennants or championships it concerns a form of inner rivalry as to which sport will contribute most in the m matter atter of winning the war will vill needed war funds get greater help from boxing baseball golf gok tennis racing football or what joe louis and mike blike jacobs sent boxing 9 spinning well ahead in their army and navy relief shows and they are only warming up |