Show speaking Sp eakins of 01 sports Terry men are question mark in 1940 race by ROBERT mcshane released by western newspaper union AS S MEMPHIS BILL TERRY aleada leads his new york giants into the 1940 baseball baseda li wars w 8 rs he Is faced with his biggest task birke taking over the managerial reins back in june 1932 the giants who once dominated baseball in new york have sagged badly the tanks Yanks worlds champions are stronger than ever and the brooklyn dodgers once rated as a congregation of crackpots ran rank k above the giants both in league standings landings and popular appeal all of which makes the giants the cites third club a position which causes terry no end of g grief rief and sorrow to make things worse the team does not look much better today than it did at the close of last teason season since terry became manager the giants have won one worlds championship pion ship in 1933 and three national league eague pennants in 1933 1936 and 1937 the club that limped home in fifth place last year was the fourth second division giant ball club since 1902 under the terry regime the club has been in first place three times imes second place once and third place three times critics of terry and they are plentiful point out a good share of ils his success has been due to the very c capable work of holdovers MEMPHIS BILL TERRY from the mcgraw dynasty notably carl hubbell mel ott hal macher and joe moore ott hubbell key men hubbell and ott are the two key men hubbell came up under the late mcgraw in 1928 and ott in 1925 year after year they have been performing much needed miracles for the giants ott driving in runs and even doubling as a third baseman and right fielder and hub bell pitching his hip heart out in winning five years in succession more than 20 games a season the past two seasons have been off ob years for hub in IN 1939 39 he won only 11 and lost 9 games the year before he won only 13 and dropped 10 the giants were whipped both years A year and a halt half ago carl was forced to submit to an arm operation and last year he ready to pitch until july this year he figures he will be all right so do the giants mel otts powerful bat has been a de determining ter mining factor in giant pennant nant battles ever since lie he joined the club A dependable hitter bitter he was responsible ep sible for many a game chalked up in the win side of the column the most optimistic note emanating from the giants is that hubbell is s already as good as ever he has been under fire in early season games and had demonstrated his old sk skill ill so has ott at least that gives manager terry some cause for or jubilation in a recent statement terry remarked that if I 1 could win 77 games with the humpty team I 1 had bad list last year I 1 dont see any reason in predicting less than 90 victories this year aarand ea rand and that will put me high up in n the pennant race why we ie be a better team were better at second third have a chance of improving in the outfield and have a better first baseman it may be that terry is whistling tor for the sake of courage at least he appears to be overrating overeating over rating his bis team he has a better infield than last year at least defensively the outfield Is good providing joe moore does not collapse moore is no stripling and it may be that young john rucker will see plenty of action this year rucker has stood up well he is a good hitter and a good fielder and is very fast i all wise manager nevertheless the giants are treading on dangerous ground they got the youngsters who can take up where hubbell and ott are likely to leave off and those two gentlemen cant go on forever the club has one advantage its overlord makes very few mistakes on the field once in a while terry does make an error off the field he may have erred when he remarked that the team that beats us will win the pennant |