Show speaking of 01 sports V vitt itt confident bell and allen alien will till aid tribe fly by ROBERT mcshane news baor union THOUGH BOUGH the new york yankees grasp on the american league pennant seemingly is as tight as ever the remaining clubs of 0 the circuit have by no means conceded them the 1940 championship like old man river the yanks probably will keep right on rollin along managers tit tf the other seven teams in the junior circuit doubtlessly are making big medicine but M most os t of it comes under the head of w wishful th thinking aking the cleveland indians or instance as yet cried unc uncle I 1 e manager oscar vitt ba bashful irful in in intimating that the tribe may trim the yanks down to size of course this Is the best time to show confidence dence about beating the yankees iva its almost impossible to get a black eye before the battle gets under way but vitt whistling past a cemetery ile he has a good team al af least potentially double question mark alark much of the indians success or lack of it during the coming season will wm depend on two men johnny allen alien and beau bell both ol of them played topnotch top notch ball bail in 1936 and 37 and were stamped with the mark of true greatness however during the past two seasons their work has suffered now the tribe is count J P 11 X N 4 PITCHER JOHNNY ALLEN shows club president alva bradley his throwing arm ing on allen alien and bell coming back and they know that unless these former stars improve there much hope for the cleveland cause it that bell and allen alien are the t two wo outstanding players on the indian roster their importance lies in the fact that their services are necessary if cleveland is to have a good year right now both unknown quantities maybe they cant come through and maybe they can you know what oscar vitt hopes in trading bruce campbell for or beau bell 1311 manager vitt vill secured the services of a man who hit bit above in 1936 and 37 ile he slipped the he next year and was used as an extra outfielder in 1939 the former st louis slugger seems to be redeeming himself this year he has been clouting the ball bail as hard as any member of the team in spring batting practice and his hits have been the fierce line drives to right and right center that characterized h him I 1 m in his great years johnny allen alien has been a 20 game winner only once in his major league career and only three times in the dozen years he has been pitching but he has set a phenomenal mark in the matter of winn iiii percentage A great record he has won games and lost only 45 in eight years in the american league a record touched by very few pitchers in the history of baseball lefty grove is the only y active pitcher who Is a near rival of allen alien grove has a lifetime percentage of against johnnys this in spite of the fact that allens aliens percentage has suffered in the past two seasons while groves has been a assisted s si sted an opera operation tion in december 1938 was too close to the 1939 season to prove its value to allen alien another redskin upon whom indian f fans ans pin their hopes is lou boudreau a youngster who came up from buffalo last august agust and is led today a y regarded is as the best shortstop the indians have had in a score of years eap exp experienced erlen ced newspaper correspondents feel that boudreau is much more than a flash bash in the pan they think lou will play an important part with the indians this year whether they ahey end up where oscar vitt wants them to or close the season inthe in the second division vitt admits th the club could use one more pi pitcher in fact act the search for one has occupied a lot of nil his time he be knows be can count on bob fe feller er and Is qulie quite coni confident klent of it nei mel harder but harry eisen stai tai al and willis hudlin are re his only starting hopes II if allen alien comes back to be a c consistent on winn winner erthe the indian pitching taff staff will be la in the best condition of the past several years vitt knows the comfortable feeling which comes cadmes from having a hurler burler like feller on his bis staff |