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Show THE - citrus crop took quite i shellacking from the rathei rough winter that assaulted Florida j this season. This was practically: the same winter that almosi wrecked England and Europe and ; was none too soft on the South, the i Southwest and the Middle West ir j the U. S. A. But for all of that, the j pennant crop In Florida is lookinj ! to one of its biggest years. If you recall the facts, the Cardinals, Cardi-nals, who trainedTtt St Petersburg, ana me rtea sox, who trained at Sarasota, Sar-asota, won the two major pennants a year ago. In the American league, Florida - trained teams, the Red Sox, Tigers and Yankees ran 1-2-3. In. the National league they ran 1-2. According to Al Lang who w a GrmntUlld Rlce bringing teams to Florida when Connie Mack was a rookie, it will be the same this season. "Red Sox, Tigers and Yankees will run 1-2-3 again," Al tells you. "The Cardinals will prove once more that St Petersburg is the best training spot on what is left of this globe. Florida stands pat This state will dominate the two leagues, and we'll still have a few oranges, grapefruit tangerines, strawberries and what not left over." Lang still figures the Yankees would have done much better it they had come direct to St. Petersburg Peters-burg in place of using up their early ' training days in Puerto Rico and other Latin-American countries. I agree with him. The main reason for a big league team coming south or heading westward Is condition-not condition-not exhibition games. The main idea is to build up legs and arms, to develop wind, to get ready for the 154 games that wait on beyond the middle of April. You get that on turf and sod, not in the air or traveling on trains. The Yankees were far ahead of the Cardinals this time last spring. In Shape Too Early "They are a full month past us," Eddie Dyer told me. But the Cardinals were 20 games ahead of the Yankees in late September. Sep-tember. Ballplayers I meet around here don't figure the Yankees can come close to the Red Sox, who are picked again to get another killing jump, due to saner training methods. meth-ods. At least partly. Not entirely. The Red Sox also have much the better ball club, no matter where the training site. "How can anyone tell about the Yankees?" one veteran said. "Who could have told you 10 or 11 of their best hitters would fall off 30, 40 or 50 points? Who can say how many of these will bound back to where they used to be? Who can tell you how good Joe DiMaggio, the big man on the club, will be? Their pitching was pretty good last year. It was their weak hitting that wrecked them. DiMaggio, a great ball player, could be a big lift If he is the ball player he was before the war. Maybe May-be he will be. I wouldn't know. But having DiMaggio in a slump is like having Bob Feller with an off year or Ted Williams batting .280 or Hal Newhouser trying to win 15 or 18 games. Look how Babe Ruth carried car-ried the Yankees so many years. Sure, he had a lot of help, but it was the Babe that supplied the spark. "DiMaggio makes a much greater difference to the Yankees than the hits he makes, or the runs he drives in or the 'great catches he can handle. Joe can lift or let down the entire club on the mental or hustling aide. Plenty of Possibilities "The Yankees are still packed with possibilities. Spud Chandler ia still a great pitcher. Stirnweiss, Rizxuto, LindeU, Keller, Henrich, Johnson, Robinson and others have shown in the past how good they can be when they are right With the exception of Chandler and Robinson, Rob-inson, most of the Yankees were not too hot last year. "They have high-class handling from Harris, Dressen and Corriden. They couldn't ask for better. But it is the ball player and- the spirit of the ball player that gives you the answer. The spirit of the Yankees, I happen to know, was bad last season. sea-son. They were a long way from the Yankees I used to know., I'd like to see first how much fight and hustle they have left I'd like to see them with more of the sturT the Cardinals and the Dodgers have." The Hard LutTc Breaker It has been a long time since I saw Spud Chandler of Georgia running, run-ning, blocking and kicking against Yale. After leaving Georgia, Spud spent most of his time fighting off hard luck. He was shifted here and there, finally landing with the Yankees. Yan-kees. He started several weeks before be-fore the spring training season but broke an ankle while running. . A year later he fielded a short bunt with a quick snap that wrecked a ligament in his right arm. |