OCR Text |
Show TOU would think that Tom Yaw- key, owner of the Boston Red Sox, after spending so many millions and waiting so many years to win a Dennant. would now be a happy carefree man. Trom what we hear Yawkey, usually a cool, calm individual individu-al in the face of any crisis, is now nervous as a cat on a hot stove. His team has shown no sign of the jitters, but Owner Yawkey has. He apparently Joe Cronin can't believe that his dream has a most excellent chance of coming true. As a high-class sportsman in every ev-ery way and a real lover of baseball, base-ball, winning a major league pennant pen-nant became one of Yawkey' s obsessions ob-sessions years ago. Money was never nev-er a barrier along the pennant road. It is estimated that the Red Sox owner has unloaded over $3,000,000 for the exclusive purpose of finishing finish-ing in front. The amount may be considerably higher. But his pennant pen-nant dream kept turning into a nightmare. Something always happened hap-pened and it was usually to the Yankees. In the meanwhile Tawkey refused re-fused to weaken, much less to quit. He also stuck to his manager Joe Cronin, where the Red Sox, under average baseball ownership, would have known four or five different managers in the last few years. While it was known early this spring that the Red Sox would be good, the Yankees and the Tigers were also in the pennant-race picture. pic-ture. The Yankees with Joe Di-Maggio, Di-Maggio, Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich, Joe Gordon, Phil Ruzzuto, Snuffy Stirnweiss, Bill Dickey, Nick Etten, Johnny Lindell and Spud Chandler shaped up as a formidable formida-ble looking outfit on both attack and defense. The Tigers, too, looked dangerous. Many Uncertainties The Red Sox at the time had several sev-eral gambles to face; at first, at third, and their pitching staff. They had Tex Hughson and Boo Ferris, but the others were uncertainties, uncertain-ties, just as Yankee pitchers were outside of Chandler. You can understand, un-derstand, during those March days at Sarasota, on the west coast of Florida, why Tom Yawkey should have been a trifle on the jittery side. Tom was but Joe Cronin wasn't, although Joe knew this had to be his year. Cronin refused to make any predictions beyond saying this: "We've got a good ball club. We'll give anybody a battle." Now past the midsummer spot with a long lead and the best ball club, you would feel that Tom Yawkey Yaw-key at least should be able to take a deep, free breath and relax. In baseball's greatest year, so far as attendance and public interest goes, with something close to an all-star all-star team in one corral, every one connected with the Red Sox should be able to stand up and sing "Just around the corner there's a rainbow rain-bow in the sky," or "Happy days are here again." All of Boston, outside of the Yawkey Yaw-key office, are humming these cheerful tunes. After all Boston, one of the cradles of baseball, has gone 28 years without a pennant. Boston kept looking back these 28 years to the days of Long, Lowe and Tenney, Kid Nichols, Hugh Duffy, Big Bill Dineen, Smoky Joe Wood, Carrigan, Speaker, George ("Duffy") Lewis, Hooper, including George Stallings' miracle Braves of 1914. Boston also could look back to a burly fellow by the name of Babe Ruth and a great squad that Harry Frazee sold to New York to make the Yankees famous. It was Boston Bos-ton that gave New York its Yankee fame Ruth, Pennock, Jumping Joe Dugan, Red Ruffing, these and many more. But Babe Ruth was enough. For 10 years the Yankees without Babe Ruth in his prime, would have been Just another ball club. A good one but not a great one. Would Have Kept Stars If Tom Yawkey had been owner of the Red Sox around 1919 or 1920, Boston would have dominated the game through the next decade, not the Yankees. For Yawkey would 1 have kept Ed Barrow, one of the smartest men baseball has ever known. He would have kept Babe i Ruth, Red Ruffing and Pennock and many others and to these he would have added the best ball players a few millions of dollars could buy. This shows you what an owner means to a major league club. Harry Frazee, a theatrical, not a baseball man, wrecked the Red Sox for at least 10 years. It has taken Tom Yawkey another 10 years to sweep away the debris and replace the damage. He faced an almost impossible job with the Yankees en-! en-! trenched as they were largely through Red Sox talent all those years. From this you can understand under-stand why Tom Yawkey and th sedate se-date city of Boston Is so wrought up over the prospect of getting a long-delayed revenge over the Yankees, who robbed them of victory vic-tory so many times. j |